| not much to report about this layover (that i know about), except that we're anxious to get on to the final 3 days of our great adventure. |
| sarah had hoped to go whitewater rafting again, but logistics proved an insurmountable obstacle, so she's stuck with the more typical lying around layover day that we older riders enjoy. |
| sari spent the morning with her son, erik, & his wife, verdi, visiting family friends in sisters, 20 miles away. sari said the town was quite overrun with tourist traffic today. we'll head that way tomorrow morning; hope traffic isn't as heavy on weekdays. |
| i took this picture out of our hotel window this morning; the foreground isn't so special but those snow-capped peaks are. the 3 peaks on the right are the 3 sisters. | |
| once i got computer work & a load of wash out of the way this morning, it was off for my big outing of the day....a walk a couple of blocks to a fred meyers grocery store. i saw deanna there, too, & sari stopped by later. we were picking up tidbits to tide us over on our layover day. we'll go out for supper later to fortify ourselves for our last big climb tomorrow. |
| late morning i ran into darleene & gerrie in the lobby with their bikes...all dressed for biking. certainly they didn't intend to bike today! as it turned out, darleene has acquaintances in redmond. she had contacted them before her arrival, & they alerted local media, who came to the hotel this morning to photograph & interview darleene & gerrie. |
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the 2 media folks are standing behind them. as you remember, darleene is our oldest rider...at 70. she's also one of the 6 riders who has pedalled every mile since yorktown. perhaps you can tell how attractive this older commercial neighborhood is; there are trees along the walk & a hanging basket filled with blossoming petunias. |
| at the grocery store i was able to find one of my favorite drinks...white wave chocolate silk. it's a chocolate soy milk. |
| you'll see it here on ice in our bathroom. that's me doing the final cleaning & lube of my bike for this trip....maybe forever. i'm not one to clean & lube my bike; after wednesday i'll be glad to start leaving that job to my iowa city bike shop again. since our room is on the 3rd floor of the hotel & it's a tight squeeze getting the bike into the tiny elevator, i decided that the bathroom was the easiest place for bike maintenance today. |  |
| we had new route sheets outside our rooms early this morning. we have a choice for tomorrow, & we have to make that choice by the time we get to sisters, 20 miles away. we can go up over mckenzie pass (for a total mileage tomorrow of 61) or santiam pass (73 mi). mckenzie is higher (5,324 feet) & the way up & down perhaps a little steeper. & since the pass is currently closed to vehicular traffic, our sag vehicle, the subaru, won't be allowed along a stretch of about 30 miles. but the views of the surrounding cascades, especially of the 3 sisters, from mckenzie are reputed to be spectacular. we hear there's no longer snow on the roads on mckenzie, tho' there are still piles of it along the roadsides. santiam isn't quite as high (4,817 feet) or as steep, but it's loaded with traffic....& adds 12 miles onto the day's route. most of the riders i've talked to are riding over mckenzie, despite the lack of sag support. that's sari's & my choice, too....because of the vistas & the lack of traffic. we'll pack extra water & snacks to tide us over for those 30 miles when we won't be able to get reinforcements from the subaru. |
| tomorrow night we stay at the log cabin inn at mckenzie bridge, oregon. most of us are camping out in teepees; some have opted to pay extra to stay in cabins. i imagine that'll be a nonconnecting evening for me; i can't quite picture a phone jack in a teepee. |
| whichever pass we chose for tomorrow, it's the last big one of the trip. for the most part, our last 2 days will be coasting to the pacific. at least that's what we're hoping for as we anxiously anticipate the big tire-dipping event on wednesday. |
| Higher quality versions of the pictures from my trip are available here. If you would like copies of the original, full-size photos, or if you would like text-only versions of these daily reports e-mailed to you, feel free to e-mail my son Mark with your request. Stay tuned.... |
