Well met

Not many photos today. I checked my route this morning and realized that I hadn't allowed for the change from Pacific to Mountain Time. Instead of knocking off somewhere around 6 I wouldn't get to my meeting point with the bikers until 7:30 at best. If I had known how many road construction delays awaited me I would have been even more discouraged, but as it was I resisted tempting detours and stopped for only the briefest photo moments. I didn't enjoy driving under pressure but it all worked out fine in the end, as you'll see.

I had 45 miles of my old I-80 route left before today's route turned north on U.S. 93 at Wells. I recognized the shape of the sagebrush in the valley there as the lumps I'd seen in March completely blanketed with a fresh snowfall. The highway followed the chain of valleys toward the Idaho line, and I took this photo at one of several stops as I waited for a green light or an escort vehicle to let northbound traffic through a one-lane construction area. I shot it for the interestingly-shaped buttes, but the ubiquitous sage fills the foreground.

One of the construction sites had a sign warning of delays up to 30 minutes, and in fact a 15 minutes-plus wait for the escort car and several miles threading through seriously torn-up roadway set my projected arrival back the better part of a half-hour. I gave in to the temptation to speed a bit when Chatty Cathy the GPS sent me on straight well-paved farm roads bypassing Twin Falls, ID. I continued to encounter major construction on I-84 eastbound to Pocatello and I-15 north to Idaho Falls, and again on U.S. 26, the last leg of my trip today. A side effect of stimulus spending?

The high point before tonight's reunion was U.S. 26 and Idaho Routes 31 and 33, lightly-traveled highways that took me east and north from the arid country of sagebrush valleys and brown mountains to lush green fields and grasslands and gorgeous mountain passes. Here's the start of my drive on Highway 31 in Swan Valley, with no one in front of me as I zoomed up gentle switchbacks to the pass and found myself suddenly in deep pine forests on the northeast slope much like those I'd seen in eastern Washington and Oregon.

After heading northeast on 31 I turned southeast on 33, which became Wyoming 22. Here traffic started to build, and 10% grades with no passing lanes meant that cars clumped behind slow-moving trucks. A large parking area at the top of Teton Pass at the Wyoming state line provided this spectacular view and a sign proclaiming "Howdy stranger, yonder is Jackson Hole, the last of the Old West."

After a 20-minute descent of 10% downgrades in a line of cars behind a slow 18-wheeler I was in Jackson. All of sudden the road was clogged with tourist traffic, and I was happy to get out of town at last. I stole another moment to grab this photo of the Tetons as I drove north on U.S. 26, which eventually turned southeast to our appointed meeting place in Dubois.

As I promised you, the day had a happy ending. Jamie came in range of a cell tower and we were able to coordinate a time and place to meet. As I pulled into Dubois' only motel from the northwest I saw two bikes pulling in from the southeast - perfect timing. After showers and dinner their number has grown to four - Heidi (L) and Jamie (R) who started riding together from Yorktown, VA, on May 22 to raise money for Books to Prisons; Sara who started a transcontinental ride home to Portland, OR, somewhat ahead of them but has been riding with them for the last month; and Rich (not in photo as he was exploring downtown Dubois), who has been riding with them now across many states. (Click to enlarge. Names and photos are here with their permission as they've been documenting their trip online.)

Tomorrow I'll take some photos of them as they head for Yellowstone, Missoula, and Portland, and then I'll be heading for the northwest South Dakota prairie.