D20 Rupert to Pocatello
Mileage: 79
Video: https://www.relive.cc/view/vNOPo5R3G2v
Map: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/39605369
Tomorrow is a rest day
I left Rupert around 7:15 and got to Pocatello at 3:00. Cooking! The route was mostly flat with slight rollers and I had a tailwind the whole way. I was worried about the mileage, but they flew by. Today’s lesson was straight doesn’t mean boring.
I started the day with a jaunt around Rupert’s Square with the action camera, but I am not sure how to add those videos to the blog. Maybe, I'll post on Instagram. I started out of town only to remember that I forgot to refill my water bottles. I doubled back the few blocks I’d ridden to the Chatterbox (!). While the friendly waitperson was filling up my bottle with ice (!) water, a friendly guy opened up a conversation. The bike gear is a great conversation starter. Like a lot of folks in rural Idaho, he is amazed I can live in Seattle. I assured him what he sees in the news isn’t the Seattle I live in. He gave me route advice and wished me safe and happy travels despite my living in Gamorrah. This happens all the time.
On the way out of town I had another run in with dogs. These weren’t afraid of the air horn. I pedalled like a %$@#er. I am pretty sure the dogs could have bit me if they’d wanted to. I was a little shaken. I hope folks in other states keep their dogs fenced. My theory is that this was a fairly busy road and the dogs are used to car horns.
Luckily the day quickly improved. This whole area is seeing rapid growth. Small subdivisions mixed with farmland until in was just farmland and then just open range. Baseline road was true to it’s name and ran 19 miles. There was something magical about the still green grass, mountains in the distance, small rollers, and a tailwind. I saw maybe 5 cars on this stretch. I called my brother as I rode detouring around a steer in the middle of the road.
Eventually, I ran into I-86 (where does I-84 become I-86?). Even the frontage road was nice. Normally the sound of cars whizzing by on the freeway is a lonesome sound for me. It suggests people going places you aren’t. It’s the sound you hear when your car is broken down by the side of the road. If the day isn’t going so well for me, when I hear that sound, I remember sitting in my comfy bubble flying down the road at 75 mph just minutes from what will take me hours to reach on the bike. Today wasn’t one of those. The friendly tailwind invited long daydreamy pondering of the mountains, rolling farmland, and the Snake River and enjoying the journey.
About halfway through I passed Register Rock, another boulder Oregon Trail emigrants wrote their names on. I met Gary and Jennifer from Aberdeen, ID. I thought they meant Aberdeen, WA. I wondered why they had so much local knowledge. Gary said that until recently you could see names written in axle grease on the rock. That's the the state just a roof over the rock.
The route briefly left I-86 to head up a gravel road. The view opened up at the small pass from dry hills to lush irritated farmland. A short while later I was in American Falls where I found another bakery run by Hispanic folks. I bought a tasty item that seemed like a dry cheesecake. At the Falls Grill and Chill I had a cheeseburger and fries and played peekaboo with two bored kids.
From American Falls I began to get eager to reach Pocatello. Another long straight bit (9 miles) was a less fun endless string of grain elevators along train tracks. Finally, I ran into the fertilizer plant where I think my stepmom worked as a nurse. Amazingly, I avoided the 'stroads' that seem to guard the approaches to most cities. The housing got more and more dense. Most were small and modest. Suddenly, I was on Yellowstone Ave where I bought Foreigner 45s and now there was a Starbucks. Pocatello has arrived.
I rode up to my Airbnb room at the literal edge of town. (Pocatello is not that big). I am downtown now where an art walk has people strolling. I continue to rough it with a crostini plate and fancy soda.
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