Left a little early this morning, about 1000, as I have a little further to ride today than normal and I know it is going to start to be almost continuous mountainous passes by mid day. The buck forty speeds on straight desert road days are almost over. About 30 seconds after leaving the ho'tel parking lot we cross the state border into Idaho.

I remember once being here in the 90's with my brutha Rob Pakai and I went to get medicinal beverages at the end of the day. I didn't wear my helmet as Idaho doesn't have a helmet law, but I wasn't in ID anymore! Nevada had just put in their law that year and I got pulled over by a Statie, when he lit me up though I was just turning into the mo'tel parking lot so I kept going (I know Bill, bad practices!) until I pulled into my stall. He was good about it, said he rode too and hated helmets, and since I was home for the night he would make nothing further of it.

Come to think of it, over 26+ years of trips through 'merica I have only been stopped maybe 10 times, and I was only actually ticketed once. Pakai and I were in South Dakota in the late 90's, it was the end of a long day and we had the hammer down. The Statie stopped us both and despite our hyper legal speed gave us 5 mph over tickets. Five over tickets are at the discretion of the Trooper and allow him to let you go, but still justify the stop.

I never did pay that ticket. I stayed out of South Dakota for about 10 years after that and around the year 2005 Canada & 'merica went on a combined computer system with all previous records being purged, so I was a law abiding citizen again!

We were about 200 kms to Twin Falls, ID. I recall staying in this town years ago and it being very rough. I followed the hwy and eventually we crossed this amazing bridge over the Snake River. There was a massive parking area on the far side and droves of people were walking across the bridge to gaze at the cliffs in the distance. Just for the record, these pictures are not mine.



The Perrine bridge has a few notable facts about it; it is the only man-made structure in 'merica where BASE jumping is allowed year-round and without a permit, and, about 2 miles from the bridge on the southern rim of the canyon are the remains of the ramp where in 1974 Evel Knievel tried to jump the Snake River in his steam powered SkyCycle X-2.



This jump marked the start of the decline of his career as the drogue parachute deployed during launch and Evel was accused of doing it on purpose because he was scared. In the end, even with the increased drag he actually did cross over to the North rim but the winds blew him back to banks of the south rim of the river.

Good thing too, if he'd landed in the water he would have drowned as it took considerable time to reach and free him. Despite holding the world record for broken bones, more than 430, his fans lost faith in his fearlessness and he never again held the position he did during his peak. Then with a baseball bat he broke a guys arms who wrote unfavorably about him in a book, (not untruthfully, just unfavorably!) Mattel dropped his toys line, he lost his steady licensing income, and he slid down to the gutter.

Additional reading about this 'merican icon can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knie vel

From Twin Falls it was about 150 clicks to a very fascinating area of Idaho called Craters of the Moon. Created by lava flows from 3 adjacent rifts you literally come around a corner and the landscape abruptly changes. The lava fields bracket the highway for a short distance and it abruptly changes back to high desert scrub brush.



Past the CotM area I came to a fork in the road where I could have cut across to I-15 Northbound which would have been much faster than staying on Hwy 93. 93 was about to enter the Lemhi Mountains and the Bitterroot & LoLo National forests and was going to get all twisty on me. Taking the Interstate would be the easy way out, but thankfully I talked myself out of being lazy and stayed on 93, I wouldn't regret it!

It was about 550 kms of mountain passes, hairpin turns, elevation changes, passing lanes and spectacular scenery! Here are 2 x 1 minute videos, the first showing entry into a box canyon and the second showing the mountains coming right up to the edge of the road. I apologize for not cleaning the bugs off the lenses and also I was using skeleton cases so the wind blast is quite loud although I knocked 25dB out of them, you still might want to turn the volume down a bit.



Hwy 93 passed through over 20 small towns as it wound its way towards our eventual goal of Missoula, MT. We cross into Montana about 200 kms shy of Missoula, having spent about 7 hours in Idaho. Just south of Missoula I see a shack advertising BBQ and there is a mo'tel behind it and a Exxon beside it, the TriFecta!

Naturally I keep riding! But today I am going to allow myself to break my own rules about turning around and going back. It takes me about 5 miles of negotiating with myself before I convince myself. Lets just say an expert negotiator was needed to deal with an extremely stubborn adjudicator. After I am convinced I am going to turn around it takes another 5 miles to find a place to do it, but it happens.

I pull into the mo'tel parking lot, it is paved, but alas no pansies, but BBQ makes up for it! I can smell the smoker! I drive up and down the front of the mo'tel a couple of times but cannot find the office, so I check into the BBQ shack up at the bar. I ask the nice lady at the bar where the office is and she says right here, but they are all sold out except for 'The Drunk Tank". Naturally I inquire about that............

It is a room with a bed and a bucket, no shower, no TV, not a single luxury. If one of their bar flys gets too loaded, they put them in there for the night. She asks if I want to look at it. I think not, I have had enough crummy room experiences of late! As I start to leave I walk past a barfly playing pool who asks me if my parents had any tall children? I suppose a joke about my size. I retort asking him if his parents had any children who lived. He does not think this funny, despite it being him who opened the line of questioning. His buddies are holding him back and I have outstayed my welcome.

I end up driving almost all of the way through Missoula before I find mo'tel row on the far northern outskirts of town. We have rooms, restaurant/bar and gas station all within range. Curiously there is also Maverick Motorsports which is a Honda/Suzuki/Yamaha and, wait for it, Triumph Dealership in the same shared parking lot as the mo'tel. I have no need for it, but it is a neat coincidence.

The room is 60 bucks and the front desk guy nice enough. When I check in I find the room is 10' wide by 15' deep, plus a small bathroom. They are really making the most of their space. It has everything I need, including a strong www connection for a change, but not alot of room to move around! No black bugs either!

The restaurant is called 'Rustic Lodge' and looks like it is an old ranch shack. I am hoping I can get a big piece of Montana beef, not as good as Alberta beef, but a close second. It ends up being a Mexican restaurant, and I hate MX food. I end up with fish tacos and many, many wheat ales. I close the place down which happens at 2200 hrs, I am 50, remember?

Retiring for the evening I watch two hours of Top Gear on NetFlix, it is the Season 21 Christmas special about their trip through Burma in 3 busted ass lorries to recreate the building of a bridge over The River Kwai. At one point I am laughing so hard I am worried my neighbors might think I am a lunatic. I encourage everyone to watch the 2 part series on NetFlix.

I drove 833 km today from 1000 to 1900. I sleep until about 0700 then blog for a couple of hours. Its getting earlier and earlier Bill!

Day 21
Jackpot, NV to Missoula, MT
833 kms