July 6, 2003 Dayville, Oregon

Got going at 7:30. First order of business: 7 miles of 6% grade to the top of Keyes Creek Pass. Fortunately, the next order of busines was 25 miles of downhill with almost no pedalling. We ran into some pretty interesting buttes(?). At this point, we decided to take a side trip to the John Day Fossil Beds Vistor Center. It was small but interesting and a welcome break from the day's heat. We got to watch an interesting movie about the formation of the beds and this part of the country in general. It was produced by a local high school (but had some professional help for example with the claymation) and was as good as you'd see on say a similar PBS program. You can see the strata a little better with this closeup. One of the things we learned was the John Day's claim to fame was to have fallen into his namesake river and to have had all his possesions, including his clothes, stolen by the Indians. After rejoining the route, we went through the rest of the canyon. and more fossil beds. 7 more miles and we were at Dayville. For once it was the captain, not swabbie, who begged to call it quits because of the heat. Chatted with three motorcycle riders while we cooled down in the shade with our drinks. We stopped at the local church. We were able to camp, use the showers and kitchen facilties all for free although we did contribute to a donations can. Turns out the refrigerator and stove had been purchased from bicyclist donations. We got a frozen pizza before we discovered they also had spaghetti etc for our use. We did down a few pancakes the church had left for bicyclists the next morning. The captain thinks all the food was just left over from some function. Swabbie wasn't so sure. There was a lot of syrup and margarine (alas no butter). Seems unlikely to have had a function with both pancakes and spaghetti. Also, the boys got there before any Sunday evening supper would have been over.

Buttes on the way to Jogn Day Pass John Day Fossil Bed Visitor Center John Day Fossil Bed Visitor Center Closeup More Fossil Beds Coming out of the canyon

The Captain has ventured into Illinois and logged 3,375 miles! Read all about it below.

Hi gang, here's an email we received today from the Captain:

Greetings all,

I’ve been out of touch for a while since riding has taken up so much of my
time. I’ve just crossed the Mississippi and taking a rest day in Chester IL
(home of Popeye). My odometer now has 3375 miles for the trip and I think I’m
about 3 weeks from the Atlantic Ocean at Yorktown, VA.

After descending out of the Rockies I went through Pueblo CO and started to
head east through Kansas. While Kansas was flat, there was always a headwind
and for a least three days the scene never changed: railroad on the left, grain
fields to the right and the next town’s grain elevator on the horizon. People
in Kansas were very friendly and I often camped in city parts that allowed me
to use their swimming pool (certainly nice as the days are getting hotter).

As I entered Missouri, things really started to heat up with five days above
100 degrees and high humidity. Missouri for a bicyclist is like a “self
propelled roller coaster”, constantly up and down fairly short but unbelievably
short grades (your doing 45 mph at the bottom and slow to 3 mph by the top). I
met Ted in Missouri and we traveled together for four days, nice to have
company.

Today I’m taking a rest day and going through all my possessions to shed as
much weight as possible before the Appalachian Mountains. I’m only about three
weeks away from Yorktown, VA, but three weeks still seems like a longtime.

Captain Bob

July 5, 2003 Mitchell, Oregon

We left the lake and began the climb of Ochoco Pass. Skippy went ahead. Swabbie ended up taking a break just before the top. (around a curve about 1/2 mile). While swabbie was loafing, Scott and Darryl came by from a beer run and offered to put him in the back of the pickup to hide while they ran him up to the top. Of course swabbie declined to cheat. The view of the top was pretty impressive. The bottom of Ochoco pass turned things back into shadeless brown again. It was also getting pretty hot. We climbed about 1/3 of Keyes Creek Pass to Mitchell. Mitchell was mostly, but not quite a ghost town. A few stores were open, but most were boarded up or otherwise closed and dusty. Of course the captain found somewhere to buy beer. The city park was free for camping, so we went to take a look. Despite the general feeling that the town was past its prime, the city park turned out to be a nice campground. There we ran into Eric (did we mention him back at Belkin Hot Springs?) again. swabbie had suggested we eat at the Hotel we found as they claimed to have just hired a "world renowned" cook. Although, why would a world renowned chef be here? Eric introduced to a couple kids who were stranded there because their VW bus had broken down. They were waiting for the girl's father to show up with his pickup and a u-haul. They had eaten there and after their tale, we fired up our stove. One thing Mitchell did have was a small visitor center. It had showers that you could pay $2 to use over at the general store. There we learned of Mitchells better past and the 30 foot flash flood that had come down main street decades ago. The other interestng, perhaps a little sad, was the Mitchell bear. Henry lived in maybe a 20 x 20 cage at the local commercial gas station. The sign indicated that Henry was happy but we had our doubts.

Top of Ochoco Pass The view from Ochoco Pass Mitchell City Park Mitchell Attractions Henry the bear

July 4, 2003

So it was independence day when we said goodbye to the sisters and the cascade range. Not that we would stop climbing, but we were headed for the not quite desert region. The the next zillion miles (or about 20 this day) much of the terrain would be like an old western movie set. I think we have more pics of this particular area, but they may be with Paul and Rachel. We ended up at Ochoco lake. The captain bought some vegetables a couple miles before the lake in Prine. We also hit the only real 7-Eleven on the trip and had some real slurpies. Right outside the campgrounds were Scott and Darryl. Scott had a large motorhome, but Darryl had the pickup truck which was all important for beer runs. We plied them with stories of our adventures like the ministrels of old in exchange for some cold ones.

Didn't know how much we'd get to missing those cool mountains Wait, we are supposed to be in the Northwest! Is John Wayne out here somewhere?