Day 2-6: Headed Home

Jorge and I meet up with the riders in Ketchum Thursday, 9/4, as planned and find this rustic hotel, the Lift Tower, run by a wonderful character named Betty. She is brusque and opinionated but genuinely concerned about my well-being. She puts us off of the over-priced, over-rated restaurants recommended by the people in Boise and on to some excellent local spots. The lift out front was built in 1939, found in pieces in 1987 and reconstructed and restored. It was the fourth chairlift in the world.

 

 

After a remarkably painful night, I start to re-think my plan to continue the trip. I’ve discovered one of the more painful things to do is get in and out of Jorge’s car, something I realize I will be doing repeatedly over the next several days. I’m also imaging the fun of sitting in said car as it traverses miles and miles of back-country washboard. It slowly dawns on me that the prudent thing to do would be to fly back to Tallahassee, although the thing that weighs heaviest is that this leaves Hunter to drive my truck the 2,400 miles back home solo.  He tries to assure me this is no problem.

So I decide to fly home from Boise on Sunday as, obviously, there would be no one available to pick me up at the airport on a game-day Saturday. Jorge and I head back to Boise Saturday morning as the remaining boys head north towards Stanley. Turns out that Boise State is playing Colorado State that night so Jorge drops me at the hotel and goes off to witness that gawd-awful blue field himself. I try to occupy myself with some football on TV, the Noles on the smart phone and some opiates.

Jorge drops me off at the Boise airport the next morning at zero-dark-thirty and heads back to the hotel to sleep some more before hooking up with the truck in Idaho City and then the riders near Smiley Creek. I take a one hour flight to Salt Lake City and change planes (the wheelchair bit is kind of nice) for a 2-1/2 flight to Atlanta and then the fun begins. After 4 hours of sitting on airport chairs, wheel chairs and airplane seats, I finally make it home so I can sleep in yet another chair.

So my journey ends appropriate to its start. From here on I will try to facilitate postings from the boys as I get them.