Ride to eat. Eat to ride.
Grand Tour 2017 — Day 3
TL;DR: almost everybody needed a break from riding today, unless you trailered your bike or had a shorter route to Boise. So we found a short route, cooling vests, and some amazing restaurants. Ride to eat. Eat to ride.
The two-day journey to Boise was half fun and half grueling. We are at the Riverside Hotel in Garden City, not technically Boise. So we started off Friday at a relaxed pace, having breakfast in the lobby when we would usually be on the road. We didn’t really have anywhere to go. Just need to check-in/register and then choose one of the shorter suggested rides in the area. Truthfully, there didn’t seem to be a lot of larger coordinated activities, so we kind of took the opportunity to give ourselves our own tour of Boise. In fact, I overheard the organizing members discuss the fact that there would not even be any on-site vendors this year.
I was very confused, mad at the world only to be mad at myself, when I realized that I straight-up didn’t register for this event. Glad I got here then found that out. Very me. I could have sworn I did and that I confirmed with my dad that I did (he thought the same), but perhaps I mixed it up in my mind with registering for annual Star membership or maybe even last year’s Star-BQ in Tuolumne. Hell, maybe I dreamt about registering for this event. I was dumbfounded. Clearly this last year went by too fast. I borrowed some money from Cynthia and Hal and my dad since they only took cash (ever heard of Square?! Get with the fucking times already! I don’t carry cash but for one thing). I got all the stuff you get for registering, and accepted an extra pin from the 2013 NW Star-BQ here. I didn’t attend that one since I had to work, and I actually ended up in a motorcycle accident on my way to work from housesitting for my parents while they were at that event, in which I separated one of the ligaments that holds my collar bone to my shoulder blade. I was ambulanced to the ER by a paramedic that was literally my parents neighbor and was part of football retreats during High School — I was in good hands. I called my mom from the ER; during this trip Bob reminded me how much of a wreck my mom was when she found out (I think they were sitting down for the banquet at the time or something). So I happily took this pin as a little token for being alive. Then I ended up buying two different much faster motorcycles between then and now! The Aprilia sold the week before this trip, btw, and Pathfinder is hardly slower than it. Zoom zoom vroom vroom.
After the breakfast buffett, myself, Lenny, Hal, Cynthia, and Jon went on a loop through Meridian and Emmett. A good portion of this was just long straight roads running though farms, sometimes getting stuck behind a truck that smelled like literal shit because it just got done tilling some poopy farmland. We went to a pleasant little motorcycle gear shop called Cruisin Biker Wear. We had $10 off coupons for registering for the event and my dad confirmed over the phone that they had cooling vests. Time for me to get one! These handy things work because of evaporative cooling — as the water from the vest evaporates the air surrounding it loses energy, effectively reducing the temperature of the area around it (aka my torso).
Not only did the ladies here provide us with friendly customer service, they recommended a lunch spot in Emmett: the Blue Ribbon Cafe and Bakery. We found one overlook with a memorial before descending into Emmett, but like with 95% of the view points during this trip, it was at least partially marred by smoke, with minimal sight distance. When we ate at the Blue Ribbon Cafe we knew we’d be eating here again. Okay, we hoped we would be eating here again (I guess you’ll have to read the post from Day 5 to find out?). I had a chicken fried steak sandwich, my first CFS of the trip.

Headed back toward the Riverside Hotel to complete the loop. At a comfort stop Jon asked if he could ride my bike at some point during the trip. I responded in the affirmative and we agreed there was no better time than the present. I, in turn, got to ride his V-Star 1300; I last rode this with Katie on the back last summer on our way to Tuolumne. I noticed the handlebars were different. The speakers in the faring blaring music so that I didn’t need to play music over my headset from my phone. It was fun to ride, aggressively lounging down the road on the custom seat.
We originally planned on joining the Potato Bar planned social dinner thing. However, my dad wanted to visit Tucanos, a Brazilian steakhouse. We all did the Churrasco meal, essentially all-you-can-eat meat delivered to you constantly by guys with huge prongs and skewers with meat that they’d slice off for you as you grabbed it with cute, little tongs. I could go on-and-on about how delicious this was. I was surprised each time they approached with something we hadn’t yet tried. You have a little thing you flip on the table; green means meat me, red means give me a break so I can finish this meat first. The teriyaki beef they had was the winner for many of us, as I took second and thirds of that despite my tank being already past full. Worth it. My father lamented that we probably should have been more social, mingling with other Star peeps from other chapters, but this was basically our only chance to go to the Brazilian Steakhouse, and after that meal, I don’t think anyone was complaining. We all carnivorously ate our fair share, Hal outlasting all of us (pretty sure the thing was never flipped on his side!).
We proceeded to the Sandbar once again. It’s a restaurant/bar that is spilt in two by a sidewalk; one side is incorporated into the pool area and they take orders for people actively swimming. It closes at 10 though, so we closed it down last night (with Daryl) and again tonight. The night before we also closed down the bar in the main lobby (with Ron; always need a Redlin with you!) which was being worked by an effervescent bartender named Pat. I think he was about 70 years old, full of stories related to beer and how the golden American lagers have changed over time — they used to be good apparently! He’d listen to our conversation while he did his closing routine and add a useful tidbit, very welcome eavesdropping. Two buffets and a filling lunch left me and my dad both satisfied and a little gross. We’ll try and go a bit lighter tomorrow!