July 12 Day 12

Today we get a new rear tire, which is fortunate since this morning our current rear tire was completely flat. Out comes the air pump again, and in about 5 minutes we have 40 pounds in the tire and we jump on the bike for a 12 mile ride to the tire shop.

We arrived at King's Pro-Tire about 8:30, and Chris the owner was just returning from the warehouse with our tire.

With a trailer hitch installed, the easiest way to get the rear tire off the wing is to flop it on its side. Some of the other customers were amused.

Certainly looks like something went wrong, but it works ! A couple of towels under the chrome engine and saddle bag guards and over she goes.

Once on it's side, removing the rear tire is a simple matter of removing the lug nuts and pulling the tire out of the wheel well.

This is Chris the owner of the shop. What a huge help he was today. He was the only tire shop guy willing to actually hunt down the appropriate tire. He called a number of distributors, and called me back on my cell at least three times as he hunted. Once found, he had the tire shipped in via overnight courier, and picked it up himself from the warehouse once delivered.

When we first arrived at the shop, there were about 5 people already in the waiting room. I was sure we would be here for hours waiting our turn. Chris could easily have put us in the queue and had one of his shop workers take care of my tire. Instead, Chris performed all of the work himself, no waiting. He brought me tools from the shop, helped me with the tire removal, broke down the old tire, installed the new tire on the rim, and even brought me a torque wrench to tighten the lug nuts to spec.

Once the new tire was in place he inflated it to the appropriate pressure. Pretty nice guy, how many shop owners would crawl around on the concrete to help a customer rather than just pushing them off to one of the normal labor guys.

He even offered to install nitrogen into both tires rather than normal air. When tires are rolling down the road, they heat up and the pressure increases. With nitrogen, the temp swings are much lower, and the pressure stays more stable.

With the new tire installed, the trailer was hooked up and we were back on the road by 9:45 !!

What spectacular service. At least three other shops I called responded by saying "no we don't have that size", no offer to see if they can order one, that was it. Nice to see that there are still places around that pride themselves on great service.

Once back on the road, we headed east with a plan to get into the area of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The southern area of Idaho was somewhat uninspiring compared to the northern portions of the state. The landscape was pretty flat and bland in appearance.

Not much out in these parts.

A couple hundred miles down the road, we started seeing a little more variation in the landscape.

Even a couple of buttes jutting up from the fields.

Farther to the east, the road ran along a little scenic river.

As we got closer to Idaho Falls, our destination for the day, we ran across this fellow. Seems to be listing a bit? Wonder what's up?

And I thought a flat tire was a pain in the rear. Looks like guy went for a slide on his side.

The cab area was completely crushed

I bet there is a really interesting story that goes along with this...

We ended up stopping for gas in Pocatello Idaho, about an hour south of Idaho Falls. It was a fortunate decision, as a pretty nasty storm was just passing through about ten minutes down the road. A local fellow at the gas station walked over after fueling his truck and told me he just passed through the storm, and that it dumped hail, and put a huge amount of standing water on the highway.

We decided to sit in the McDonald's next door and use their free wifi to check out the weather. While in McDonald's their TV was showing how the storm was dumping dime size hail into the area. After an hour and a half, and a fruit smoothie, the storm passed and we were back on the road.

Staying in Idaho Falls puts us just to the southwest of Jackson, and the southern entrance into the Tetons. Tomorrow begins five days of great riding and sights. We will see the Tetons, Yellowstone, Beartooth Pass, Chief Joseph Highway, and Cody Wyoming over the next five days. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and the wildlife will be abundant.

Our stats for today indicate that we covered 318 miles (the new tire is now broken in), bringing our trip total to 3806 miles. Below is a map of our route from today.