I got through Idaho rather quickly and ended up in Boise where I stayed with some great warm showers hosts, Patrick and Rachel. They were experienced bike tourists who have ridden about 80,000 miles over the past couple decades. You can read about their last round the world trip here.

I did some touristy things in Boise as well as get some spares from a local bike shop. They have an Anne Frank memorial in one small park. A chilling reminder of how cruel humans can treat each other.

Kids playing in one of those ground fountains in central Boise.

The was a Pride festival going on the weekend I was there. I love these because of all the colorful characters that appear.

OK, it used to be just LGBT but this is getting ridiculous.

What about “H” for Heterosexual: An individual who is primarily attracted to people of the opposite gender.

Leaving Boise I headed west. Several tough days of headwinds and hills as I made my way across eastern Oregon. One night I camped by some old railroad tracks. No trains came by so I thought it was disused. Wrong. During the evening and night several trains rumbled passed. Not a great night’s sleep. Note to self: do not camp by railroad tracks in the future.

There was a lot of farming in the area but all the fields required serious irrigation.

Typical roads in eastern Oregon. I had some tough windy days again. I struggled to inch along at 5-6 mph for 10 hours. Not fun.

One nice quiet camp site.

The highway started getting busy with trucks and campers so I tried to take a back road to get away. As usual it turned out to be unrideable.

Another nice camp site in a cow pasture. I had several four legged visitors during the evening curious about this interloper on their land.

Nice sunset.

Massive sprinklers created this cool rainbow. Not sure what was growing there. Sugar beets?

My first glimpse of the Cascades Mountain range as I approached Bend, Oregon.

I got lucky again with warm showers hosts Leslie and Klaas. Former cyclists, they are planning to walk the Camino de Santiago from France to Santiago, Spain later this year. Super nice and generous. We traded travel stories and drank some local beers.

Well that’s it for now. I will leave Bend and head up over the Cascades to Portland and finally Seattle before getting on a plane July 16 for Japan. Watch this space.