Day 14, Sunday July 13th – Sabbath in Boise

I’m really learning that at each place I stop, I’m a tourist learning about the town and its culture. I know I’m only a little border away – but it is amazing here. Boise is such a sweet little town, I Know I wrote a lot about it on Saturday, but I’m still super impressed.
We had the church service in the park, hosted by one of the local churches, it was very nice. They also had lunch for us afterwards – BBQ, so good! We are getting fed so super well, I think I’m gonna gain weight on this trip – too bad, food is too good!
We said good bye to three cyclists today which was pretty sad – they were only planning to stay until Boise. We are all growing together so well, the community here is awesome. I thank God and your prayers for that.
And this last picture (myself and John Vanderveen) is living proof that I am trying to blog! Its hard with the silly interweb, but I try my best!

Day 13, Saturday July 12th – Ontario to Boise – 105km

All day today was like biking through old county roads, again passing all kinds of farms. I’m just loving the scenery; I knew I would, thanks be to God.
We also reached Idaho today – wahoo, I’m making my way through all these states, slowly but surely.
When we reached Boise we were thoroughly impressed and excited! It had a small town feel, it was very green, the buildings were very Victorian, and there were bikers everywhere! We talked to a local in one of the coffee shops and she said that the city has become very biker friendly over the past few years. She also directed us to biker heaven (one of the bike stores in Boise,) we were like always, kids in a candy shop. Interesting to note though, is that everyone is conscious about the money they spend on bike equipment etc. We are biking across the country to end the cycle of poverty, not to display how much money we have and who has the sweetest looking bike with the sweetest looking bike stuff – I commend my fellow bikers for their great attitudes!
Tonight we also went out for some shlukies as some of our fellow bikers are leaving tomorrow. Again in was a local brewery (beer made right there in the restaurant!) I think the funniest part of the evening (besides this picture of Hans and I) was that one of the beer names was buttface. At one point in the evening Sarah Terpstra ordered a pitcher of buttface, when the waiter came out with the pitcher he was looking for Sarah. Sarah saw this, lifted up her arm and yelled “buttface” hahahaha, I laughed a lot. I’m sure you could all picture that.

Day 12, Friday July 11th – Huntington to Ontario – 56km

Wow, short day today, it was really fun. The night before our bike rides we have the peloton meeting (I’ve mentioned before) and a man named Clare tells us all about what we’re going to see the next day – birds, animals, plants etc. Today we saw grain, wheat, onions, potatoes and the sweetest smelling of all – spearmint! Very cool, very nice. Once again Hans, a feast for the senses! I also got some pretty pink flower, thanx Alex. All around good day.

Day 11, Thursday July 10th –Baker City to Huntington – 74km

Okay so, here’s the story. My dearest mother whom I love with all my heart – hates snakes, like fears them terribly – to panic. Now myself being her daughter I feel as if those have received some of that fear. We biked through the desert – barren land – again. Well lotsa snake road kill, which made me sad. Then Kaitlyn who was biking behind me said there was a snake the slithered across the road behind us, ewww kreepljes up and down my spine. THEN there was a snake rolled up in the middle of the road that I literally had to dodge. Well, I tell ya I put my bike in its hardest gear and have never biked faster 66km/hr – I don’t like snakes.
Huntington was an interesting place, population possible able to count on your fingers and toes. Just kidding, not that small but it was quite small. However, just outside of Huntington we hung out in a irrigation ditch, it felt SO GOOD!!! Wow, who knew that an irrigation would be a blessing after a long day, well the day was actually pretty much 74km of down hill….. saweet! In the words of Hans Doef “you know it’s a good day when you can coast at 40km/hr no problem.”

PS – that thing I’m sitting on is a bike rack – its in the shape of Oregon. Itsa a kinda cool huh?

Day 10, Wednesday July 9th – La Grande to Baker – 79km

The landscape again was great today. I got to see wind mill/turbine dingists for the first time today. (John Vanderveen and Reuben Vyn are trying to decide whether its dingists or dingi, not sure.) We stopped by a really neat coffee shop today. It was a house, but when you walked inside there was a coffee shop, but the rest of the place were rooms (like in a house) with themes. So the kitchen had kitchen stuff, bathroom, etc. It was pretty sweet.
The city of Baker was also very cool, there was a coffee/bike shop – how fitting. We went to a local brewery in Baker that apparently had “the best beer in the world.” Well it was nice to have a beer after a long day of biking, but the best……. well it did come quite close. It was really neat that the beer was brewed right there. But yeah, cute town – Canada is better, but the States are impressing me.

Day 9, Tuesday July 8th – Pendleton to La Grande – 92km

We fricken hicked today, but I should get used to it because more is coming! Before we reached the hill of doom with a million switch backs (it was actually called Hell’s canyon) Kaitlyn and I went for a run in the wheat. Never done that before so I thought it’d be kinda sweet, and it was.
La Grande was a great little city. Did some laundry – got my first flat, but I found it when I got to camp. There was a little sliver of metal stuck in my tire that then popped my tube – lame. But it was super cool that it didn’t happen on the road.
Theo decided to fall asleep on the monkey bars that night, what a guy. But we have been having some problems with night time irrigation some maybe he didn’t want to get wet, or maybe he didn’t wanna set up his tent…. Who knows.

Day 8, Monday July 7th – Kennewick to Pendleton – 111km

Ladies and Gentlemen we have hit the desert! Oh no wait, maybe its rolling hills of wheat……… wow what a day. It was hot hot hot, and today I also had to do sweep team which means that I had to be the very last team and make sure everyone got in safely. One of the members on my sweep team needed to go to get a new tire so after we cleaned up breakfast we biked to REI (American version of MEC) to get the tire. When we got there we discovered that the store wasn’t opened until 10, so we went for coffee, got the tire and didn’t get on the road until 10:30. Now when its 30 degrees and rising, that’s gonna make for a hot day. But its cool I’ve never seen rolling hills of wheat fields before, I was just super tired by the end of the day.