Day 16 - A wrong turn, a 2nd flat...and Bliss

Day 16 - Tuesday, July 15

Mountain Home to Gooding —62 mi, 100 km

Today we rode from Mountain Home to Gooding, a total of 61 miles or about 100 kilometers. In the beginning the weather was cloudy and so the ride was not that hot. However, later in the morning the sun came out and it became hot. During the first half, the wind was against us, but later the wind turned (or we did) and we had a tail wind.

We are still riding through dry land with sage brushes.

In the beginning we took the wrong road, which led through very dry and remote country. After some biking we ended up in the same time as the other bikers who had done the right route. We saw two groups of deer – two mothers with young, and a dozen other deer. Because we had a headwind the deer didn’t notice us early on, so we came relatively close before they ran away. It was a pity I couldn’t take a picture.

In between we saw farms with irrigated fields (corn, alfalfa, grass), and a lot of cows, both dairy and beef.

In general it is rural with small towns. We passed through towns with 1600 inhabitants, like Bliss. We also stopped in Glenn Ferry, which had about 3600 people. Both towns had a gas station with a small store, which sold coffee. That is the only reason we stop in those places.

I rode today with Matthew Rekman from Sarnia (Ontario). He is a student in nursing and was very interested in medical work in Haiti. I told him about different organizations that work in Haiti and what type of work they are doing. He would like to do an internship in a Third World country. He wanted to take a picture of the sign with the name "Bliss", because he thought that was a funny name for a town.

Today I had my second flat tire. Every night we are counting the flats of the day – yesterday we 22 flat tires in a day. Most of them are caused by “goat heads”, a plant that grows here in the desert and which has nasty thorns. The wind blows parts of the plant on the road and that is how we get all these flats.