The Pokey Dispatch: Days 1-4

I live in Idaho now!  Woo!  Here are my recollections of the first few days after the move, starting with the trip from Denver.
We picked up the 14ft truck from an auto service place in Broomfield at 8am on Friday, swung by our mostly empty house to pick up the last few things we needed to take with us, and then drove back to Mike's parents house, where all of the things that were going to Idaho were stacked in a neat corner of their garage: bed, dressers, futon, desk, bookshelf, a couple dozen boxes and five bikes.  Mike's dad, Tom, worked as a mover for a few summers in college, so he immediately took charge of the Tetris-ing of furniture and boxes.  He seemed to get quite a kick out of it, so Mike and I just took his directions, and I was relieved to not be leading the chaos.  Loading took about three hours, then I went and visited some friends for poolside drinks while Mike ran a few errands, and we reconvened back at Tom and Peggy's for dinner with them and Jeff's family.  Jeff's younger daughter, Ila, had previously been a pretty quiet and content baby, but on this occasion she was offended by nearly everything: her high chair, being held, not being held, pizza, juice, etc., and let us know this with high-pitched squeals.  Good thing she's cute.  Liv had on a 'Frozen'-themed dress with the blonde witch-type character gazing out in an entirely inappropriately provocative manner...are female characters from children's movies becoming more beguiling, or am I just getting old and cranky?  When it was time to go, I picked up Liv and told her the only three things she needs to know for life:  ride fast, take chances; rubber side down; and safety third.  I don't believe it sunk in at the time, but someday she'll think back and say 'Oh. That does make sense'.
That night we met friends at a Mexican restaurant that has good tequila and a DJ after 10pm.  It started out as just me, Mike, Megan and Stevezie, but in short order we had to pull 4 tables together and take over half of the dining area.  There was tequila, and dancing, and then good-byes; it was a great send-off.
The next morning we were in no hurry to get going, as the drive was nine hours and we didn't need to be there at any particular time.  I loaded the last few things into the van, put the bikes on the rack, and fired up some podcasts.  We rolled out just after 1pm and a light lunch.
The drive should have been nine hours, at least, but that's assuming you don't have a large heavy vehicle and a stiff headwind.  The fuel economy on the Uhaul dropped precipitously when the speedo went past 65mph, so we took it pretty easy, and eventually made it to our rental house in Pocatello just after midnight.  We opened some windows and fired up a couple box fans to air the place out overnight and slept in the van with the dogs.
Day one in Pokey!  Unloading the van only took two hours, but now, nearly two weeks later, some things are still in boxes.  We got rid of a lot of stuff, and rented a storage unit in CO, but it's still a bit of a squeeze living in this 576-square-foot house, especially since we have to keep all the bikes in the living room (they're worth more than all of our other belongings combined).

I hope nobody has claustrophobia.

Luckily the place also has a concrete basement, but the stairs are steep and it's full of spiderwebs.  I'm generally pro-spider and anti-most insects, but the sheer biomass of the basement spiders is a tad unnerving.  Unfortunately I have to go down there at least a couple times a day to retrieve things because there is only enough space upstairs for about half our stuff.  Oh well--it's only for a year, and the place is cheap and has a fenced yard for the dogs, so I can deal.

This is where the zombies will come from.

We worked on unpacking until 2pm, when we both got unbearably cranky from the lack of food, and I set out on my bike to find something to bring back.  Google said there was a Chinese place on Main Street a few blocks away, but when I got there it turned out to be closed.  In fact most places on Main were closed on Sundays, and the street was eerily empty of pedestrians, an odd change from Boulder where any Sunday with remotely nice weather is a circus.  But a block away there was a Thai restaurant that was open, albeit completely empty of customers, with two young girls behind the counter.  I looked at the menu, placed my order and was told it would be about ten minutes.  The older girl, maybe nine years old, walked back toward the kitchen and for a moment I thought she might also be cooking the food, but she gave the ticket to a woman and came back to the front to ring me up.  For the record: I wouldn't have thought to put pineapple, pine nuts and currants in fried rice, but the stuff I got was pretty tasty.
On my short pedal back to the house, I encountered another cyclist, a man wearing standard roadie gear except for a helmet with a green spiky mohawk on top  Odd, because the stretchy skintight shorts imply a concern with aerodynamics but the mohawk would likely prove dicey in crosswinds.
Later on, we walked the dogs to the river a few blocks over, then watched a movie while Mike built a new wheel for his Nomad.
Day two: first order of business was to acquire a washer and dryer because I am too old and intolerant of randos to ever go back to using a laundromat. Also we still had the Uhaul for another day, so might as well make full use of it.  Craigslist turned up a relatively new set a couple miles away for a few hundred bucks; some quick correspondence with the owner, and a couple hours later they were ours.  The setup was a tad hairy because the person who ran the lines for hookups did it in an incredibly inconvenient way, but eventually they were up and running smoothly.  Next order of business: a haircut for Mike, foodstuffs from Costco and housewares from Ross.  We got ourselves over to the shopping center with all three storefronts around 2pm, and to our surprise there was a 30 minute wait for the haircut and the checkout lines at the Costco were 4 or 5 deep.  At 2 on a Monday.  I guess regular business hours apply here less than in most places.  After the retail adventures, dinner, another walk for the pups, and the remaining bike wheel.
Day three: time for a bike ride!  There is a trailhead ten minutes from our house by bike, so we saddled up and pedaled over.  The trail system is City Creek, and the uphill-only bike trail that accesses the downhill trails winds its way along the creek, nicely shaded by leafy trees.  The trails are well maintained and feature some nicely built berms that we could hit with pretty good speed, slingshotting out the other side without losing traction.  There are supposed to be some really baller descents from higher up, but we haven't made it there yet since we've got so much else to do.
Day four: one of the students in Mike's program invited everyone over to his house for a barbecue in the evening, so I dumped some pita chips and artichoke dip on a plate and we headed over.  The host had requested that no one bring alcoholic beverages, and once we got there it turned out that he had six kids and there were Bible- and Jesus-related placards all over the house, so we're guessing Mormon.  Several other guests had brought their offspring as well: the first sight that greeted us upon entering was a mid-thirties couple with four boys, all of them with the exact same gelled-up fauxhawk as their dad. He joked that they were trying for a girl; funny because it's usually the other way around.  One wife of a student asked me if we had kids; I said no, just dogs, and she chuckled and said that animals were more her thing too, so I'm glad there's at least one other person with the same inclination.  She has a couple horses, so maybe if I'm lucky I'll get to go riding out here sometime!  Everyone was quite nice, and I got to talk bikes and trails with a guy who had grown up in Pokey, so it was a good time overall.
Day five: Mike went to orientation and I loaded up the van and headed the Moab for the Big Mountain Enduro race.  I hadn't originally planned on racing Moab, because it's not my favorite trail, but I was leading the series with points in my category and I only needed sixth place or better to win the overall, so I figured it was probably worth the time and money.  The six-hour trip was entirely uneventful, but in the evening Mike called to tell me about his exciting mountain bike ride he had gone on with some of his classmates.  First, most of the others in the group had shown up on pretty old bikes that probably weren't in fantastic condition, and one guy had even neglected to bring a helmet.  He was from Chicago; apparently news of this newfangled helmet technology hasn't reached the midwest yet.  It began storming soon after they set out, and, as Mike now knows, the dirt here turns to peanut butter when it gets wet, which means it sticks to tires and gums up stays and wreaks major havoc with rim brakes.  At one point the guy with no helmet came into a turn too hot, had no traction for braking, missed the bridge and fell into the creek.  Don't worry, he's okay.  But I'm not going to ride with him until he gets a helmet, because having to get someone with a head wound out of the backcountry is no picnic.  Not that a helmet will protect you from all harm, but it's still much better than nothing.  This has been a public service announcement from Bike Snob PID :)
Next time: race report from the BME series final!