Day 7 – June 23rd

We started the ride today outside of Mountain Home, Idaho. Within a couple of miles we hit an ascent that we weren’t expecting; it hadn’t shown up on our maps. With the legs still a bit tight from the last few days of riding, this was not the way I was hoping to start the day. However, after a few minutes of finding my cadence and a good tempo it was a breeze getting to the top; the descent afterwards was a nice reward. On the way down I noticed that Larry Hart, our support guru, was in the other lane of the highway taking pictures of the surrounding bluffs. With his picture taking completed he began making his way back across the highway. Since I was in a descent doing in excess of 28 miles per hour I had a brief flash of ramming into him; which would not have been good for either of us. It never got that close, as Larry was well out of the way by the time we got to him, but still it inspired a moment of humor. Not fear…but humor. You see while I was descending, and Larry was moving across the road, I looked over to Gary, who was riding beside me, and told him he better be careful or he was going to have a Hart (heart) attack. Ok so maybe it’s not nearly as funny now as it was at the time; but we both got a good laugh out of it for the next 10 minutes. I think our minds are starting to lose the blunt edge they had; we find ourselves saying and doing some pretty dumb stuff. I guess after a week in the saddle your mind starts to deteriorate along with your body. Oh well, it gives us something to talk and laugh about. Case in point: I am having an issue with my seat stay, and I was able to secure an extra bolt from a bike shop. The bolt won’t last, however, as it’s already slightly stripped. I was happy to get it though, as now I could pass it onto Larry and when he is in the next town with a bike shop, he can try to secure a new one for me. Gary at dinner the other night asked “Matt, have you given Larry your screw yet? “ I am sure you all can see where this is going. I looked at Gary, dead serious without a hint of a smirk on my face and told him “Gary, that’s a rather personal question.” We laughed for much longer than we should have at it. Like I said, our minds are becoming more akin to blunt spoons than sharp knives. Cest la vi…a utensil is still a utensil. Hehe.

Back to the ride; we ended up putting in 98.5 miles this afternoon. There were no serious climbs along the route; though we did do some gradual ascending and hit a few small, but stiff, climbs. All in all we ended the day with about 3,000 feet of climbing. We rolled into Twin Falls, Idaho at 3:30 pm; which is great as it’s the earliest we have been off the bike all week. We were able to get some food earlier than usually, which left us time to start planning our strategy for going forward. The consensus is in and we need to build in a couple days to help spread out our overly aggressive ride, such as trying to do a 150 miler followed with a 160 miler. Right now it looks like we will be adding in two more days to help allocate some of those miles and give us a chance to really enjoy the ride and keep our bodies and sanity in tact; relatively speaking of course. My knee seems to be healing; the pain didn’t get worse today. Yesterday there was about 30 miles where the pain was pretty intense; I have been getting a burst of pain on each down-stroke with my right knee. If you didn’t know, there are a hell of a lot of down-strokes over a hundred miles of pedaling! But today during the majority of the ride the pain bursts were not quite as intense; I had it compressed wrapped, so that may have helped. With the way today went, I think it may be healed within the next week or so. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. As far as the scenery for today, the highlight was seeing ‘The Place of a 1,000 Falls.’ The bluff face literally had 1,000 waterfalls along its edge (at least that’s what it said, Gary tried counting them but I think he lost count at 3). There was one waterfall that really stands out in my mind. It was one of the larger waterfalls; white water rapidly spilling over the brown stone bluff and that split into two long and distinct tendrils of churning water. In the middle of those parting waters stood an elderly massive tree; it looked like something you would see in a movie; the tree standing proud over its waters was so serene, powerful and majestic. I think it’s a picture that will be forever burned into my mind; I pray it is. What a gorgeous country we live in.