This was a great morning and I wasn't sorry we spent all that time there. It was another awesome part of the trip. But it was time to head home. Before we left Wendover we had to find a car wash to get rid of all the salt that got kicked up on the bike. Otherwise it can lead to rusty metal. We reluctantly got back on to I-80 at 12:30pm and headed northwest, then turned north on US-93 taking us across into Idaho
(including a construction delay) passing through Twin Falls, where we again jumped on a free way (I-84) and rode into Boise at about 7pm.
We found the Meridian KOA and the owner was kind enough to give us a tiny patch of grass which also gave us showers and a hot tub. This is normally strictly an RV campground so we appreciated them letting us stay there. We ate dinner at Shari's which was a couple blocks away and finally got some pie,
which we had been talking about for the whole trip. We came back and hopped into the hot tub and enjoyed a good soak before finally turning in around 10:30pm. It was 351 miles today including all the farting around at the salt flats, but a very satisfying day!
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Today is the final day of the trip. Rather than try and cook in the parking lot next to our bikes, we packed up and went back to Shari's for breakfast. By 8:45am we were on the road home. Because we wanted to avoid the freeway, we headed due north out of town on state route 16 to Emmett and then 52 on in to Payette where we jumped on to US95. That took us through places like Mesa, Glendale, New Meadows, Riggins, and on up Whitebird Pass to Grangeville.
From there we rode to Lewiston, Pullman, Colfax, and then got off of US195 to take the old highway into Spokane through Oakesdale, Tekoa, Waverly, etc. – a much nicer ride than on the highway even if it is a little slower. This takes us into the valley where Dave lives. So he peeled off, then it was just Tim and I heading the back way to Highway 2 where I split off to head for my house and Tim headed north for home around 6:15pm. Tim unfortunately got caught in a rainstorm and by the time he got home it was also dark. But he got there safely. For me today's mileage was 428. When I looked at my overall trip meter it was just over 3400 miles.
Epilog
This really was an epic trip for a bunch of over-the-hill guys. There are limits to every bike and man and we found both on this trip. This makes the third BDR we've completed, Washington being the first, then Idaho last year. Colorado is clearly the hardest of the three and Idaho the easiest. Even if the weather is good, the terrain is hard. If you have rain, there are areas that are flat impassable. We were told this before hand and having been there, I agree with it. We were fortunate to have only had sloppy conditions from the rain on only one day.
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
