Spring time ride

[Idaho]

Temp in Pocatello today hit 69 degrees. Wife and I decided to head out on the Nomad to find a nice salad for lunch. We rode to Soda Springs in the SE corner of the state, about 65 miles from home. There is a 6,600 foot pass just on the other side of Lava Hot Springs named Fish Creek, rolling down the east side of the pass we spotted a small herd of elk feeding on the open hillside a few hundred feet below the road. I've never seen elk there and that was a nice surprise. Soda is at 5,400 above sea level and, as we found out, a bit colder than Poky. Alexander Reservior just outside of town is still frozen over. We both had on coats and I had my chaps on so we did not freeze but Annie was getting cold by the time we arrived. There is a hotel on Main St. that has been remodeled with very nice solid oak trim and ceramic tile throughout the building. We selected a table near the back of the restaurant, named the Gyser Cafe, with Ann facing the back door. Right at the top of the hour the gyser went off and blew hot water about 60 feet in the air for a full 5 minutes, it was beautifully framed in the door. Clear blue sky and a white fountain added a nice touch to the meal. On the way back we took old Hwy 30 through Bancroft and was amazed at the depth of the snow still on the fields.

There were bikes out everywhere loaded with what I call happy people, aka people on motorcycles. Followed two on the way down to Lava Hot Springs where they dropped off. Then we wound up following another bike on a back road from McCammon along the Portneuf River all the way to Pocatello. Turns out that he lives in the same neigborhood that we do and we followed him almost to his house before we turned off. We wondered what he was thinking because we followed him for about 20 miles.

Bike ran awesome and when I filled it up after we got home I found out that it got just over 42 mpg. All in all a very nice day.