To Boise

A nice big long drive today has brought us to our fourth state capital - that of Idaho, Boise. My perceptions of Oregon were shattered as we drove west from Bend through the High Desert - there were hardly any trees (lots of short scrub), it was pretty flat & the roads were stretched straight ahead in to the shimmering haze of the horizon.  After a couple of hours & gassing up at Burns things started to get a more scenic as we climbed a little & went past a lot of volcanic rock outcrops.  I soon saw that we were following the route of a long since gone railroad down - so we must be getting close to somewhere.

The land usage slowly became more developed - first just big fields irrigated it would seem for hay.  Later the cropping & irrigation became more intensive  as the valley widened & we passed what sold itself as Onion Country of the USA.  Before long we were into Vale - which played up to its position on the Oregon Trail (it's some time since we were on that back in Nebraska) with a lot of murals.  I got a much needed haircut as Valerie wandered around in the heat.  Oh, it got up to a hundred today - quite nice to have a bit of heat.  Especially as I wasn't trying to ride in it!  But if I hear someone complainingly tell me again that it's hot, when it's not really that bad I'll be less than pleased.

Hitting the Interstate (hurrah, rid of Oregon's annoying 55 speed limit) we were quickly in to Idaho.  I was disappointed not to see potatoes straight away, but I didn't have to wait too long.  We had a quick trip in to the center of Boise to hunt out bike parts - it's quite nice & there were plenty of people around (particularly around some open air concert).  We've lost an hour going back to Mountain Time as well.

Stop Press:  I typed all that up while we were doing the laundry & after finally getting those annoying Juicy brake pads in.  Just down the road was a diner & we were hungry, so we went it.  It was completely the Fifties in there & all the waitresses were on roller-skates - it was hilarious.  With the shiny black & white checker floor, the tunes that the old DJ (he was a Korean vet) & all the other memorabilia it was great.