A Dark Motel

August 26, 2012
Burley ID

Woke up early having had a good rest….800 mg of Ibuprofen helps in that regard.  Since it was early, and since the motel manager offered rags and hose to wash Sophia, I decided to do that first thing, and also give it a spray wax,  Tire pressures were down about 4 psi which is not too bad.  But the air suspension was low almost 12 psi. so I pumped it back up to 45psi which is where I think it rides best given the load I’m carrying.

I had the opportunity of meeting Tim Trellstad from MN.  He and his German Shepard Sheba are traveling via motorcycle.  Check out Sheba’s riding quarters atop the trailer.  If you look closely you can see here head protruding over the top.

Also met Al Waldon from Arkansas...i think somewhere around Branson.  He and his sweetheart are doing some traveling and he told me about some great scenic rides that I need to visit in Arkansas.  He also gave me the name of a great lodge to stay at called the Pond Mountain Lodge.  If I remember correctly the owner, Judy Jones, is a PhD and converted a farm house into a beautiful lodge offering individual cabins and various activities to engage in while staying there.

A quick load up and then some breakfast and I was down the road at 10:20am, a little late but beneficial as we’ll see later.

From Lewiston I took US 95 heading for Boise.  95 is basically a 2 lane highway that I will always refer to as the Downhill Highway (if going to Lewiston you’d call it the Uphill Highway J.  It follows the Clearwater River in the Lewiston area but somewhere 30 miles out or so it then has the Salmon River flowing alongside.  The road is once again lined with vertically towering hills/low mountains blanketed with pine trees of a beautiful dark green color.  The road is curvy but not switchback style.  Just nice gentle curves that make riding it fun at speeds between 45 and 65 mph. 

I estimated that the ride to Boise would take me 3 hours.  But little did I know that there would be a number of small towns with speeds down to 15mph, construction, and local trucks lumbering along at 55 in a 65 no passing zone for evvveerrrrr.  It took me 4.5 hours to reach Boise!

I learned that this is where the Salmon River originates and it was interesting to see many a camper off the side and a fly fisherman or two out in the water casting their flies.  This may be a future endeavor for me to take up. 

In a town called Riggins there were many tube rafters and canoes in the water…or maybe they were kayaks.  There are minor rapids at this point an sure enough, the town had a rafting company and a number of motels and restaurants for the tourists and adventurers.

When I departed Lewiston I wore three layers of shirts…one being my fav long sleeve.  It was chilly but I thought I could handle it.  The valleys were cool but every now and then the shadows gave way to warm sunlight which warmed me both psychologically and physically J.  But by the time I reached Grangeville the cooler air started to chill me so I donned the windbreaking rain gear.

One thing I learned along the way….the Union Pacific and Northwestern Pacific railroads formed a separate company and constructed a rail line between Lewiston and Grangeville.  The project had them blast 7 tunnels through the mountains to run the line.  I saw a number of the rail trestles supporting the line about 50 feet up the cliffs but didn’t stop to take pics

By the time I reached Riggins I was way too hot in the gear.  The air temp had risen dramatically with the lower altitude and warming of the day, so I stopped there and removed them in front of a White Water Rafting company.

But lets jump ahead.  Four and a half hours later I finally arrived at Boise and stopped at a Burger King for a Whopper of a lunch.  I was extremely hot from the layer of shirts and the heat as the day’s temperature had risen to around 95 or higher.  As I was leaving the King to get on my way a voice called out asking to where was I headed.  It was another biker, a hard core biker with no helmet and all leathers in the heat.  He advised me that he had come from the east and that there were sandstorms and thunderstorms all along the way.  This was good info to have and I thanked him for it and also gave him advice about heading north on the US95 and the heat heading west.

Once back out on the I-84, I could see the storm line far in the distance, perhaps 70 miles or so away.  About 50 miles from Twin Falls I started to get into the tail end of it and decided to pull off into a Chevron Station.  It never really rained but there were some sprinkles while I evaluated the foreboding clouds to the east.  The winds were sustaining around 30mph on the ground, but the high clouds didn’t seem to be moving that fast.  While waiting there I met some Vietnam Veteran MC bikers and chatted with one of them who was a Marine.  They cautioned me about the bad winds and lightening to the east before departing on their ride to the west. 

Bob Rogers called me and we chatted about our meeting in Springerville AZ to ride US 191.  While chatting I could see a break in the storm to the east.  Dark thunderous clouds were to the north and others to the south.  I begged off from our conversation, suited up with the rain gear and made a run for it. 

I got lucky!  The gap in the storm was right where I-84 was running towards Twin Falls which is where I wanted to stop or if possible 30 miles east of TF at Burley.  I need a motel for the night as TWC radar on my Droid App showed another band of storms coming from the west. 

I did get rained upon twice but it was of medium intensity and brief…2 minutes perhaps each time.  The storm cell to the north looked horrible.  Seriously darkened all the way to the ground with rain definitely falling and lightening extremely intense. 

As I neared Twin Falls the road turned and headed towards a completely cloudless east.  Way off to the south I could see the next band of storm clouds heading northeast.  Since all was clear I decided to continue on to Burley and get a motel there. 

Then I noticed I only had about 40 miles left in the tank….and burley was 30+.  So I took the next off ramp where a Chevron and Shell station signs were sitting high on a hill.  But it was odd that they weren’t lit.  Also visible was a motel sign…my kinda motel, mom and pop, park your bike at the door, cheap J.  So I took the exit and headed for the motel first.  As I pulled into the drive leading to the front of the building, it seemed that the place was out of business as it was completely darkened. As I pulled in under the overhang leading to the office entrance I could see that the grounds were maintained and then I saw some cars parked in front of rooms and a big sign on the window next to the door stating to ring bell for service.  I parked Sophia and rang the bell.  After a bit of a delay a woman’s face appeared in the window and she looked at me and Sophia then opened the door.  Before I could say anything she announced that there was no power and she couldn’t rent me a room.  Now I understood why the service station signs were not lit up.  I convinced her I didn’t need power cuz I was a camper and had flashlights and am accustomed to the occasional no shower, yadayada.  So she rented me a room….but I had to pay cash because the credit card reader couldn’t work without power L.  So I gave her $42 in cash, painful to me to part with cash and not get any airline points!

Since there was still some light I quickly unloaded the bike and got the room ready for the night of no power…and no water.  With Sophia parked at the door I was able to use her headlamp to light up the room, unload and stack the bags, and find the flashlight.  A few calls to family drained the cell phone power so I plugged it into Sophia’s aux power outlet and charged it up.

Armed with an LED flashlight setting on the table and shining to the ceiling the room was lit well enough for me to do some typing on battery power while eating a cold can of chili beans.  I need to figure out a way to warm up the canned food when camping without power or campfire.  The 96 ci engine puts out a lot of heat….there must be some way of attaching a can of food to the cylinder head and heating it up while riding down the highway……similar to how tankers cooked their food during WWII in Europe’s winter.

Ahh, I love the old days of rough living…but only briefly J

C ya mañana,
Gonzo
Twitter: @GonzoCrossUSA
Email: GonzoCrossUSA@gmail.com
Cell: 949-433-0761