Easier (?) day today, Mitchell to John Day OR

Well, after our extra long day yesterday when we almost hit a century, plus climbed a few thousand feet, today's route was scheduled to be for an easier day.  69 miles to the next town with hotels, John Day, Oregon.  

A really tough start to the day - but rewarding afterwards


We started our morning from Mitchell with a brutal, six mile climb out of the valley, which had us sweating up the side of the mountain towards the top.  Once we got there, we were rewarded with a fantastic trip down the other side, for about the next 32 miles, mostly downhill, ending up in a beautiful gorge called "Picture Gorge."  We took pictures.

  
Picture Gorge - isn't it well named?


It was a really tough way to start the day, but the reward forr ealy morning struggles were good. We stopped in a tiny spot called Dayville (John Day was a hero in this area, towns, rivers, parks are all named after him.  I'll have to Google him later).  We stopped at The Dayville Cafe, a really nice lunch spot and had a fantastic lunch.  After stuffing ourselves Pat had their featured Pie, but Jerry and I could only look on in amazement.  So we bought slices to go and packed them for later.  The two Cafe ladies couldn't have been more fun and we enjoyed them very much.  I'm sure they haven't had many customers for a while.  We signed their map, like other visitors from all over have, and were on our way.
Dayville Cafe was a great, friendly stop


Like I said yesterday, sore butt has been plaguing my days since we began.  Unfortunately this afternoon the problem went from bad to worse as two wounds opened up on my back-side and made it dern near impossible to even sit on the seat.  We were having such a good day, and my butt problems threatened to shut it down.  While limping into John Day, we stopped to rest at a small town and Jerry looked up leather saddles (like I should have bought before I left) and found one from an online seller who promised to ship this to our upcoming hotel.  It turned out that this retailer is located in Portland, so UPS service to John Day is supposed to be overnight.  We will find out tomorrow whether this is true.  After we checked into our hotel Jerry went to the local pharmacy and found 3M Tegaderm, which is basically a second skin and is applied to open wounds.  We are hoping that the combination new saddle and Tegaderm will hold up and keep us moving.  

Let's see if this works as advertised.  And holds up on a ride


Unfortunately this means we need to put in an extra day to wait for the new saddle, and it won't hurt to let myself heal just a little before "saddling up" yet again.  At the very least, a new seat will at least change the spots where it sits on my backside, giving relief to the old spots (hopefully without starting new ones).  We'll just have to wait and see.

Oh yeah, we got contributions to World Bicycle Relief this week from Mike Ryan and Abby and Bryan Hoffmann.  Thanks everyone for contributions to this worthy cause.  And it was International Bicycle Day yesterday!   https://give.worldbicyclerelief.org/dinowheels 
Location: John Day, OR 97845, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Because I used to love her, but it's all over now

Image
Well, it's hard to believe that it's over.  For the past two months I've been getting up every day 5:30 to 6AM, just to put on damp cycling shorts and jersey, put everything I have into two (originally 4) bags, loading up and heading out, only to have to find a new place for the night, eat, go to sleep, and do the same thing over again.  It's a strange kind of routine, but over the past two months that's been the routine.  Now it's over, and I'm free to go back home and sleep in the same bed more than one night in a row.  The other side of this routine we've been in for so long is that we were able to make good and steady progress on the ultimate goal.  To get to the other side of the country.  And now we've done it. And now we're done.  Two weeks earlier than we expected, but we're done. I think it's pointless at this point to talk about the overall meaning of the trip, what I've learned, what I liked, disliked, will and won't mi
Read more

Mr. Breeze

Image
Yesterday I did not post, because we did not ride.  We took the day off the bike, both to recover physically and a bit mentally.  Once in a while we need a break from the routine - get up early, get dressed, pack the bags, attach to the bike, check the tires and gears, and go.  So we took the day in Breckenridge, a very nice touristy place with lots of shops, restaurants, and a grocery store to stock up on a few things.  Hey, I even nabbed a haircut - really the first one I've had professionally done since February.  My home-made self-done haircuts did the trick, but certainly weren't pretty.  It was nice to find a place open on Sunday and they were very nice about getting me in.  We also found a nice French style bakery for some pastries and a Subway for Monday's lunch provisions.   Since we stayed at the Fireside Inn, we spent part of the day hanging out there, which was really nice.  They have a really nice common room, coffee on tap, and even their dog Chewbacca to ente
Read more
Image
This is the first post to my new blog.  Called Dinosaurs on Wheels, it will cover our upcoming bicycle trip across the country. The Dinosaurs are two sixty-something brothers, finally getting around to a bucket list adventure.  This trip is something usually undertaken by younger folks, with few obligations and youth on their side.  In this case we have neither.  Well, one of us doesn't have so many obligations.  My brother Jerry is a retired medical doctor, formerly of the University of Wisconsin medical system.  I'm the owner of a small company in Ohio.  Still working, kind of.  My plan is to connect from the road.  Thank goodness everyone at my company is very understanding and very competent.  It's likely, with me gone, we may thrive.  That usually happens whenever I go away.  Right before a devastating computer catastrophe... In any case, we will be riding across the country by bicycle. Hence the title, Dinosaurs on Wheels.  Actually my wife picked up a birthday ca
Read more