Day 14 - Broncos

Todays mileage: 45
Total Mileage: 690
End point: Mountain Home, ID

After my rest day I decided to take it fairly easy. Last night I chilled out and watch a couple of documentaries. The first one was about Mel Gibson (I didn't know he was quite such an utter and complete psycho) and the second one about the trade it dead bodies!! Optimistic stuff - but quite interesting.

First port of call was Boise State University where I had a very special appointment. Pam had contact the facilities manager and he agreed to let me onto the hallowed field (massive SHOUTOUT!) For my UK readers I should explain that college american football is as huge as NFL, some of the university stadiums in texas hold 100,000+. Anyway Boise State Broncos are unique in having a blue field. The are some other coloured fields but none of the teams play in NCAA Division 1 (basically the top flight). I'm a big fan of the blue field and as I was in boise a trip seemed essential. Scott let met me at the main gate and let me had a couple of minutes running around on the blue field :) I followed this up with a trip to the hall of fame (it appears they excel in wrestling too) and a quick pop into the shop. I enjoyed the 'our teams so good if your mom supports us' merchandise!

Leaving the university I headed over to the nearest bike shop which had some terrible gogle reviews but was just round the corner. The guy was friendly enough and upsold me a 'puncture resistant' tube. I was a bit suspicious but the outer side of the tube is 6 times thicker than normal. Any bikers out there tried one of these? It came in a massive box. I'm almost looking forward to my next flat so I can get this big boy out of my handlebar bag.

I headed out of the city on a great bike path. One thing I will say for Boise is it has great bike paths and a wonderful cycling community - impressed! I got all the way out of the city barely riding on roads. Oh, and apparently the riot on Saturday was the first time anything like that has ever happened.

Once I left the city I had to do 30 miles on the interstate as following the back roads would have been over twice the distance. The wind was pounding at my back though so I whizzed along and averaged about 25mph. I don't have too much to say about the ride. The land was flat scrubland, the tarmac was tarmac and yes there were cars and trucks.. The only odd thing that happened on the interstate was finding a range rover pulled over on the shoulder, I hate this because it means I have to actually get on the road to pass, as I went passed I saw some guy asleep. Then 5 miles later a white coupe pulled over, 2 dodgy looking guys also sleeping in their car. Is this normal in western states? Oh I'm tired, I'll have a quick nap on the shoulder, what the hell?!? It wasn't so far until the next rest area.

If I'm honest I only cycled for about 2 hours today before I got to Mountain Home, a town with not too much to it if I am honest. I had planned to camp at a KOA site which I have been trying to avoid. KOA is a massive chain of campgrounds, which means my opportunity to negotiate a discount is limited and their prices are high. But I'm going to let them off, as the manager having a look around the park and then looking up at the ominous sky suddenly decided that I should have a teepee! Pop my tent up inside to protect me from any storms. These are normally super expensive and I've never slept in one, so pretty happy and willing to let KOA of the hook.

Now all I need to do is carefully plan the rest of my route across idaho as its going to be fairly barren out there!