June 8 (REST DAY ...Triathalons, Books, and Beer)

The day began with breakfast. And WHAT A BREAKFAST. Keesh (Um ... QUICHE ... Thanks to Jane for noticing ... it was 2 a.m. when I worked on this and I just figured that "keesh" was some European muesli type thing I'd never heard of.), bacon, fruit salad, orange juice. It felt like I had died and gone to heaven.

 

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that Patrick is from Holland, and his family was in for a three week visit. So I got to sit and eat with an assortment of foreigners, which was fun. One who stood out was Patrick's sister; she had just finished a race from Paris to Holland to raise money for cancer victims. The race is done in teams - two groups to a team, with each group having 2 cyclists and 4 runners. The runners switch every km or so, and the cyclists stay for a few hours. It is a nonstop race - and the two groups will switch out to let the other rest. Apparently the race raised 5 million euros for cancer, and her group alone raised ... 20 or 40 thousand, I forget which. They were also a really fast group; they started out last and ended third!

 

So of course his family participated in the annual Poot Scoot! This is a 5km race against a tennis ball as it travels through the sewers; the racers are trying to beat it to the exit. The race starts with the organizers flushing a tennis ball in a toilet, instead of shooting a gun, and, from what I hear, the engineers who tracked its speed said it was going pretty slow. I think someone quoted them as saying, "It must be a slow day."

 

Patrick helped me fix up my bike in the morning and gave me extremely valuable advice on touring in general, such as how to sleep for free in various places while at the same time getting to meet cool people. For instance, at a campground you can pull in and find a group, and offer to pay half of the fee for the campsite if they let you stay. They usually won't accept your money and, before long, you'll likely be at their campfire talking up a storm! Small town bars are also great; go in with an open and sociable attitude and, before too long, someone will likely let you pitch a tent on their lawn. (I should note the main point of this is meeting people and getting those social experiences, you're not trying to take advantage of them)

 

There was a half Ironman Triathlon going on today, so I meandered down the route to Boise.  I managed to catch a few pics of a cyclists and runners pulling in and out respectively, and I just happened to see the first few runners as they neared the finish line near the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial. Cool!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also have a huge number of pics at the memorial, I'll make them into an Imgr photo album...later.

 

After that I headed over to a bike touring store (excellent store) and a small bike shop to replace the one I had finished. I meant to go to a small café to blog over a beer, buuut...I started reading the book and lost track of time in a major way.

 

So I came back to the house late, and the entire house was asleep. If they'll have me, I'd like to stay another day – I still haven't seen their DVD from Tibet!

 

Oh. And this is the ladder to the loft where I'm sleeping.

 

 

This is their relatively new kitchen. (Patrick does all the woodwork himself!)

 



 

This is my view when I wake up in the morning:  redwoods, bamboo and plants from all over the world!  I could get used to this...