7/12/03 5 pm. Jerome, ID. Jerome High School Day 1 Gallery
Arrived at 1:45 to find a dozen or more tents already lining up beneath the only line of shade trees. We didnt know this would be the pattern. Those who arrived first each day got the best campsites, i.e. Those that either were already in the shade or would be before evening. Starting early each day meant arriving in camp by mid-afternoon before the worst of the heat. If you were late, you simply pitched your tent in the sun and went looking for a shady spot. Sometimes there were no shady spots except under the dinner canopies. The good news was that we nearly always had a grassy flat campground at city parks.
My first impression was that this was a decidedly low key group. No one seemed in a hurry to register. This turned out to be pretty much true. I saw one or two groups riding swiftly in pace lines but for the most part these guys must have got up early and were long gone before we started since we were seldom passed by hammerheads. At 51 and 53 Linda and I were in about the middle of the pack. We rode with couples both younger and older than we were and many of the riders were well into their 60s. The youngest riders were a freshman and his younger sister who was riding stoker on her grandfathers tandem. Anthony, the boy, did the entire ride on his own and claimed only the early-to-bed and early-to-rise habits of his elders bothered him.
A couple of guys were finishing off beers and starting on martinis. They had a cooler stocked with olives. They were veterans of such rides and even suggested they often could get ice from Kim, the caterer, in return for a martini. Linda and I thought this was a good idea, so we tied a yellow ribbon around our small cooler, filled it with ice and beer and planned to do the same at each stop.
We were just newbies though.
Turns out each campsite after Jerome was well-stocked with garbage pails filled with ice. Floating in the melting ice in one barrel was beer, soda in another, diet drinks in a third, and juices in the fourth. We abandoned the cooler concept. It had merit but the OBR people were several steps ahead of us. They had pretty much thought of everything. From this point on, the end of each days ride would be dipping into the ice for a cold one and munching on chips.. We were riding with veterans of many multi-day tours who told us over and over again that this was the best ride around. As newbies we could only hope so. Cold drinks, clean porta-potties, mobile showers, and entertainment certainly made our first tour pleasant. Shoot, I even found I could sleep on a thermo-rest pad for a week!
Camp cooled off from the mid 90 degree temps we would know all week to probably 80. Each night by 9 camp became quiet. Light chatter, a clutter of blue camp chairs colorful tents, and wheel spokes glittering in a slant sun closed the day. Linda set off this first evening for a trial ride on her new chain. The prospect of a 60 mile ride to Carey, Idaho the next morning didnt seem to bother her.
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