Debbie, who we met last night, brought us 2 cups of hot coffee from her camper and asked if we would like it. Of course we said yes! We went into town to get breakfast and sat outside on the patio with motocyclists. The two gentleman who sat with us also bike and ran the Boston marathon this year. There were many many motorcyclist today and we found out there was a rally going on. Many of them would pass us and wave or give a thumbs up which was very encouraging. While we were stopped taking a picture of the covered wagon, another motorcyclist came up, talk to us, and handed us some money. We've noticed along the way, that women by far, are the minority while bicycling. We met a father and son bicycling the Transamerica the opposite direction as us and the father is 75 years old. There are many 4 wheel drive pickups out here and most of them have a dog in the back. We met a golden retriever today that looked just like Crimson in the face and it made me cry. Another observation about today was rumble strips are awful on bikes especially when we have 8 wheels. They went along the edge of the road for at least 20 miles! We had a tough day going very slowly uphill and noticed the nats were flying faster than us. How sad. It was hot today and we both ran out of steam climbing up to Sumpter. We just had no energy to go on because we have two more summits before Baker City and there were no other campgrounds until the last summit. This may sound weird but we actually got cold on the way downhill from the summit. We set up camp and took a nap to try to rejuvenate. We got supper and ice cream at Austin House in Austin Junction and now we're going to bed. We only went 22 miles today. We are staying at Bates State Park tonight. People will randomly give us a donation. Carolyn Elliott was our latest donor.
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Once again I thought I would get a peaceful night's sleep. Again I was wrong. Around 11 o'clock a big RV pulled in with lots of people. They had a lot of trouble backing and figuring things out in foreign tongues. They were a loud group with fighting dogs. In the morning it all became very clear to us when we crawled out of the tent and the side of the RV said Rent Me! It was right out of the movie RV! Today was a nice ride with lots of cows and horses. There were rolling hills so we stayed attached. As we rolled into Mount Vernon we saw a bald eagle in its nest. At John Day, population 1744, there was a McDonalds so we got some ice cream. We debated about whether to stop there or continue on to Prairie City. We continued on and were glad we did. We rode 45 miles today and total we are around 320 miles. Also today there were a few clouds and a nice breeze which made the riding nice. We are at the Depot RV park tonight.
Many things happened this morning. Perry, the little boy who talked to us so much last night got out a ukulele and played for this morning. Dr Jim offered us hot coffee he made with a little cook stove. Another family of campers offered us hot oatmeal with craisins and honey. We also had yogurt they have made in their family for a hundred and fifty years. Guess what?... We had another climb. It was a long tough climb to the summit. We go very very very slowly. At the top we met a German, Andreas, doing nearly the same route as us. He said after the climb, why do we do this? While we were at the top, talking to Andreas, a runner came by with a burly stroller who is doing the same route as us. I can't imagine running across the United States and his name wasn't Forrest Gump. There were some spectacular views of the fossil rock canyons! However there were no shade trees and it was very hot. The heat made us quit a little earlier today with only 38 miles. We stopped in Dayville with a population 149 and ate a great meal at a cafe. It wasn't food from our bag.... yeah! The campground is called Fish House Inn and is very nice with SHOWERS! We went to the Trading Post to get ice cream and supplies . There was also a bike mechanic who fixed the wire going into Bob's speedometer and fine tuned my break again. This is where we got the picture above in jail and me at a school. Even though we enjoy the downhill we know what comes next is an uphill. Bob said, what goes down must come up!
We left Ochoco Lake and started another climb. Once again nothing but sunshine and hot weather. When we got near the top there was a workman at the rest up but there was still no water. He said the campground up the road had water. The campground was empty except for the host RV who had a 500 gallon tank of water. When we asked the old man if we could fill a water bottle he said NO, I hauled this water up here. We were very disappointed but went on, low on water. Once again the downhill was great! Because we were hooked together we were like a train and got going very fast. At one point we had to break so that we didn't pass a semi! Just before the next town we saw the same workman, Jeff. We told him about our experience at the campground and he was surprised. He told us the host is stationed there to help people out. He said he would let the US Forest Service know what happened. Another workman came up that Jim had told what happened who was also very surprised. They took our water bottles and filled them with ice and water. It never tasted so good! In another few miles we came to the town of Mitchell with a population of 130 people. Most stores were closed and it looked like a ghost town. However there was a very nice city park full of tents and campers. We met up with Dr Jim again and camped beside him. During the day Bob's chain kept coming off in the back. Jim helped us get his bike working better. There were kids all over the park and one little boy in particular kept coming over and talking to us. We went to the only open store in town and bought bottled water. We talked to two other bikers doing the Transamerica trail like us however they have a person driving a sag and camper so they don't have to haul their gear. We didn't hang a bear bag because we were in a city park surrounded by many other campers. At about 3 in the morning I woke up to a snorting noise. I woke bob up, handed him the mace, and flashlight in hand. We thought we were going to see our first bear! When I turned the flashlight on the huge creature behind the tent and it was a deer. I was never so relieved. So I think the deer had a hairball because of the sound it was making. I told Bob to go give the deer the hiemlic maneuver so I could get back to sleep. A little while later I was woke up to the sounds of pots and pans clinking together from the neighbors dishes. This time I thought about using the air horn to get the animals to go away. However when I looked outside the tent this time I saw a huge skunk. And that was our night in the ghost town of Mitchell. We sure didn't sleep very well.
This morning and yesterday morning when we woke up it was in the mid 30's. We started a little later this morning because we met Doctor Jim who is also biking and camped next to us . We went to breakfast together and he picked up our bill. We would like to thank Dr Jim for his generosity and enjoyable conversation. He looked at our picture of the eagle and corrected us and told us it was really an osprey. That's for all the Raptor fans out there. The young gentleman, Daniel, camping on the other side of us is hiking the PCT all by himself. He was on the phone with his mom told her a bear was following him and then lost cell contact. He was not able to let his mom know for 2 days that he was okay. Bob and I decided that since there weren't any steep climbs we would hook the bikes together as a tandem today. Coming out of Sisters we had one of the most beautiful and steep descents. We got up to 36 miles an hour. After leaving the mountain we came into what is called the high desert. The trees are much much smaller. There's still a lot of lava rock around and we're still seeing an occasional school bus! In Redmond today we made a quick stop at a bike shop, ate lunch and found a Verizon store. Along the way we stopped for ice cream. There were times it seemed like we were on the Prairie and it made me think of Little House on the Prairie and of old western movies. For the first time we had wind today but it felt good because of the heat. My mom would love this state because you are not allowed to pump your own gas. It is one of the only states left where they pump your gas for you. We had to hang a bear bag again tonight but not for bears but for evil chipmunk that will chew through everything. Not one time in the last week had we seen any law enforcement. Today we saw 6. We rode 49 miles today and we're staying at a state park campground on a beautiful lake outside of Prineville, Oregon.
Today we took a zero day which means we didn't ride. We did laundry. .. fun fun. We left Van Wert over a week ago so it really needed done because of our limited amount of clothes. Also we rested our tired legs. While I was working on the blog, Bob's derailleur sprocket broke. My first thought was, No way, not on a Sunday! Miraculously there was a bike shop open after three o'clock on a Sunday afternoon. Euro Bike had it fixed in no time. Sisters
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