From Idaho Falls, Idaho. 1,760 miles from Lexington, probably six riding days. I usually ride about 300 miles per day.

This was a great day. You will be very surprised that I have nothing to complain about. That was all I did yesterday! Today was great. Cool but clear weather. Bike ran perfect. My butt got a little tired as always by the end of the day, but other than that I felt great. Nothing to complain about.

Of course, you know that days like this make for boring journals. It's the disaster and the crisis that make for an interesting story. But, like Kay said, I can make an adventure out of anything!

Early in the day, I had a little scare when an F-15 flew about 400 feet over my head! Then I noticed that he was coming in for a landing at Mountain Home Air Force Base.

Shortly after that I came across the M1A1 Abrams Battle Tank on display in the picture above. That sucker can almost go as fast as my little TW200. It's maximum speed is listed at 45 mph. That's my maximum speed going up a mountain.

Today's scenery was lots of this, lots and lots of scenes just like this:

The elevation was 5,000 to 6,000 feet all day with lots of farming under the shadow of nearby mountains.

I crossed Silver Creek several times, and one time spotted this guy fly fishing:

Riding through Carey, Idaho, I spotted antlers sticking out of the back of a pick-up truck. I stopped and met Bethany, who had killed this moose. She said you are only allowed one moose for a lifetime in the lower forty-eight states, so this was a once in a lifetime experience for her. But she had also traveled to Alaska and killed a moose there last year.

Just before Arco, I passed Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. I thought Newberry was pretty cool, but Craters dwarfs Newberry. Here the lava field covers 618 square miles. It seems to go on forever!

I read an information plaque about the settlers who came through here on wagon trains. The lava rocks kept breaking their wagon wheels.

I was high enough to see the snow covered mountains nearby:

At Arco, I got gas, but passed on the opportunity get a hamburger at this place:

It seems to be a tradition for the football players to paint their number on the mountain nearby. What an eyesore!

The next area featured a large plain with two buttes sticking up, actually a third not in this photo. These volcanic mountains were formed between 600,000 and 300,000 years ago. Very odd looking to me the way they pop up out of a vast plain.

Passing those buttes near the end of the day reminded me how tired my butt was. (Snicker) I was glad to roll into Idaho Falls where I finally stopped to take a picture of a potato barn, though not the prettiest one I saw:

There were occasional potatoes in the streets that had fallen off produce trucks.

The only excitement for today was the whistle in my helmet. It's been going on the whole trip. There is a 1/8 inch gap between my face shield and the helmet on the right side. When the wind comes just right (at about 33 1/3 degrees) it causes that gap to whistle.... loudly. I usually try to keep my head turned to avoid it, but then the wind will change, and there it is again. At about 55 mph, I think it plays a A note. Slow to 40 and I get a lower C. If I could change my speed fast enough, I could play Beethoven's Fifth on my helmet!

But I finally tired of the whistling and put some tape over that part of the face shield to disrupt the air flow. Beethoven is better in a music hall.

And I thought about my granddaughter Lizzy today. Recently, she gave me the nicest compliment ever. She said, "Grandpa, I see that you are always going on adventures. You know, all my friends have grandparents, but none of them go on adventures like you do."  I'm glad she notices, and glad that I am able to do some of my crazy adventures. Maybe it will keep me young.

Thanks for following!