Segment 7: Ride Day 36 -- "Chicked"

Route: Twin Falls, ID to Gooding, ID (Gooding United Methodist Church)

Distance: 38.0 miles

Riding Time: 2 hours: 16 minutes

Average Speed: 16.7 mph

Max:  25.6 mph

Weather: Started out mostly calm with light winds and temps in the upper 70’s. Warmed up later in the day but probably barely hit 90 degrees by the time we reached the church. No complaints here! :-)

Extra-Special Bonus Stats

Current Elevation: 3573 feet

Elevation Change from yesterday: -172 feet

Population of Gooding, ID: 3500 people

The ride this morning was way, way too much fun. For starters, I slept in a nursery last night which I had all to myself. It was lovely and quiet and, as far as I know, there weren’t too many accidents had by wee ones on the spot where I plunked my sleeping mat down. So naturally, I slept like a baby and woke up at the lovely hour of 6am (breakfast at 7) since it was a shorter-mileage day. Also, my day started out amazing because it started with Nutella, thanks to our host church from last night (and the mom of a girl who is biking across the country with Bike And Build this summer). Yum. A big, perfect spoonful of Nutella. I am completely aware that in another 2 ½ weeks I won’t need to/be able to eat like this any more, but until that time… Cheers!!

The real fun though was the bike ride. Since it was such a short day and our next two days aren't too bad (60-something and 50-something) I decided to give it a little more gas and see how fast I could go... in spite of the little wind and a couple hills along the way. I started out on my own and met up with some others to take pictures at an overlook... and then I rode with Tom (who was rockin' this ride today) and Pete (who is a really, really good cyclist - aka "Speedy Petey") for a little while up to our first rest stop. I stopped with Tom and started eating a granola bar... but Pete gave us high fives and then blew right past the rest stop without stopping. Needless to say, I was not going to let this stand, so I filled up my water bottle with Squincher (the generic version of Gatoraid) and took off after Pete, my mouth full of granola bar.

I caught up with him a couple miles down the road and passed him with a cheery, "On your left!" (aaand I might have stuck my tongue out at him... but I don't really remember ;). After I passed I heard him yell something that sounded woeful and kind of like, "I've been chicked!!"

"Whaaaa?" I said.

"I've been chicked! That's what you say when you get passed by a girl!"

I laughed (a little too gleefully perhaps) and took off in the direction of Gooding.

It was a beautiful ride.

(Note: I am quite sure Pete will blow me out of the water tomorrow and, just for the record, that's ok because today rocked and Pete is a pretty cool guy even if he is fast.)

My cozy nursery room from last night!

Good morning aaaand....Wake up sleepyheads!!

We were biking through a completely flat, midwestern looking town and then we went across a bridge... 

And then it looked like we were biking in Indiana again.

Green.

Hmm... looks like there might be something interesting over this pile of rocks.
Time to lay down the bike and go check it out.

Holy smokes! Careful out there Brett!
(Snake River... a loooong way down!)

This is BEAUTIFUL!!!!

And this is Pete... before I passed him. ;)

And this is me looking sweet and harmless.

And then I took off and biked like crazy and only stopped to take pictures of things like really cool, really huge junkyards filled with classic cars in all shapes and sizes.

Whew! Made it to the church early enough to scope things out for the perfect spot in the church sanctuary: Plush carpet, outlet close by, pillow snatched from a nearby bench, little privacy rail with fancy curtain, air conditioning... yup, it is perfect!!

From a walk to the community garden across from the church
(after a delicious supper made by much more-friendly people than this grumpy gardener ;)

A little time in the park with my journal.
It is amazing how I can spend all day outside on my bike and still want to be outside even more in my free time. This summer and biking and having a little time to myself are all so good for my soul!

Flowers on a tree. They smelled even better than they looked.

And now it is way past time for sleep. Thanks for reading about our adventures: the exciting, the mundane, and the inbetween and humoring me by looking at my billions of pictures! Hope your week is ending well and summer is treating you well! Goodnight, friends!