Day 60: Rest Day in Baker City, OR

July 31, 2006

I slept in on this, the last rest day of the trip, but was still walking through downtown Baker City by 9:30 AM (Pacific Time). It was sunny, cool, and pleasant. I went first to the Post Office, right behind the motel, to pick up my new credit card, which I had arranged to have sent to me via general delivery. In a bit of unfortunate timing, my Visa card was set to expire today, and for some reason the company had been late in sending it. The card was at the Post Office, to my relief - another mini-crisis averted.

I found the bike shop, where I had decided to look for a new rear tire, but the place wasn't open until 10:00. In the meantime, I went to the Dairy Queen nearby for a hamburger and fries. I suppose it was early in the day for that, but my body wasn't on Pacific Time yet. The place had apparently just opened, because the order number on the slip of paper they handed me was "2". I asked about it, and they said that yes, I was only the second customer of the day. The place had been extremely busy yesterday afternoon when I had stopped in for my customary end-of-ride milkshake.

I went back to the now-open bike shop, and talked to the guy there for a few minutes. He gave me the familiar story about being swamped with repair work, but said he would take a few minutes to quickly check my bike. He didn't have any Continental tires, so I bought a cheaper one - I decided it would be interesting to see how quickly it wears, compared to the expensive Continental Top Touring tires I've been using. I was a little disappointed with how quickly the tread wore down on the last one.

I left the bike at the shop, and continued walking around town. I had decided to get a haircut, but all the barbershops appeared to be closed on Mondays, so I stopped at a beauty shop whose sign said "Drop-Ins Welcome." I told the talkative girl that I just wanted a trim, but before I realized it, she had given me a rather severe haircut. I stopped her before she cut it all off, paid her ($15?!), and walked down the block for an ice cream cone.

As I was walking back to my motel, I spotted a guy in a bike jersey and shorts, and called out hello. It was the shirtless Dutchman I'd met a few days ago, now initially unrecognizable because he was wearing the jersey. We talked for a few minutes, and I learned that he had been a few hours behind me on the interstate yesterday (I had assumed he hadn't made the detour, but had just ridden (shirtless) through the fire or something - he struck me as the kind of guy who wouldn't be bothered by it). I asked him where he had stayed last night, and he told me he had slept on the side of the interstate! Specifically, he had slept - out in the open, mind you, with no tent - between the guardrail along the interstate and the train track. I literally could not imagine a less pleasant place to try to sleep. This guy was hardcore, I thought, as I walked back to my air-conditioned motel room

I spent a few hours finalizing my schedule for the remainder of the trip, made motel reservations in Mitchell and Sisters, and bought a plane ticket out of Eugene for the evening of August 7th. I felt a sense of relief that I now had a definite plan, but was slightly nervous about the aggressive schedule - Sisters to Eugene, especially, would be a long day of riding - and there apparently was another fire in that area that I might have to detour around.

I walked back to the bike shop, where I saw a young guy with one of the fairly rare (in my experience) two-wheeled trailers attached to his shiny new bike. He was riding the TransAm West-to-East, and was about two weeks into the trip. He was also carrying panniers - the trailer was for his dog to ride in. We talked for a while, and I wished him luck (how much trouble would he have lugging all of his stuff and the dog up the hills in Kentucky and Virginia, I wondered? Also, how would his dog react when they were chased by other dogs? Hopefully he'll find my journal someday and let me know how it went).

I rode back to the motel, happy with my tough-looking new rear tire. After doing some laundry, I rested most of the afternoon, and went to bed early. I had five days to reach the coast.

I stayed here for a couple of days - I highly recommend it. The ladies who run the place are super-nice, and it was a good deal.

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