Day 15: Mountain Home, ID to Gooding, ID

Actual Kms: 103 km-the reason this is different from the Sea to Sea book is because every biker does a little "weaving" or stops off somewhere which adds extra kilometres.

Overkill Kms: 106 km-to get to the library.

Road Stuff: A lot of dead bunnies...maybe four and one was very clearly decapitated with the head still in the road, some dead snakes and a dead cat. I also saw a lot of horses and cattle in the fields.

Money Spent: $10 for another more efficent phone card, $2 Slushie and chips. The chips were 35% of my sodium intake for the day, which was just what I needed...I lose a lot of salt and I can tell this because at the end of the day I have white residue on my face.

Wipeouts: 0 but there was a 10 km very bad road today with a lot of gravel on it...I nearly fell right in front of Hank when I started on it.

Interesting Person Pick: Hank. He is a retired Calvin Seminary professor who used to teach Church History. His wife, Claire (who did the 2005 tour) is also on the tour. He usually takes it slower, but he is such an incredible worker. His effort and perseverance really motivate me everyday.

Favourite Part of the Day: Having a shower. Or finding that there was free coffee at the local library. One or the other.

Worst Part of the Day: Worrying about Corinne at the last stop in the town of Bliss. It was not a blissful situation, I was waiting for a long time and worried that she was pooped out on the road somewhere.

Last night, I asked Corinne Smienk if she wanted to ride with me and so we headed out this morning at 7:20. We made good time for the first 25 kms, and stopped in this field of sprinklers.

This is a picture of Corinne biking up behind me to the first SAG wagon stop around 30 kms. We stopped briefly, and kept on trucking.

After that stop, we took off but Corinne was behind me for a while, so I waited at the second SAG wagon for about 30 minutes for her. It was around the 50 km mark and Corinne looked a bit dehydrated, so we drank some water.

The next 30 kms were really, really tough. I lost Corinne and went to the local Country Market in Bliss. I waited for about 30 minutes and was pretty worried because I had seen her 15 km's before and I was wondering where she was. But she showed up around the 30 minute mark, very tired. She had some food, water, and washed her face and we left around 1:30, a half an hour later with 20 kms to go. Biking in the heat of the day for the last 20 kms was really hard. I was tired and just booted it. I arrived at 2:15, which is my worst time ever. Corinne had a tough day and wasn't feeling 100%.

Doing 100 kms in 6 hours isn't great. It's an average of less than 15 km/hour. Usually, I get in with Team Sweet with an average of 25 km/hour.

I think Corinne found it tough because she was always trying to keep up with me and I found it difficult because I was always waiting for her. I guess the experience taught us that it's easier to ride with someone who keeps your pace.

Tim...this is my town of Bliss boyfriend. He's a card board cutout for Budwieser. I think we look good together but he was pretty unresponsive to my flirting.

This is Nathan and Levi, who I met at the library in Gooding. They were very interested in our tour and asked a lot of questions. It reminds me how much I love being a teacher...I definitely miss the classroom.

Then Brinden and Chris came along and also wanted their picture in my blog. They asked for a Sea to Sea card and showed them how to locate my blog so they can check it. They were excited which is cool. Also, there was a guy with a cool shirt named Zack and a kid named Taylor.