The Mother of all Easter Eggs

Arco to Idaho Falls, Idaho Monday, June 10, 2024.

Dedicated followers of this blog may remember my delight on finding “Easter eggs”—unexpected bits of wonderfulness. From the free upgrade to a penthouse suite in Chicago, to a private tour of Bob Dylan’s boyhood home in Hibbing, to all the wonderful friends, family, and Warmshowers hosts I’ve stayed with along the way, I’ve been blessed to have many of these. But the one today may have taken the cake.

I’ll get to that in a minute. The day started off great anyway, I left US 93 after 10 days and got onto an iconic highway, US 20, the longest road in the nation. It starts in Kenmore Square, Boston, right next to Fenway Park and just a half mile from my alma mater, and ends after 3,365 miles on the Oregon coast in Newport. The map indicated it had a decent shoulder the whole way, although there was quite a bit of truck traffic I always felt protected by a rumble strip.

After 20 miles, I faced a decision. A 4-mile detour would take me to EBR-1, the world’s first nuclear power plant. How could I pass that up?

It sure didn’t look like a nuke, no cooling towers, just a boxy structure sitting alone on a vast desert plain.

Our tour guide was enthusiastic but in over her head, a communications major from BYU on a summer internship, she struggled to explain nuclear physics. It’s been 50 years, but I took four semesters of chemistry at MIT, decided to keep my mouth shut.

Perhaps a wise decision, she appeared to have the ability to decapitate tourists.

She was good at explaining the origin of the SCRAM button, the instant shutdown mechanism, if you zoom in you can read the story.

Actually, I guess you can’t. In the original nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago, a cadmium control rod was suspended by a rope. In the event of an emergency, a strong young student standing by would swing an axe, cut the rope, and drop the control rod into the core, shutting it down. He was the Safety Control Rod Axe Man, or SCRAM.

It was fun to do the touristy stuff, but the highlight of the visit for me was the photo of my friend’s dad, Glenn T. Seaborg, receiving an award from President LBJ.

I guess I had arrived there just in time, as I was leaving, multiple busloads of foreign tourists arrived, and our guide had her hands full.

Outside, I talked with two lab employees, Liza Raley and Taylor Wilhelm, who were much more knowledgeable, and also pointed out some of the local geography.

Among the failed prototypes of the lab were two nuclear powered airplane engines, the hope was that the planes could fly for much longer periods without refueling, but they were so heavy the project never got off the ground, so to speak.

A few miles down the road I stopped at a guardrail, so I could prop up my bicycle, reapply sunscreen, and grab a quick snack. This gave me the opportunity to photograph some of the geographic features that Liza and Taylor had pointed out.

I later discovered that this last photo actually showed my upcoming Easter egg. An extreme close-up shows a car waiting by the highway.

The car appeared to be waiting to turn left, but didn’t move as I approached. I waved for him to go ahead, but instead a man and woman got out of the car and waved back.

I couldn’t believe it. It was Ben and Christine Gericke, that lovely couple from Namibia and South Africa I had ridden with for a couple of days in Indiana, three years ago. Their narrative begins in the middle of this post and continues for the next two. https://scottluria.org/2021/05/13/four-bike-paths-and-a-fiasco/

They were the only people I ever rode with. I encounter bike tourists fairly often, but they’re generally going in the other direction or on a diverging path. Although I choose to tour alone, just riding with them for a couple of days made me realize how much I missed having traveling companions. Chris had given me a little souvenir when we parted, a tiny bottle of Fireball whiskey, and I have preserved it to this day.

They went on to complete their coast to coast Rail Trail bike trek, but not before having a couple of accidents—Ben had head injury and Chris sustained grievous wound to her leg. They had since moved to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and had regretted that they were going to be traveling in Scotland when I was passing through.

Well my progress has been so slow that they had returned from Scotland, and decided to surprise me. I was nowhere near their home, but they were reading my daily posts, and that map of my future route I had included. They don’t have iPhones, so could not track me in real time, but they managed to figure out where I was likely to be, and have been waiting at that intersection for quite some time.

I was so surprised and delighted I almost burst into tears. We had been keeping in touch all this time, and they had given me many encouraging messages. They said they were heading down this way anyway, en route to a rafting trip on the Grand Canyon, but I charted the route from Coeur d’Alene to Arizona, and I could see they had taken a significant detour. They shared their ice, lots of healthy snacks, and we caught up, talking for almost an hour. I just couldn’t believe anybody could be so thoughtful.

I still had 45 miles to go, and was mindful of potential wind shifts and that “don’t count your chickens” lesson I had learned a few days ago, but I didn’t care, that visit was so worth it, it felt like I was riding on air.

Other than passing those buttes, US 20 was pretty featureless, and sure enough the wind shifted to a 90° crosswind, not slowing me down exactly but not helping, and always threatening to blow me into traffic. The sun was unrelenting. I searched in vain for a place to rest and refuel, finally found what looked like an abandoned barn, where I could get some shade and sit on a hay bale. While I was there, a couple of pickups drove by slowly, I was aware I was trespassing, but nobody bothered me. Further on, I passed a lava field called Hell’s Half Acre, but didn’t stop. I pulled into my motel in Idaho Falls after a 12 hour day and my highest mileage so far, but all I have is happy memories.

Thank you, thank you, Ben and Chris. Have a wonderful time on that rafting trip!

Distance 71 miles, 1,624 total. Time 12 hours with stops. Elevation gain 1,414 feet

©️ 2024 Scott Luria