The adventure thus far

Hi everyone. I'm sorry it's been a week since my last post. And what a week it has been. Last time I wrote we were in Ontario, OR. Since then we have cycled through Boise, ID, Mountain Home, ID, Gooding, ID, Burley, ID, Snowville, UT, and now we are in Willard, UT.
So let me start at the beginning. We left the city of Ontario, OR and crossed over the Snake River into Idaho early that morning. From Ontario, until just two days ago when we crossed some mountains into Utah, we have been biking through whats called Treasure or Magic Valley due to the hugely extensive amount of irrigation that literally makes the desert bloom. Treasure Valley was a nice break from the mountains as it was just as flat as back home in Southwestern Ontario. Most days have been at temperature extremes. At night it drops to 8-10C and the by 4pm it warms up to 35-40, and it is still very very dry. My bottom lip is a witness to that by the damage that has occured to it. But I've learned to remember to take care of it.
Boise, ID was a very nice city, with some attractive older downtown areas. The people were also great. Me and a few friends visited the Boise Zoo at a local park that Sunday afternoon. The next day we cycled to Mountain Home, ID. A very deceiving name, as there are no mountains, the town is in a very large valley. You can see the mountains in the far distance both on the east and west, but nothing other than that. When we got there a group of 30+ of us went to the town sports bar to watch the end of the 13th stage of Le Tour de France and to have a drink.
From Mountain Home we left for Gooding, ID. This is the start of a bunch of really good days. I biked with a man of the name Ad de Bleij. He is from The Netherlands and has been working for the CRWRC in Haiti for the past 26 years. We probably talked for at least 2 1/2 hours straight about his work and about Haiti in general. I learned a lot from this man, and a lot about possible future paths for myself. If you know me, you might know that working overseas with an agency somewhere were there is no health care has been an interest, so Ad and I talked about the work some health agencies do. This helped me. We stopped in a the tiny town of Glenns Ferry, ID for a coffee at a gas station, that was really good. I was also in Bliss that day. No, really we rode through a town called Bliss. A really worn down place of 276 people, didn't quite live up to its name.
From Gooding we rode to Burley, our last stop in Idaho. W visited a huge dairy farm operation just outside Gooding that had about 3000 cattle in total, 1700 milking. They milked 1700 cattle, 3 times a day, with the average cow giving 10 gallons of milk a day. They had a huge rotating horizontal wheel that dozens of cows would be on at one time. They would walk on at one spot where a worker would start milking the cow. This of course is done by machine. By the time the cow gets to were they started the milker releases and the cow walks off. Very effiecent. We then where riding and suddenly (I mean this in the very sense of the word) we came upon the Snake River Canyon. A huge hole essentially dug out in the landscape. Very beautiful! And the size was incredible! We then biked into Twin Falls where the Twin Falls Reformed Church greeted us with Subway, chocolate milk, and ice cream bars. We then biked and saw Shosone Falls, very nice once again. Once we got to Burley a couple friends and myself where photographed and interviewed about the tour by the South Idaho Press and we made the paper (http://www.southidahopress.com/articles/2008/07/18/news/local/9267cycling.txt).
The ride from Burley, ID to Snowville, UT was pretty much uneventful. It is our longest ride to date at 140km, spending 5 1/2 hours on the bicycle seat. The terrian was barren, the wind was against us, and we where up hill for a good portion of the ride. But we eventually got to Snowville, and when we did we doubled the town's population of 170. The size of the town also meant no showers. So we made some. With a tarp, a hose, and some ingenuity. Yesterday was also a sad day for us, as we our loosing one of our riders. A guy named Arnie. Arnie seems to have the most drive and one of the biggest hearts here. But as old injuries seem to come up time and time again (an old curling injury in his case) he thinks he has torn his Achilles tendon. Which means he cannot bike anymore in fear of completely snapping it. We will all miss him.
And today, to finish this long post, was awesome. We rode another 108km to Willard, UT where we are camping next to Great Salt Lake, however our corner has been cut off from the main lake and is fresh water. And boy did it feel good to have a swim after the long ride.
So to end this, the journey has been incredible. I'm feeling great, minus sore knees and a sore butt. And I'm looking forward to the day off in Salt Lake City.
Peace&GodBless
Matt