There is a certain peaceful simplicity to camping, chopping wood, gouging a two inch deep chasm in your shin, and screaming like a banshee. Alas though, we have been sleeping in a hostel, watching HBO, and catching shows at the local movieplex. Chicken Run and Titan AE to be exact. Both were a bit short but entertaining nevertheless. There were so many things wrong with Titan AE but it was fun anyway.

Three things that make you go hmmmm:

1. road signs of semi trucks tipping over. no explanation or speed caution, just a warning that it happens.
2. a dozen little grave markers along the road signifying road accidents. probably from drunk driving.
3. huge fallen branches in the bike lane during a very windy day. um, excuse me Bell Helmets, but do you have a falling tree test?

Yellowstone

It is rainy and cold in Yellowstone right now as I write this message. The body acquires a certain stickiness and odor after this many days without a shower and repeated applications of sunscreen, bug repellant, and aloe. I can do shampoo hairstyles without the shampoo. It is an interesting feeling when the residue prevents me from feeling if I’m wearing any clothes. I swear I wore something yesterday when biking but it has all become a blur.

There are a lot of mosquitos here.

It seems like its been a week or so since you last updated your webpage… what’s up? Nothing happening? Or were you tricked and then trapped by aged confederate soldiers who kept you in their tumbledown cellar fattening you up in order to eat yah? Or were you bitten by radioactive spiders giving you new and strange powers as well as a lousy sense of direction, unable to tell where you’re heading with your eight directional eyes? Did Mark eat too much of his ‘fastfood firsts’ have an alergic reaction, turning purple and swelling up and being mistakenly rolled away by singing Umpalumpas?

What’s going on?

If there were a prize to be had for being completely inconsiderate to forms of transportation which do not require fossil fuels, Idaho might take first place. I had noticed by the time we reached Caldwell that it was very difficult to bike in Idaho. No bike lanes and sometimes no shoulders even. By the time we reached Nampa I realized that there were hardly any sidewalks! ‘Well,’ I thought, ‘maybe these cities are too small and Boise will be different.’ Boy was I wrong. In all of Boise I noticed two streets with bike lanes and they don’t take you to any place useful. Asking about bike shops brought blank stares from almost everyone I tried. When I finally found a bike shop, I asked them for a bicycle map of the city. ‘Sure we have maps,’ they said; then they showed me a rack of mountain biking books of Idaho. No one commutes by bike I guess.

I love Idaho

Leaving Boise was not much better. We had to take I-84 most of the way to Bruneau Sand Dunes. Interstate riding kinda sucks. There was a frontage road most of the way, but a lot of it was gravel, so we couldn’t use it. The road from Buhl to Shoshone was also difficult due to the 40 mph side wind. I guess that and all the thorns aren’t anyone’s fault…

The only part of this website that gets periodic updates is the log section. Before we left on the trip, we created the whole site including template files for the log. We are using some special Cold Fusion tags to help automate the entries.

For a new entry. all we have to do is write the paragraphs and add code for the photos. Then we save it as a numbered file (ie. 0615.htm) and upload the file and photos. We then update a list file so that we can annotate our entries (ie. written by…). When you click on a link in the list, a template file is loaded with the content of whatever number entry it is. Gee, I hope this makes sense.

Idaho

I mentioned that we are using Cold Fusion. Cold Fusion Server is known as middleware. The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Mark’s employer, is generously hosting our site for us. When you click on a link on OMSI’s server and that link has the .cfm extension then the Cold Fusion server intervenes and translates any Cold Fusion code into straight html which it then passes to the regular web server. This allows us to generate dynamic pages where the pages’ content depends on circumstances of the instant. The template files are examples of these .cfm files and the log entries are the content.

Most of the entries written by Mark are written on his palm-sized Windows CE device, a Casio Cassiopeia E-105. This device runs on an OS very similar to Windows for the desktop computer. It has a compact flash slot which is also the media that his digital camera uses. To edit his images he copies the image files from the camera and then uses a program called Pocket Artist to crop and rotate and color correct or adjust the brightness/contrast. The text and images are uploaded with a compact flash modem and an ftp program called Scotty FTP. Mark has an account with AT&T which has local numbers in most urban areas and an 800 number as well. Unfortunately, there are some long dry spells where we don’t have access to a phone jack.

Max writes his entries using a Sharp Pocketmail device. He can send and receive email using almost any phone. He just calls an 800 number and holds the device to the phone receiver. So he emails his entries to Mark which Mark then edits with the Cassiopeia (Mark telnets to his Reed account to get his email) and uploads to OMSI.

Max’s photos are taken with a Sony Mavica, so they get uploaded when we have access to a PC with a floppy drive like at a local library or internet cafe.

For more info on any of this, just do a search for what your interested in using any search engine or email us.

We are in Jackson Hole, Wyoming now and time is definitely ticking. We have the option to keep going today and rush through Yellowstone which we hear is quite bike unfriendly, or stay with a family which would stress our tight schedule.

Anyway, we met another NBG rider who left from Santa Cruz on June 4th. Alex rode through Nevada and has been doing crazy 100 plus mile days and nights. Man, compared to a bunch of other riders, we’ve been taking it quite easy. We met a guy in Idaho Falls (the only tourer in all of Idaho) who has been living on the road for a while and doesn’t carry any money. Also, check out http://www.cycleology.com/NBG for other stories. Especially read Stav’s. He’s totally crazy. Biking at night, pulling a dog, eating only fast food, and suffering from serious headwinds. He’s the MAN – read: fool.

So Alex got his laptop stolen from this hostel here. bunch of savages in this town. Other than that Jackson has been pretty cool. I watched a rodeo last night on the way to Albertson’s. Everyone here oggles at my recumbent. I pretty much laugh at their Ford F250’s. We might watch Titan AE tonight.

I almost took a spill yesterday in some muddy road construction. Saved by quick reflexes and dashing good looks. We’ve been plagued with flats in the past few days. I actually shredded a rear tire too. Strong cross winds and tailwinds were with us for a while in Idaho. I thought it was great fun. I love extreme weather. Almost got sucked into the underbelly of a semitruck and nearly road into a river, but hey, it’s all fun and games until I die, right?

Bruneau Sand Dunes

Movie of Max rolling down a hill

So in summary, after staying at the extremely hospitible Jensen’s residence in Nampa we stayed in the Robb Hanson party house in Boise. After some great Chinese food, he gave us a tour of Boise. We saw the potato mack daddy’s house on top of the hill. Then off to Bruneau Sand Dunes via the hellish I-84. The dunes were cool, especially the observatory program. It reminded me of the long Friday nights at the Cornell Observatory.

Teepee

Movie of our teepee

The next day was really hot and we chanced a frontage road that ended at a ferry dock at the Snake River. That sucked, so we turned back and chanced yet another frontage road (84 is not fun) which ended in gravel. After this ten mile detour we decided to take 84. I felt super sleepy and bloated after lunch (another college reminder) and we only ended up at Glenn’s Ferry. Just our luck there was one teepee still available! We are Indian, we have teepee. (that’s a quote from Cannibal the Musical, and is not meant to be a racial slur) dang that was one nice teepee.

Then to Buhl. Bo thought it would thunderstorm but nothing happened. His shoulders were all blistery and pussy from the sunburns. yay! Then to Shoshone via Twin Falls and after a disappointing Wok and Grill Mongolian BBQ. [Mark’s note: the waterfalls sucked, too, because they divert the water in the summer months for agriculture; try mid Spring instead if you plan on seeing the falls.] More specifically, a bed and breakfast in Shoshone because no motels were still in business. There was a guy living in a shack with a motel sign in front of it. [Mark’s note: the B and B we stayed at was also home to two foreign exchange students who were summer interning at a cheese factory; how someone in a foreign country finds a cheese factory in the middle of Idaho to work at, I have no idea.] We sure are living the good life. oh, this was the day when I almost died crossing the Windy Bridge of Death and we had to struggle across the Gusty Plains of Certain Peril.

Craters of the Moon

Craters of the Moon. Cool beans. Caves. My flashlight died so I explored by the light of my Sony Mavica. Once again it has saved my life. A mouse ran across my arm during the night. There were big signs throughout the campgrounds warning against feeding the rodents because they carried a respiratory disease. The stars were worth the risk of early pulmonary cancer though.

More Craters of the Moon

Flying a kite at Craters of the Moon

Then to Arco. We played minigolf and ate at Grandpa’s BBQ. Not as good as San Francisco’s Brother’s in Law, but ok nevertheless.

Mark’s note: Unfortunately, we didn’t visit the first nuclear reactor after we left Arco… If you want to learn more about it, you can ask my friend Chris who gives tours there sometimes.

70 miles of desert nothing to Idaho Falls. Almost became like Clint Eastwood in the beginning to the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly when our water ran out at mile 40 or so. A minivan family blessed us with four bottles in the nick of time.

Warning outside of Idaho Falls?

Take that you vultures! You won’t be eating my eyeballs today! In Idaho Falls we met Dean Miller, a fellow Cornellian. He fed us yummy pesto and let us stay in his basement. His dog Solo was very friendly too. Thanks Dean! Dean told us of his mountain bike friend who on races drinks cheap salad dressing because they provide high calories with just enough hydration, and eats Little Debbie Cakes because they have the most calories per cent. That too is Manly – read: hella stupid. We also met Johan, the biker with no money.

Palisades Dam, bad photo vs. good photo

Camped at Alpine, just before the Idaho Wyoming border. The very last day in Idaho was actually pleasant biking. The proximity to the Snake River let us cool off anytime and the surrounding mountains were gorgeous. Lots of mosquitos though. Lots of mosquitos. Did I say lots of mosquitos yet? Well there are lots. of mosquitos that is.

into Jackson

now we are in Jackson. so it goes.

It’s been almost a week since my last update! Max’s update dated the 11th was written then, but actually posted just five minutes ago. It is about 11 PM in Nampa, near Boise.

Now a little side note: Max has been referring to me as Bo. I guess since he’s doing that, I might as well start referring to him as Dee. Ask your Mandarin speaking friends why.

As you can read in my brother’s latest, we ended up staying an extra day in Prineville. They have the best freakin library I’ve ever been in except for the number of books. Not many books, but dang that is a nice library! Dee told me that they should have made a deal with San Francisco, who recently threw away tons of books because their new library was too small to hold them all… Yikes.

Whole in the Wall, Mitchell

After Prineville, we biked to Mitchell. Mitchell is a really small, one street town with two stores, a couple of motels, a nice city park, and a gas station right next to it. I have no clue why the town exists. As far as I could tell, that was all that was in the town, as if their whole purpose of being is for bikers to buy stuff from their stores and camp out in their city park or stay at their motels. If you were in a car, you’d just keep driving until you got to a more respectable place to stay. Oh, wait, I forgot. There’s two purposes for the town. The second one is for semi trucks to come by and sit idle at the gas station for about 3 hours stinking up the whole town and especially stinking up the nice city park.

While dining on some fine ramen in the stinky city park, we met two more bikers (in addition to John who was staying at a motel and Sean and Virginia (the superheroes) who were also camping in the smelly city park) who were traveling the opposite way. They started out in Missoula and were just going west, probably going to go up thru Portland to Seattle and then down the coast until the summer is over.

some Oregon scenery

The next day we left pretty early to tackle a really steep climb out of Mitchell which we thought we might have to walk at one point, but it turned out to be easier than we thought it would be and as a result we made some awesome time after the climb. We biked to John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, stayed for lunch (mmm.. peanut butter and honey and banana sandwiches), biked through Dayville, and made it to Mt. Vernon. Interestingly, Mt. Vernon is named after a horse or something like that. Get it? Mount Vernon? 🙂 We weren’t able to update the webpage since our motel room didn’t have a phone! Apparently this is not uncommon with small town motels, as it happened three times in a row… The scenery was real nice. I’ve come to really appreciate Oregon scenery. I remember I kept thinking everything was soo green and red, but then I also remember that I kept forgetting I was wearing high contrast lenses.

Kam Wah Chung and Co. Museum

On Sunday, the 11th, we left Mt. Vernon and got to John Day. I was hoping that I could replace my cassette there, but the bike shop closed a while back… There was supposed to be this cool old Chinese shop museum type of thing in John Day called the Kam Wah Chung and Co. Museum, but it wouldn’t open for another two hours so we went to the library. The library was also closed. So we stopped at a cafe and hung out there for two hours reading our books. Dee bought two books from the library in Prineville (yes they sold books too), and I got his hand-me-downs, The Never Ending Story. In the cafe we met an older couple who were also biking. They were on a tandem (two person bike). Pretty cool. The museum turned out to be pretty cool. Dee will write more about it. No photos allowed, but I took a couple before reading the sign…

Sag’s Motel

After checking out the museum, we decided to keep biking to Prairie City. We stayed in a swank motel two miles east of town. No phone, but they had everything else: VCR, something like 5 comfy chairs, a kitchen, room decorations, cabinets, bookshelves, a few books, lots of American Rifleman and People magazines, and a little store run by the proprietors of the motel that featured bootleg videos to rent (including Spanish or Mexican porn) and lots of various Mexican canned foods. Apparently, the motel (Sag’s Motel – run by Mr. Sagmeister) is usually home to a lot of migrant workers who stay for an extended period.

Keyes Creek summit and Blue Mountain Pass – I don’t remember when we passed each one, but here are the photos anyway

On Monday, the 12th (Robin’s birthday), it was raining pretty bad, but we decided that we had to keep going. We had two hills to climb before reaching the town of Unity on Hwy 26. Soaking wet. Really tired. Out like a light at 5, but Dee wanted to fly his kite again since it was really, really windy. When we flew the kite, the local chicks digged us a lot, but never did anything other than cruise their one street making catcalls. Who knew cruising existed in a town with like 100 people?

Unity, we’ll miss you…

The scenery drastically changed in the last two days. It went from forest to shrubs. Still nice, but different. Drier I guess… Yesterday, it was very warm outside. We made some awesome time doing like 73 miles, and it was mostly a gradual downhill all the way to Vale, but man was it warm. Surprisingly warm. I am burnt crispier than KFC. I’d take a photo and show you all, but I’m embarrassed by my pudgyness compared to Dee’s six-pack.

flat tire and lunch

Yesterday I called Vale, “The City of Gravel.” There are soo many traps waiting for unsuspecting bikers like us. Today I dubbed Vale a new name, “The City of Flat-tires.” I fixed my rear tire in the morning and biked three blocks to discover it had gone flat again from a different puncture. What a pain. We ate at a Diary Queen, our first fast-food since day 1 in Newberg. My first Diary Queen ever. It was weird because they came and took your order after you sat down and brought you the ticket after you had gotten your food, like a regular restaurant… Should we have left a tip?

As a consequence to my sun-burns and general soreness, today I was in pain most of the day. Ibuprofin, my angel in heaven… Today we crossed the Oregon/Idaho border. This trip will be a lot of fast-food firsts I guess, since today we had lunch at an A and W, famous for their rootbeer floats. It was pretty good. We’re now staying with the parents of one of Dee’s former co-workers. They are really nice and hospitable. Tomorrow we make it to Boise, which is only like 20 miles away, but we also need to stop at bike stores.

I already miss Oregon…

After Eugene we went up Santiam Pass. It took us about three days to get over it. Near the top there is a place called Clear Lake. It was a really popular fishing spot but I wouldn’t want to swim there since the neighboring campsites were called Ice Cap and Cool Water. Bo thought there would be a gas station at the junction near the top, but instead we were stuck splitting a can of Chef Boy R Dee Ravioli for dinner. Oh well.

Don’t remember when this was, but this photo was too funny to pass up.

The past few days have been hilly. The long stretches of downhill where Bo almost dies from instability I have found totally awesome. There’s nothing quite like going 40 mph for miles on a recumbent. Wheeeee!

We’ve met a group of superheroes who have their own webpage. http://www.responsiblemonkey.com/haulofjustice

The two, Dragonfly and Silversteak, are hauling a 50 lbs. dog in a Burley trailer. That better be one grateful pooch. We also have been hanging out with a retired high school teacher named John on a Trek recumbent. He’s kicking our young punk butts too. Then again he’s carrying a lot less gear. yeah, that’s the ticket.

I can only guess that Paul Husby and Amy Shen are a day behind us.

We ended up spending an extra day in Prineville. We became honorary natives actually – I mean we went to all three of the restaurants and two motels. The public library is amazingly nice – funded by the Oregon Lottery. The day we were going to originally leave the town, we got off to a late start and checked out at 11. (I blame Clerks, South Park, the Simpsons, and Crocadile Hunter.) By the time we got everything ready it was already 12:30 and it started to rain. Well that did it. Laziness prevailed and we spent the rest of the day in the library. I finished the Neverending Story. (it just kept going and going and…)

I got to fly my kite in Prineville too. Two signs that caught my eye: “What are you hung for?” in the grocery store and “no household waste or offensive material” on the public trashcans. The word hungry was partly covered. We also passed lots of llamas. And Operation Santa Claus, a reindeer camp, and Tom Jones Used Car Lot, how the mighty have fallen. Many field mice along the road for a while, followed by many small sparrow things.

Sheep Rock, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

For a fur trader who got lost and was robbed nekkid by American Indians, John Day sure has a lot of stuff named after him. Fossil Beds, a city, a river, a golf course, etc… If only fame could be had as easily these days. Why, my brother would be world famous for his acts of stupidity.

We’ve gone about 400 miles so far. It hasn’t been easy and I don’t agree with my brother that the hardest is over. I actually found some hummus out here so I’m a happy camper.