I slept in this morning until 5:45 or so. I woke up feeling pretty refreshed. One of the other upsides of having a hotel/motel night is that it takes less time to pack up and hit the road. I was on the road within an hour or so of waking up. There was a gentle tailwind pushing me eastward past fields of onions, green onions, and sweet beets. This was a wonderful olfactory experience, because I love onions. Never have I ever experienced such a bold aroma of green onions rolling across the air! I've never had sweet beets before, nor have I ever smelled them. However, when passing by acres and acres of sweet beets, the odor in the air reminded me of pesto! Those moments of smelling pesto in the air were glorious! A little over one hour into today's ride, I stopped in Nyssa; the final town I would see in Oregon before crossing the Snake River into Idaho. While here, I stopped for breakfast at Thunderegg Coffee Company. In other places around town, I read references to Thundereggs. With my curiosity piqued, I asked an employee what a Thunderegg is. She explained and showed me that it is a type of geode. Here I thought it was a kind of food. After this, I glanced at a clock on the wall and it read 9:00am. My phone's clock registered 8:00am. The seas of confusion immediately parted, and the clock dilemma made sense: my cellphone was still pulling signal from a tower in the Pacific Time Zone! Garrett and I experienced this phenomenon during our trip last summer in North Dakota. No wonder I felt so rested: I slept for an extra hour! A simple restart of the phone finally switched the phone's clock over to the correct time zone. This didn't have much of an impact on the day, though, as Boise was about 50 miles away from Nyssa. I rode at a casual pace for the rest of the ride, except for one portion. I was about one mile west of Notus, ID. The shoulder on this portion of US-20 was a very generous width, which is why I found it odd that a person honked her car horn at me from behind and as she drove past me. A little insight for motorists out there: if you honk your horn at a cyclist, there's a good likelihood that we have no idea why you're honking your car horn. Case and point: during this moment on this day, I was at least five feet to the right of the white line on the shoulder. I wasn't inhibiting traffic. I hadn't made any abrupt movements toward the road. In my mirror, the vehicle appeared to be in its lane and not on course for impact with me. I thought nothing of this car honking nonsense. I then felt a light pelt on my neck, followed by a few more light pelts on my shoulder, and then an audible thud off of my helmet. I looked over my shoulder to see no fewer than 20 bees/wasps aggressively pursuing me! I accelerated to 30mph and maintained this pace for about one minute until there were no signs of those stinging insects. I know for a fact that I didn't disturb a nest. However, I must have been close enough to a nest along the shoulder of the road to evoke a defensive response on their part! When I arrived on the outskirts of Boise, a lot of the new development reminded me of Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area in that indicators of rural farmlands were still there if one looked closely enough. I rode to the Trek store to have a quick look-over of the bicycle, just to make sure that everything was in working order. While there, I learned that the bike mechanic that assisted me had attended the University of Iowa, and had worked at his friend's bike shop in North Liberty prior to making the move to Boise. Quite the small world we live in! Next, I pedaled on to the residence where I was being hosted. Christa, the awesome hostess, and everyone else at this residence are all members of the volunteer corps. After cleaning up, I met Christa and her mother who was in town to visit her daughter. Christa led us by bike to the Boise Bicycle Project (BBP), which is a local nonprofit community cooperative that promotes the personal, social & environmental benefits of bicycling. BBP functions as a bicycle recycling center & educational workspace in a diverse and friendly environment. Summarizing doesn't do it justice: this place was absolutely awesome! When we arrived, we had a meal courtesy of the potluck that was put on this evening. Attendees brought food to share, which made this visit all the more unique. Afterwards, the three of us took apart a bicycle to salvage the following: bicycle frame, derailleur hanger, and shifting cables. I had never done something like this before, and this was so much fun; even after a somewhat tiresome day of riding! Visiting the BBP will likely be one of the most memorable experiences of this trip. Eventually we headed back and chatted for a while before I turned in for the evening. Tomorrow's ride was nearly 100 miles, so an early start would be necessary.
