June 28, 2018
Day 11 – Mountain Home to Twin Falls, ID – 97 miles, 3,230 feet vertical
May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
— Irish Blessing
Today, we had … e) All of the above.
But before we get to all that, I want to wish my son, Matt, a most happy and joyous birthday. He turned 37 today. Matt embraced cycling early on and for a time, he was the “student”. The student became the master quite some years ago and now he is just plain awesome. The photo you see was taken at the top of Bear Mountain on a beautiful 90-mile ride a few years ago. Last year, he completed his first half-ironman out in Montauk, Long Island. That’s 1.2 mile swim, 58 mile bike and 13.1 mile run (half-marathon) – in just about six hours. He is currently training for the New York City Triathlon (a powder keg of testosterone laden youths) on July 1, which unfortunately, I will miss. I’m with you in spirit, son. Happy Birthday, Matt. I love you.
As for the Irish blessing, we had all of those things today. There was general agreement from the hammer train that with a 97-mile effort today, we should start out steady but not crazy. “We all on board with that?” I asked. “You bet.” “Sure thing.” “Absolutely.” “Yup, no sense killing ourselves right out of the gate.” And so on. Nodding heads all around.
Anybody got a pen? Because I should have gotten it in writing! After an all-too short warm up, Randy started putting down the hammer and revving us up to 26 mph. Now it turns out, we were blessed with a pretty nice tailwind (item 2 above), but still. After some abject begging and pleading, we dropped the pace down to a respectable 22 mph.
There was a good deal of cloud cover and the sun was straining to break through, which it eventually did (item 3 above). But in the meantime, it made for some spectacular views of the clouds interspersed with streaming rays of light. “Look at that,” I said. “God is speaking to us.” (I get like that every once in a while.)
No interstates today, so the roads were lightly traveled for the most part. The terrain varied from flatlands to rugged rolling hills with amazing geological formations. A beautiful butte. A gorgeous gorge. Our bike train was accompanied throughout the day by real trains – amazing mile-long freight trains chugging through the rough terrain. Occasionally, we’d be close enough together that the conductors would blow their horns at us to cheer us on.
At about 45 miles, I let the train go on ahead. (Translation: I’m breaking up with you before you break up with me.) This let me catch my breath and get back to my Lawrence O’Donnell book. Eventually a number of other riders caught up and we rode together, more or less.
The second half of the ride was mostly through farmland with crops as far as the eye could see and cows and hay as far as the eye could see. The fields had immense irrigation systems that, with the fierce wind conditions, gently sprayed us from time to time as we passed nearby (item 4 above).
So, no, I didn’t forget the road rising up to meet us (item 1 above). It did do that – and over 3,200 feet worth. But I think there is a less literal meaning as well – to wish you a safe journey, with no obstacles, and with friendship and companionship along the way.
We had all of that. In spades.
Please click on the first picture below for an annotated slide show chronicling today’s ride and don’t forget to click on “Where’s Jeff” at jeffblye.com to see where we are.
Journey with Jeff 
it’s a big big country out there
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy birthday Matt. Good luck on the big NY T day.
Already 11 days. How time flies when the wind is at your back. Hey. Looks like the plains now, but I know better than to conclude that it means the roads are flat. Have fun
LikeLike
Jeff
Great photos, and very funny and thoughtful commentary. I look at your photos and too often say to myself “wow, did not see that…”, and other times am very happy you memorialized something I did see but did not slow down to capture. Making the experience a metaphor for my life, as I live it…but which I remain very thankful for.
I will look forward to trekking this group, through the ABB and your blog, after my departure from this journey.
Rich
Sent from my iPhone. Please excuse typos and odd auto-correct words.
>
LikeLiked by 1 person
I continue to say… this blog is the makings of either a book or a short documentary… do we hear film festival?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Miss all you guys. When I get back, it’s gonna be a killer spin class profile. 😂
LikeLike