One to Go - July 3

Left today Tremonton at 7:15, under blue skies and cruised I-84 literally by ourselves.  In the first 60 miles or so we had remaining in Utah, we passed three semis and had two SUVs pass us.  It was a leather jacket/heated handgrip ride for me, and I wished I had put on the chaps before we left, as the temperature was in the lower 60s to start.  As it would turn out, we ended up riding in jackets all day...

We no sooner crossed into Idaho, and I see sign that read 'Occasional High Winds Next 19 Miles' atop of another sign that read 'Frequent Blinding Dust Storms.  Do not Stop'.  Fantastic!  What are you supposed to do in a blinding dust storm?  Keep on going?  I don't want to be the person who came up with that line...

I looked into the distance, and it did look like some sort of dust storm on the horizon.  Either that or some smoke from a far-out wild fire...  I slowed a bit to take a few pictures when it hit me.  A 50 or 60 MPH gust of wind that moved me clear to the other side of the lane in a split second.  I grabbed the bars and held on for a white-knuckle ride for the next three or four hours, with a breakfast sandwiched in.  The wind was strong the entire route through Idaho, and we didn't see a reprieve from it until we were well north of Boise.

We stopped for a bite to eat in Baker City, which was where our day was slated to end.  It was just 1:00 local time, since we had just moved into Pacific Daylight time zone.  We decided to put in another 100 miles to Pendleton, Oregon leaving us with just about 170 miles for the morning ride to the Columbia River Gorge in the morning.  We need some time out of the saddle and enjoy some of the scenery.  The gorge is a perfect place to do that on this trip after a +500 mile day today.

I didn't mention that we did move into Oregon today.  One down, one to go...

Entering Oregon (pause at 19 seconds)