Day 9 – June 26, 2001

Fruitland, ID - Baker City, OR

84.93 miles
13.89 average speed
7:30am departure (Mountain Standard Time)
4:30pm arrival (Pacific Standard Time)
6:06:45 total ride time
592.30 total trek miles

            Crossing time zones on a bike has to be one of the most exhilarating feelings one can experience while traveling. Now, I'm not including skydiving, which is hardly "traveling," or any of those extreme forms of transportation, which I hear can be quite exhilarating but in a different way that crossing time zones is exhilarating. Many of you may think I'm just being silly with all this time zone exhilaration mumbo-jumbo, but I will tell you that when we were cruising down the interstate at twenty miles per hour and we passed the sign announcing our exit of the Mountain Standard Time Zone and our entrance into Pacific Standard Time Zone, I felt the power one feels when he knows he is chasing the sun and actually gaining something from it.
             That's really just a fancy way to say we crossed the border into Oregon to make this ride a Tri-State enterprise. The ride itself was good, except for the common flaw that is surfacing in all our rides that we always save the biggest hills to the end. But we made it to Baker City with no problems and with plenty of time to get a hotel, swim in the pool, soak in the hot tub and dine.