So I’m writing this on my iPhone because apparently John Day is the most interesting town in eastern Oregon. “How do I know this,” you might ask? Simple. Every hotel in this town is packed. Had we not called ahead to the one we’re in now we would have been staring at the stars. Alright enough on that rant.
So what happened today..? I’ll start with the first official sign from the heavens that we should pack it up and head home. While packing up the bike, after checking out, I fumbled my helmet and it fell to the ground. It didn’t land on the back or a side where a scratch might make it look cool. No it landed on the visor, and now I have a nice big gash down the center. On the plus side the gash distracts from the floater I have in my left eye.
Yet another iron butt day awaited us as we rode from Yakima to John Day. Before rolling along on the ride we stopped by in Moxee. That is significant only because that’s a conference room at my office where I booked a reoccurring meeting, as it is the “official” conference room of the project — since it is nearly always free. Anyway, needed to get a picture of myself next to the city sign to send to my co-workers who probably think I’m insane.
Between Moxee and Umatilla the wind gods took over again — officially. There were signs on the side of the warning about dust storms and the like. The signs were not in the least bit misleading. The wind on the stretch of road was obnoxious. Clearly sign number two to head back home, but we soldiered on.
We stopped for lunch in Hermiston, were we rested our tired souls. Fighting the wind took a lot out of us, but we still had the other half of the days planned mileage ahead of us. We called ahead to the hotel we were planning on staying at only to find that they were booked. We called down the list of hotels in John Day. One by one they were booked. We ended up at a value lodge.
On the way down to John Day there are simply beautiful tracts of roadway. Smooth, windy, and very pleasant to ride a motorcycle on. If numb butt and numb hand hadn’t settled in it would have been seriously fun ride. I had my first up close and personal encounter of the Bambi kind. I was coming around a blind corner. To my left a rushing river, to my right a steep rocky slope. I slip around the curve and up against the rock wall was a deer. I succeeded in spooking it, and I was afraid that it would bound out into the road in front of Angie. I grabbed my breaks and dropped my speed considerately. Angie grabbed her breaks. The deer, now entirely freaked out by the bizarre human behavior, bounded up the rock wall and out of sight. Freshly reminded of the wildlife along the roads we continued on.
Upon arriving at the hotel we learned what “value lodge” means. By value I presume that they mean only enough to keep a roof over your head and water/electricity going to the room. It was a serious let down after having been on the road all day yesterday. Gone were the finer points of our usual hotel experience. Like molding on walls, matching paint, and a working shower head. It really is the little things that make it less creepier.
However, semi-thankful for a bed we called it a night.