Hank – It felt good to be back on the bike again. The world blurred while I was driving for the last two days. Returning to the rat race frame of mind felt like an addiction too easy to take up again. Thunderstorms were in the forecast today. We were headed to St Anthony, ID. There’s no camping nearby in the town, but with storms coming we figured we’ll get a motel room. It was a fairly flat ride of about 42 miles. During a stop in Rigby, we met a woman named Lacy who started a conversation with Kathy while I was inside the gas store. She was excited to hear about our adventure and took our blog address so she could follow along. With new readers coming on almost every day I guess the pressure is on to write stories worth reading. Riding into Rexburg I could see the dark clouds looming behind us. In Rexburg we checked the weather radar and saw the thunderstorm was going to catch us soon. We had a good tail wind that helped us make good time but the rain began falling too. The lightning and thunder were also gaining on us. Coming out of Sugar City the rain got heavier. A house with a large carport beckoned to us and we got under that while the main part of the storm passed by. Fortunately, nobody was home so we didn’t have to explain ourselves. I’m sure they wouldn’t have minded. The rain eased up after 20 minutes or so. Since we only have about 6-1/2 miles to go we made a break for it. When we reached south St Anthony the rain got heavier again. This time we rolled into a tire repair garage and asked if they’d minded if we waited out the storm for a bit. The guys there were cool with it. When the rain eased again we quickly covered the last two miles. I commented to Kathy we were moving pretty good with the tailwind. “No,” she said. “I’m just being a bad ass.” So true.

We got a room at the inn and got cleaned up and our clothes washed. We walked next door to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and found they did not serve margaritas. Kathy was very disappointed. I had a beer with my dinner. After Kathy finished she walked to the convenience store to get some wine. We brought it back to the room just in time to watch the hailstorm hit. Mother Nature put on a fine show.

St. Anthony has a nice veteran’s memorial in a park on the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River. The tank is quite the curiosity. You usually see those around Army bases and I don’t think there’s an Army base within a thousand miles of here.

Kathy  – Well, after two days of not riding we are back on the bikes.  It is amazing just how fast and how much territory you can cover in a car.  Not gonna lie, I was a bit worried about the ride today after two days off, and a little sad that our rental car was returned. Guess that is part of human nature to enjoy the easier way of life.  I was pleasantly surprised to get back into riding with much ease.  Our 42 miles with only 400 feet of elevation was super easy.

There were only two things today that caused any disruption (Beside the Mexican resturant not serving margaritas – have you ever hear of such?):

1 – Hank remembering to communicate on our directions and his start/stop timing.  It seemed as if everything went out the window today.  How can he forget all travel communication after only two days off from riding?  He is a great guy, and he promised to do better.  And to give him the credit he deserves, by then end of the day he did do much better.  Here are a few examples:  I hit my lower leg on the pedal trying to stop suddenly and change lanes for a last minute left turn that Hank said we needed to take (nice bruise is coming).  I almost fell of the bike again (unable to unclick my shoes out of my pedals in time) due to Hank stopping quickly without any notice.  We also got yelled at by a passing motorist because Hank said to go straight (as I did) then in the middle of the intersection suddenly yelled, “go right”.  I did, and a the car behind us did not care much for that quick move to the right.  They rolled down the window and started yelling something back at us with a hand flaring out the car window.  I yelled, “Sorry” to them but I don’t thing they cared about it.  Good thing I wear hearing aids and couldn’t make out what they were saying.  I decided then to believe (probably wrong)  that they were yelling, “No worries, you guys rock…have a great day.”

2 – Between a few different apps on our phones we were watching the weather all day.  There must be something about this area, but the weather would change so rapidly.  Rain, sunny, possible thunderstorm, partly cloudy…it seems as if they could never get it right today.  So yes, we got really wet today.  We do not mind the rain, it was the thunder, lightning, and even the hail that hit just as we arrived to the hotel that was frightening.  I guess this is just part of what I signed up for, and no sense fussing about Mother Nature so I will just have my attitude adjustment now and learn to work with the weather unpredictability in the future.  I am delighted to have a hotel tonight with so many storms in the area.  I am behind on my ‘two days a week’ hotel totals anyway.  🙂

Happy to report life is good as we continue our cycling journeys.  I will rest up tonight as tomorrow we conquer what the locals call, “The Hill” also known as the Continental Divide.  Climb.climb.climb…We got this!