Yellowstone Ride Part 4 - Missoula, Montana to Idaho Falls, Idaho - 550 km

The road to Wisdom.

For those who are not aware of US geography, the state of Idaho is skinny at the top (it's called the panhandle) near Canada and gets wider as it goes south. As a result, we ended up go in and out of it during the trip.

The route from Missoula to Idaho Falls

Day four was a big day in terms of kilometerage (is that a word?) or mileage as we did well over 500km.  What better way to start at the day then a substantial breakfast? Well, the hotel had Costco muffins, cut in half, for breakfast and coffee with whitener. Not the best.

I don't know if it's an American thing or just a cheap American motel thing but every motel we went to did not have cream - they had whitener - you know, that Coffee Mate stuff that my parents thought was cool because astronauts could take it to the moon. I don[t know anyone that uses it except for, possibly, camping.  Luckily, most of the motels had cereal as well so I just used the cereal milk (which I think I got funny looks for doing!).

Anyway, after having our exciting half muffin (Dale had three halves), we got on highway 93 which was a good highway. It just got better as we gained elevation with really nice scenery. Unfortunately, it had twisty, edgy roads that were an absolute blast to ride but without any pullouts to take photos.

At the top of the elevation gain, there was a rest stop where we had a break. We spoke to a couple of locals and asked them the best route to Idaho Falls, They told us to take Highway 43 to Wisdom and then 278 down to Dillon where we would finally get the Interstate to Idaho Falls.

Folk art in Wisdom

Coffee stop in Wisdom

Highway 43 was another excellent route and we stopped in Wisdom for a coffee. The woman behind the counter of the coffee/gift/hunting shop was really nice. Her Dad had returned to his childhood town of Wisdom and, after she had gone t culinary school, decided to support her family for a couple of years while they got their business off the ground. I really enjoy how you hear different people's stories on trips like this.

Highway 278 t the Interstate was also a picturesque highway - highly recommended.

Just outside of Dillon

But then we got to the Interstate. It was windy - not just a bit breezy but super gusty - like trying to throw you off your bike gusty! All the way to Idaho Falls there were strong gusts. In one particularly nasty moment, we were in a construction zone and a motor home was behind me in a single lane. He was going close 0t 100 mph (160 kmh) and riding my butt in a 65 mph (100 kmh) zone. I had no where to go and the wind was constantly trying to shove me off of my bike!

Eerie evening in Idaho Falls

Eventually, we were blown into Idaho Falls and our motel.

We asked what was good to eat around the motel and were told that it was prime rib at the local bar. We ordered it and it came in about 10 minutes - not a particularly good sign for fine dining. It was quite chewy and required a fair bit of salt to make it palatable, but the baked potato was nice.

After the high of great scenery and riding and the low of the big blasting gusts of wind, we were pretty tired and, after a quiet beer, I fell into a dreamless sleep.