Bee Behind Bars

I woke up fairly early this morning to the best weather of the trip so far. The air was crisp and cool and smelled like pine trees. That was enough to motivate me for the day, I was now refreshed and ready to take on the world.  I wanted to retrace my fresh tracks from the night before and see what the last 30 miles look like in the daytime! So I headed down 40 after filling up Black Betty and had to pull over to take photos before I had even gone 5 miles.  The mountains in the area were  pretty, but the lake is what I had my eye on! Some of the bluest water I have ever seen can be found in that sprawling alpine prarie just south of Park City. I’ll admit, I was even a little jealous of the boaters and jet-skiers as I rode by.

After the video mishap (total operator error) from day 2, I knew I wanted to make up for the lack of footage during my ride to Boise.  I filmed the entire ride from Heber to Orem on 189 because words cannot do it justice. The mountains towered over the road and did a wonderful job at making my feel quite small. The skies were deep blue and just a few clouds dotted the sky. The lake poked in and out of view as if to say, “Come on in, if you dare.”  Unlike the night before, I didn’t see a single wild animal that wanted to kill me or itself via Concours collision, although I did see a few cars that I wished would find a way out of my way! Besides a little traffic and construction, I couldn’t have asked for a better start to my ride.

I jumped on the interstate to head north towards Idaho and drooled over the view of the mountains from downtown Salt Lake City. Lucky ducks.  This trend continued in every small town in northern Utah. Just when I thought all the vistas were gone, another would pop up just beyond the horizon and would be right on top of me within minutes.  The mountains slowly turned into massive yellowish-green rolling hills as I connected with I-84. I took another several minutes of footage for good measure and sang along with Pandora radio through the big sweeping turns.

As I approached Mountian Home, a fire had broken out on the hill and I took pictures every few mintues while I watched the smoke fill the sky.  Unlucky for me, the up-close view of the fire translated to riding through several miles of thick smoke and ash. By the time I was pulling into Boise, my nose was itching and my eyes and chest were burning. Not a very fun way to end my ride, so I guess it’s a good thing I’m a SURVIVOR!

I’m in the process of doing some final editing of the Day 3 video, so hang tight. If you’ve been following my journey and wishing you were riding alongside me, the footage from today will let you do just that from the comfort of your home (or office, if you’re being bad)! As soon as I have it finished I’ll have it posted, I promise!