Leaving the Tetons was more of a happy moment for me than I would have expected. Sure I loved how inspiring the mountains were and the place would be a great family vacation spot because it's not as crowded as Yellowstone to the north, but I never did feel welcomed in this place and so I rode away with a smile on my face. The coast was out in front of our noses with just a couple more states to go.
After leaving the mountains we were treated to a long stretch along the Snake River through Jackson Hole, WY and into Idaho. In Idaho Falls we were treated to a hotel room by Jared's grandfather. Idaho Falls was a pretty boring place mostly but our hotel room was huge and had a balcony that overlooked the man made waterfalls and Mormon temple so it made for a nice relaxing day to do nothing. I treated myself to Chili's bottomless soup and salad for lunch and got my money's worth for sure.
From there we hit the interstate and rode on the shoulder all the way to Boise. I'll keep my commentary brief on what happened in the state of Idaho but there were some things worth mentioning.
In the town of Pocatello we were allowed to camp outside of a Lutheran church. What the pastor failed to mention is that anywhere you see grass in the southern part of the state it is because of irrigation. We woke up at 2:30am to a flooding of sprinklers on our tent. My blackberry and camera were ruined and we had to sleep in soaking sleeping bags the rest of the night. To top it off the pastor arrived the next morning and said, "Oh, I was afraid that might happen. Anyway the church is open now so you can use the restroom if you want. There are some restaurants down in town where you can get breakfast." I never said a word to the man because I'm sure that if I had they would have been less than friendly after such a cold response to an event that did $600 in damages to my stuff. This is the reason you're reading about Idaho so long after I finished the trip because without my blackberry I was unable to post until I finished the trip.
Leaving Pocatello was as happy a moment as leaving the Tetons but the anger I had for the pastor kept me from wanting to leave until around 4pm. Still I was motivated and felt like I could ride all night and do as many miles as possible. What I didn't count on was that the highway would be pitch black and we would stumble into a stretch of construction that narrowed the interstate to two lanes making it a virtual death trap for us. Luckily God provided as a young couple coming back from a rafting trip stopped to see if we needed a ride into the next town. They even offered to let us camp outside of their yard and made sure to turn off their sprinklers. This would be the first of several times we would be offered a place to stay by random strangers. The trip was becoming more and more difficult mentally and emotionally, but God kept giving us little bits of encouragement in the midst of trouble.
Twin Falls, ID was a pretty cool place for us. We stayed at the Nazarene church in town and decided to ride to the mall and catch a movie. We wanted to see Captain America or Crazy, Stupid, Love but neither were playing there so we settled on Horrible Bosses. Just doing civilian things was a nice change of pace, but we were quickly reminded that we're cyclists when we went to Golden Corral and ate until we couldn't take any more abuse. The next morning as we set out to leave the town we stopped there again for breakfast and ate so much we couldn't talk because there was food all the way up our throats. After a brief stop at a travel information center above the canyon in town we were off for a nice scenic route down into, and through, the Snake River canyon. It was encouraging to get off the interstate and see some actual sites along the way and not take in exhaust fumes as much.
In Mountain Home, ID we joined the Nazarene congregation for worship on Sunday morning and enjoyed fellowship with them before heading off to Meridian, ID, a place I was very much looking forward to getting to.
Alright I'll admit it, my commentary on Idaho has been pretty boring. I wouldn't at all blame you if you stopped reading well before I'm saying this, but give me a break. To be honest most of our route through Idaho was so boring I wanted to fall asleep on my bike. Unfortunately the constant headwind was making it very difficult to do so and riding each mile was pretty miserable. It felt a lot like the parts of Wyoming that weren't mountainous. It got better when we hit Meridian.
Why would I be excited to reach a place I've never been to before? Well the first pastor I ever had growing up was currently the pastor of the church in the town of Meridian and I was looking forward to seeing a familiar face since it had been a long time since I last saw Ricky in South Dakota. Pastor Tim was a joy to spend time with for two theology students. Here we find ourselves invited in to stay with a man who was once the pastor of the Nazarene church in Kansas City, which is like Mecca for Nazarenes, and yet he was the example of humility, never speaking as if to know all the answers, and yet it seemed that we were learning more from him about how to be a pastor than we had in all four years of college, and we were. Our time at SNU was good for shaping us into theologians, but just two days with Pastor Tim and we felt so much more encouraged in our ability to handle being a young pastor who would inevitably make mistakes.
All the learning aside, our time in Meridian would have been great even without the formational conversations we were able to have with the pastor. We had our own rooms, a shower, good company, and to top it all off, the pastor spent his off day taking us out to McCall, ID, a small town tucked away between mountains with a beautiful lake surrounded by aspen trees. It was a remarkable place that we would have never been able to see without adding significant mileage to our trip, and in hindsight it would have been worth it. The white water along the drive was fascinating to me as it roared with a power that was humbling to me, knowing the river would swallow me up if I set foot in it.
Pastor Tim also took us to a Christian campground that the district now owns and is actively cultivating. Now we have some familiarity with Christian campgrounds, having even stayed in one back in Michigan on this trip, but this place was incredible! The cafeteria had high vaulted ceilings with a huge stone fireplace and views of the mountains surrounding. The coolest part about the campground is that it is being worked on by those in the district and people lend their talents and resources to improving this place. Seeing a district invest itself into a project like this is encouraging and made you wonder if there wasn't something in the water out here in Idaho that is making towns grow rapidly and churches thrive.
Pastor Tim and his wife Cindy cooked us the perfect cyclists meal of steak and veggies. I honestly wasn't sure I was going to be able to leave them, which is saying quite a bit because I wasn't overly in love with the geographical features of the state of Idaho, and yet the people create an excitement that draws you in.
The next day we would reach Vale, OR and stand only one state away from the ocean.
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