Day 16: I got this.

Day 16
Destination: Idaho Falls
Today’s mileage: 87 miles. Total: 921

My ride through the desert was lonely, long and hot.

Yesterday’s difficulties reside in my rear-view mirror. Yeah, I’m sore. Yeah, I ache in all sorts of places. Yeah, I’m tired. But I persevered today. It was necessary.

I had to ride from Craters of the Moon national historic site to Idaho Falls. I got started early. I nourished myself. I got a little lucky with some mid-afternoon cloud cover. And I wore two pairs of bike shorts. Yup, that helped. I mean, it didn’t help completely, but it helped enough.

I crossed plains. I crossed high desert. I was constantly confused by wind patterns. First, the wind was from my left flank. Then a good tailwind. Then it was in my face. Then it was from my right. What’s that all about? I didn’t know. I do know that when it was in my face, it was tough, but it wasn’t crushing my soul like yesterday. And when it was at my back, I soared.

We’ve set up camp tonight in a campground in Idaho Falls with no electricity and a thin wireless signal. Our cell phones work, but we don’t want to use up all of our juice. So I’ll finish things here. Tomorrow, we’ll head to Swan Valley or someplace east of that — on our way to the Wyoming border. Soon, we’ll have completed two states. There’s a big climb ahead in two days, after Jackson, Wyoming, when I climb over the Tetons. But we’ll leave that for another day. Today, well, today was a resounding success — mostly because I completed the task I assigned myself. That’s enough. Tomorrow is another day.

I wasn’t sure how the day would go when we started at Craters of the Moon. But I survived. That was the key.

Keep checking in on our website, 55andalive.com, for Melody’s updates and extra photos and videos. A video representation of my awful yesterday will be among the new features.

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