Day 10 - Baker City to Richland: The Ride We Looked for Yesterday! - Off To See the Wizard

June 7, 2014

Day 10 - Baker City to Richland: The Ride We Looked for Yesterday!

Last night we had three things to do....laundry, eat dinner and sleep. That is all we had time or energy to do. We went down to the laundry room and put our quarters in and "nothing"! We had to go back up to the front desk and ask for help and they said they would be right down......several minutes later I went back to see if they were coming.

Yes, she would be right there with me. So, off we went. We get back there and she opens a locked storage room next to the laundry room and comes out with a hammer and starts to bang on the machine (the place where you put your coins and it slides in and out-it was stuck in). Jack says let me try and starts smacking it good. Yes, it releases and we can now finally do laundry.....only about 35 minutes later. Jack said it felt really good to hit the machine! Then we were off to dinner and for some reason they were very slow even though the room was not busy at all. So..they offered us chips and salsa because they were slow. Sure why not.....well about an hour later we are back to the room and now we must sleep. I am happy to report there were no delays or problems. In fact we were both out instantly.

Today we were up early and packed up and headed to McDonalds for breakfast. Then we searched town for the bike shop...to the tune of 3.5 mi. We still need tubes .....no bike shops open but we ended back out right next to McDonalds at the Bi-Mart. Yes...score. Tubes!! Now we can leave.

The ride today was beautiful ..again! We just had a few rollers and some fun down hills with a tail wind most of the way! Yes, we earned it. We followed the Powder River again today and passed several creeks that are running at full capacity.

Local Photographer told us there were owl nests in these hills ...sure enough and swallows everywhere.

Along the way today we ran into Jeff and the other two with him. They are going to Maine and do about 65-70 miles a day so it was by chance we ran into them twice....am sure not three times as they are long gone. They do have a support vehicle. Then coming into Richland at the market who should we see but two of the gals from SF. They took a couple of days off so they are just a bit ahead of us.

We rode on down to Eagle Valley RV Park and who should we find but Janet and Step - The Promised Tour. Janet had a couple of spokes break and they have been here a couple of days. They were so lucky to find locals who were going into Baker City and could take her wheel back and get it fixed and bring it back to here. Nice folks everywhere. We are now on about the same pace. It seems to be difficult for us to get 50 milers with all these steep climbs. Looks like we are going to be doing 40-45'ish and just see how far it gets us. This is supposed to be fun........not a Death March.

Mules along the way...nicest mules I think I have ever seen. There is one horse.....who can find it? I even stopped on an uphill to take their picture.

Power of the past...there was a huge area with all sorts of old farm machinery. Thought of my Dad when I saw it all...he would have loved it. He was a farm and estate auctioneer.

Good night from a beautiful camp sight.

Jack and Janet at Austin Cafe. We do like the brims...they really keep the sun off our face and neck!

Prom Night Takes a Left Turn? Found on the road today.

Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 403 miles (649 km)

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