An Idaho Adventure

This morning I picked up Steve with the intent of discovering some nice paved paths for cycles. Steve was riding the Scraab (looks like this) and I was on the Freedom Rider. For some reason, I really like riding the Freedom Rider. I think it goes back to the fact that I'm not a big fan of excerising my legs. That and living in Cali whose govonor is costantly quoted as saying "I'm going to pump you up."

Anyway, the first place we went to was the Idaho Falls Beltway. It's a bike/jogging route that runs along side the Snake River in Idaho Falls. It crosses the river twice, thus the name "beltway." And it's about 4.5 miles long. It went okay, but it was crowded. It was a beautiful ride, though. I've never been that close to the falls. They were truly beautiful. I wish I had my camera for it, but it is still in Target waiting to be purchased. The water rushing and the crystal clear water was just an awe to watch.

Next we went out to Shelley. This, as well, was a path that traveled along the Snake River. (Southern Idaho is the truest form of A River Runs Through It. The Snake River or some aspect of it runs all through the state.) We parked the truck at Steve's sister's house. After a breakfast of 2 oatmeal rasin cookies and a glass of water, we were off. This trail was 1.5 miles long and it was straight. (As in a very distict begining at the end of an elementary school playground and it ended into a park.) I think this was the trail that burned me. I was wearing shorts and for the first part of the day, NASA was probably having satelite problems, as my legs reflected the sun back up to the rotating satelites in space. I hope I didn't start any wars with spy satelites getting mixed signals off my legs. I'm sorry if I did.

I entered the trail at about 1/2 mile in. I rode/hand cranked down to the park. Right behind the park was an air strip for remote control planes. In the air above the strip were 5 gas powered airplanes having a "dog fight." 4 of the planes had ribbon or stream on the back of their tail wings. This really helped in seeing how close the planes were getting to each other. Every now and then the ribbons would smack each other and make a cool noise. Really Really close dog fighting in wooden planes. It was freaking awesome. Toward the end, one of the planes stalled out and crashed in a farmers field. I watched it crash. I actually watched it stall and knew exactly what it was doing, so I felt pretty smart.

Ever since Dun wrote his blog on his fasination with planes, I've been watching the skies and seeing the planes fly around. With it being summer, the Rexburg Airport (I use that last statement very loosely) has had a pilot flying a P51 Mustang over Rexburg and other areas. (the "other areas" because Rexburg is so small that just to get up to a cruising altitude, this guy has left city limits). I am in the process of building a plane and I think to myself how nice it is to have planes.


Anyway, I continued on the path after watching the other planes land. I did about 8 miles hand cranking today. Then I came home, rearranged my room, and did some more work on the wheelchair I'm building (WCB is only 1 month away. I've got to get my chair built and start practicing in it soon). All in all - it was a great experience. I might repeat it next week with a bike trip up to Island Park, or even Yellowstone.

***As a side note, I ate the raisin cookies without complaining. The food adventures are paying off. If I could just get over my fears of pickles and bananas I'd be doing great.

****As a different side note - I'm currently listening to James Blunt "Beautiful." (-: