April 28-29

It was cold and windy when we woke up yesterday. Jax and I just stared at each other for a couple of minutes before we threw off the bedding and started our day, with him performing the classic Downward Dog pose and me struggling to put on layers that would have to come right back off before we started riding. I wasn’t too concerned about the wind. It had actually given us a helpful push for much of the prior day’s ride. It started out that way yesterday, too, but only four miles into our 60-mile ride, the wind suddenly shifted 90 degrees. It caught our mini-semi-tractor-trailer rig broadside and made us swerve a little bit towards traffic. The adrenaline rush was the perfect replacement for the cup of coffee I’d decided to skip that morning. The wind stayed that way for the rest of the day, gusting from south to north, demanding focus, but not really slowing us down much.

The best part of the ride was near the end when, just as we were about to cross the Perrine Bridge over the Snake River Canyon and into Twin Falls, we heard a horn honking and turned to see our good friends pulling up behind us. Lillan Roquet, a gifted horse trainer ( https://www.lr-horsemanship.com/ ), her boxer Laila, who Jax absolutely loves, and her boyfriend’s big, awesome dog Axel all piled out of the truck and we let the dogs play at the scenic overlook. Lillan was on her way home to Salt Lake City from a training job in Bellevue, Idaho and I was really happy she could take the time to stop and talk awhile. She and Laila are like family to Tammy and me.

We took a lay-off day today so I could do laundry, take Jax for a couple of long walks, buy dog food, call ahead for route advice and rest my aching (for some reason) Achilles’ tendons. Tomorrow we ride for Burley.