bless the brookeses heartses...

Brooker came up to Idaho last weekend. She came for our friend's wedding on Saturday morning. And pretty much exactly after she left the Idaho Falls temple, she and Brookie and I went on an adventure. We threw our bikes on the back of Mav (Brooker's Trailblazer) and we drove to Swan Valley.

Technically we were in Irwin, but we spent some time in Swan Valley, too.

We rode our bikes, you see.

I like riding my bike, but I’m not stellar at it. I’m kind of slow, you understand? So here’s the thing: Brooker is a good little biker. She brought her road bike, and she rode it fast. Also, here’s the other thing: Brookie is also quite a biker, and she is also much faster than I am. She was determined to wear herself out, so for the first half, she road on the sandy asphalt beside me while I was on the road.

Bless the Brookeses heartses. Bless Brooker’s heart for inviting me with her to share an adventure when I’m a slowpoke in comparison. And bless Brookie’s heart for staying beside me (for the first half) on our cold and crazy bike ride. 

The plan was to ride from Brooker's uncle's property (in Irwin)  to Fall Creek (in Swan Valley)—like we did a couple of years ago.

However...

The weather had other plans. It was overcast on our drive to Irwin, and it wasn't exactly warm, but we decided we'd give it a go and just see what happened.

What happened is that we got hailed on. And then rained on. And then gale-forced wind tried to throw us off our course. (Okay, so maybe "gale-forced" was a bit of an exaggeration, but truly—I checked my weather channel app, and it told me that the wind was going about 15 mph, and that’s not nothing.)

Shortly after we got past the cubic ice cream place, the hail started pelting down in earnest, and we decided to head back to Mav.

All in all, we biked about 17.5 miles. I was a bit nervous that I might’ve caught a cold in the inclement weather, but here I am three days later, and it seems I’m in the clear!

So...here are some pictures, okay?

So maybe the drive over wasn't too darkly overcast...

We stopped for gas, and we found some guaca-chips for Brooker. Because she loves them.

The clouds got darker the closer we got to Irwin.

This was our starting point. And our ending point, too, I suppose.

The Brookeses along the way.

That's Brooker way up there...that bright red dot.

I felt bad for my Brookeses, because they wore shorts and sandals.

OH, HAIL!

Where the Brookeses stopped for me?
That was when we decided to turn around and ride back to Mav.

The hail was throwing itself down at 1,000 mph,

stinging our hands and faces (and it smarted quite a lot

when it struck my lip. A few times, even.)

We pulled under the patio of a bar and grill (maybe?)

to decide whether to call Brooker's dad to save us,

or to finish our ride back to our starting point.

We decided, "Well, we've made it this far, we might as well finish what we started."

Made for a better story, too.

After heading back into the storm, the hail turned to rain.

And then it dried up and the wind died down a bit,

so we were really glad we hadn't called dad to come rescue us...

 

Swoon, huh? This was on our return trip; we really were surrounded by ominous clouds, I tell you.

Pausing for a breather.

This portion of Idaho is so beautiful I could just burst!

Mooooo.

We discovered some poppies in an obliging field back yard...

Perdy, i'nt it?

Back to the beginning. And look at the sky...

The final tally: 17.60 miles.

Helmet hair...

off to the west...

There were more poppies to be enjoyed in the back of Uncle Tom's property

Brooker loooooves poppies.

Nicely done, Swan Valley Irwin

On our drive home

On our drive home some more.

Hey, adventure: cheers to you. CHEERS, I say!

Too Tired to Feel Truly Smug...

I'm going to get straight to the point here: Brooker and I went on a 27 mile bike ride yesterday. It was my first bike ride of the season (first time on a bike in months), and I did 27 miles.

If you haven't caught on yet, I'm tooting my own horn here. (It was all Brooker's idea.)

Anyway...we drove to Brooke's uncle's RV park (in Irwin?), and we rode our bikes to Fall Creek. I love Fall Creek! (Here's my proof: 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007.) But this is the first time I've ridden my bike there. There were a handful of people there, but Brooker and I were the only ones who had biked there. And I totally felt smug. But then...we started hiking down the waterfall, and my legs were shaky, and I was brought back down to earth pretty quickly.

After we hiked and played around in the waterfall, we rode back to Uncle Tom's RV park. And let me tell you what: I was tired. Heading back took a while, and somewhere around the 19th mile, I got to feeling pretty bummed that I still had 8 miles to go.

But I finished! Rode the entire 27 miles!

Aaaand I got a horrible sunburn.

SO glad I was able to play out in the lovely weather! And SO annoyed with myself for not even thinking about sun block on such a sunny day. (Who gets scalded by the sun in April in Idaho?)

Anyway, here are the pictures (thanks to Brooker for taking pictures and sharing them with me):

ready to go!

riding. i'm still smiling while riding, so this must've been within the first 19 or 20 miles :)

this hill was steeper than it looks from this angle; it was horrible.

brooker is brave and loves riding without hands

playing in the waterfall

climbing back up to the top of the waterfall

here i come!

snake river (on our ride home)

aaaalso, i'm a bit saddle sore. obviously, i blame my bike seat.

my sunburn. it hurts us. it hurts us real bad.
(it's all up and down my arms as well. OUCH!)

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty dang good, but the sunburn is still awful; hoping it fades quickly! (I'm going through aloe vera at an alarming rate.)

Here's to lovely weather! Can't wait to start hiking this summer!!!

the Coeur d'Alene...

I went to Coeur d'Alene this past weekend with a group of friends. It. Was. AWESOME. I'm baffled as to why I've never sojourned that way before. I mean, I've lived in Idaho for 4 years now, and Coeur d'Alene (hereafter refered to as "the CDA") has got to be the prettiest part of the Spud State (if not THE WORLD!). I'm being serious here, people. The CDA is gorgeous, and there's so darn much to do, too...

Hiking: CHECK
Biking: CHECK
Lakes and rivers and streams to frolick in: CHECK
Fun shops: CHECK
Stellar places to eat: CHECK

You see? It's like living in a dream, I'm sure, residing in the CDA. This ginabean LOVES it there...

Anyhoo, here are some highlights followed by some pictures. (I seem to like this format of late, yes?)

Here's to:

*Biking 50 miles in 2 days
*Mentally taking myself to Disneyland in the dark, cold, damp 1.7 mile tunnel at Haiwatha
*Huckleberry cheesecake
*Huckleberry licorice
*Feeling utterly unattractive in my biking helmet
*"How's your bum today?"
*Jeff's stellar grillin' skills
*Stinking like garlic for a full 24 hours after eating at the White House Grill
*Jeff swearing off Greek food after eating at the White House Grill
*Canoeing at Lake CDA to an island, then jumping off smallish cliffs into said lake
*Screaming like a little girl when jumping off cliffs into said lake
*Worrying for Jeff's safety (and sanity) when he decided to jump off
a high cliff and over a tree into said lake
*"Thank you, Karen and Richard Carpenter..."
*Making excellent time to CDA and back
*Sleeping badly all 4 nights, but still smiling all day every day 'cause CDA rocks!
*My snarky comments being lost on Jeff, but never lost on Janae!
*Spending lots of time in nature
*Spending lots of time in excellent company
*Shopping with the gals while the menfolk went shooting
*"It's my one birthday wish to...[fill in the blank]."
*Bryan's stellar sense of direction ("Which way are we going now?")
*Playing "Who is this?" to songs on the radio (Jen always won!)
*Finding out 7-Eleven exists in northern Idaho, but being too full to get a Slurpee
*Officer Bryan getting pulled over by a state trouper
*Singing Janeen Brady songs (from start to finish!) out of the blue
*"Lemme know if I'm being irreverent back there..."

My crew doing the CDA trail:
Me (big head up front), Jen, Janae, Jeanna, Bryan

Beautiful, huh?


Jeanna and Janae got on a Carpenter kick and kinda performed for us...

4.2 million lily pads...

Meeting the other group along the way...
(We each started at different points and passed each other "in the middle.")
Jeff, Jami, Kelly, Brooke, Gina, Bryan
(Not pictured from the other group is April)

Resting for a moment...
Gina, Janae, Jen, Jeanna

Yep. That's a phone booth in the middle of a lake...

Cool metal bug on the lake...

Bryan found a dead snake...

Just about the final stretch of our 35 mile ride:
we got to go uphill...which was not exciting unto me

Awaiting the Hiawatha...

I felt so pretty in my head gear...

Riding through the first tunnel (1.7 miles of darkness),
a few of my peeps got dirty bums...


The tunnels got dark and sometimes made me nervous...

Janae (the birthday girl) and I kinda took our time with silly pictures on this ride.
Clearly.

This is why I say living in the CDA would be like unto a dream...

Stopping for a cheese stick break...

At one point, I almost dropped my camera way down there...

When we stopped for lunch, Bryan made friends with a chipmunk
We called him Alvin

The shuttle ride down...
moi, Jen, Jeanna, Janae

At the end of Hiawatha...
Jeff, Jami, Brooke, Gina, Janae, Bryan, Jen, Jeanna

Janae hauling the kayak at the lake...

Nervous smiles before jumping into the lake...
Jami, Brooke, Gina

Too bad you can't hear the scream that escaped my lips all the way down...

The water was lovely, though...

Synchronized jumping...
Bryan, Jeff, Kelly

CANNON BALL!!!

Jeff's awesome jump...

Jami had a lot of fun shopping...

The huckleberry cheesecake...
Look at all those huckleberries!!!
(It's probably the best cheesecake I've ever tried)

I'd like to thank PBS for doing a little informative story on the joys of the CDA. I'd also like to also thank Janae for watching PBS. I also want to thank Janae and Jeanna for planning this little trip and for letting me come. IT WAS PERFECT! And one more shout-out to Kelly for being from the CDA and knowing about the awesomeness of Gooey's (where I partook of the amazing cheesecake).