Over to Oregon

Waking up this morning, we surprisingly felt quite well, especially after a 100 mile day. Our host Rachel made us an amazing breakfast, one fit for cycling in both taste and amount. We lazily packed our bags, making sure to check for flats and being sure to patch tubes.  Before we would leave Boise, I needed to stop at a bike shop to buy a new tire. The previous 2500 miles had worn down my tire to the tread, a risky gamble to keep biking on. The city of Boise is surprisingly very biker friendly, complete with wide bike lanes and long trails. With a new tire in hand we headed toward our goal for the day, a town named Vale in Oregon. Unlike eastern Idaho, western Idaho is much more populated, with towns no more than 5 miles apart and gas stations a plenty. Our riding was much more leasuily than the day previous, today we were only aiming for 70 miles, not 100. Although we took a break from pushing ourselves, the Sun did not take a break from its job. The temperatures began to rise and we found ourselves drinking copious amounts of water and Gatorade. We must have stayed hydrated enough because although the heat was high, we kept a good pace.

One more annoying aspect of the day was the our continuing flat tire problems. Causes range from failed patches, tire thread punctures, pinch puntures and so on. Ever since Nebraska people had been warning us of Goat head thorns, which can not only puncture car tires but bike tires. We have been starting to think they were a myth because we have not seen or encountered a single one. I mentioned to Sauder that we will probably never see one. After crossing the state line into Oregon, which sadly did not have a sign indicated the event, we stopped at a ice cream shop to celebrate with some extra calories. As we were about to leave, I noticed Sauders front tire was low, the tire we had just patched. Upon further inspection, what did we find? yup, you guessed it, those pesky goat head thorns. We found not just one but TWO. One came out without a problem, but as soon as removed the second, a strong hiss emerged from the tire.

Those pesky Goat Head Thorns

We decided to end the day in Ontario, OR, right on the border instead of in Vale. Sauders rear will is having some spoke issues and we do not want to risk being 100 miles from the nearest bike shop. So tomorrow we are going to a shop here in town to have it checked. We don't know exactly where we are going to be staying but a local church here has a large lawn space. Hopefully, it will be better to ask for forgiveness than permission...