Temperature Management
For most of this ride, we have faced conditions that have not been what we had expected. We are now riding through an area called "Hell's Canyon" in Idaho, named because - guess what? It gets hot there. Hot like up to 110 degrees F. Except for this week. When we got less than half that and traveled through in low to mid 40 degrees.
We left our nice campsite in a city park in Council, ID and packed up our stuff to go. We checked the weather forecast that said about 4% chance of rain. Well, that was 96% wrong. We did our morning ride up the side of a mountain, an expected climb that we were happy to get done in the morning when we were fresh. About 3,200 feet of elevation change, and it was nice when it was over. The rest of the day promised to be downhill. However, it began to rain. And rain. And drop temperatures. Even though we traveled most of the day downhill, we faced less than ideal conditions most of the way.
Campsite in city park in Council
Which brings me to - temperature management. Today seemed like a lesson in temperature management, as we tried and tried again to get the right clothing to match the conditions. Then the conditions would change. Cold in the morning, put on tights, long sleeve jersey and raincoat. It starts to rain, put on rain pants. Then go uphill and soak yourself in sweat under the baggies that you just put on. Take off the tights, hoping that the rain pants over shorts would be good. Coat on. Coat off. All Day Long. Stop in a city to get a bite to eat, and this town says they're closed TUESDAY. We ended up at a gas station, getting hot coffee to warm up and donning more rain clothes. We did find a nice place for lunch in Griffin, ID when we stopped in at the Rock Cafe. Janeen, the owner, talked to us about our ride, what to look out for, and what we should see ahead. She really liked Monkey and Cow too. Nice lunch.
Janeen, Monkey, Cow, and me
Then we headed up the road to White Bird, hoping to find something available that wasn't camping. Nothing against camping, but a couple of days of 3 sweaty men and it's time to find a motel. We found something at Hoots, a vintage place by the side of the highway that featured a restaurant, gas station and service, and a motel located behind. Oh yeah, and they had Trump 2020 hats on sale for $8.50 each at the counter. Which is odd, because the Hoots hats were on sale for $12.50. I guess Trump is the discount candidate this year. We took the road up behind the restaurant to find a bunch of rooms in a building with no windows. We were really skeptical, but really desperate. But we actually found clean rooms with windows facing the highway on the other side. However, no wifi, and no cell connections to be had anywhere. Beggars can't be choosers, so we choosered to stay.
Wifi here at our next place is terribly slow, only available by sitting outside the motel office, and my battery is about to die. I'll upload photos when I can.
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