Once again I needed to be packed with my luggage at the trailer by 5:30 this morning. I did sign in today like a good girl. Had breakfast, went back to the room to get my bike and there sits my electronic tablet. Too late to get it in the suitcase. Fortunately, it was a cool morning so I had set my backpack out for later to put my layers in. So, the tablet went in the pack and off I went.
The first part of the day was cool but the road was quiet. I stopped to take this photo of the sagebrush. Again, a reminder of the OTO.
Not long after I took the photo, along comes Bev, Greg, and Kim. I was able to jump on their wheel and we rode for some time on the slight downhill with rollers. What a blast!
Then we came to the interstate. I backed off for a couple reasons. One was not wanting to be in a large group on the freeway. So they rolled off and left me on my own. This was fine except I got a flat just before the exit where we would have a rest stop. As instructed, I lifted the bike over the rail and got me over the rail too. I had just started to get out my tools and was preparing to remove the wheel when Bill stopped and asked if I could change the tire or did I want some help. Well I can change the tire but wouldn’t mind some help so he stayed.
Between the two of us, it was a pretty quick job. Bill found a wire two feet long in my tire…just kidding, it was a short but lethal wire. Since the rest stop was just down the road, we only pumped it enough to get me to the stop. No more problems for the day.
Just after passing through Huntington, there was an historical marker but there didn’t seem to be an easy way to get to it. A little further along and I saw an entrance to a trail that led to the marker.
Since I can’t read the marker from this photo, I looked it up and found a couple articles. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=39079607 and https://oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/snake-river-massacre-account-by-one-of-the-survivors/#.WVBpunpMFDs
We followed the Snake River for awhile today. I saw this pretty pink bush along the river so had to take a shot.
Something strange and wonderful is happening. My saddle soreness seems to be getting less. Although by the end of the day, it was coming back. This may have been due to me riding with several others in a pace line so I wasn’t able to get out of my saddle as much as I would have liked. However, that pace line pulled me in to the motel parking lot so no complaints!
We crossed the magical line where the time changed so lost an hour but I still arrived before 2:00
We had a good dinner. I am tired so will be signing off and going to bed. Oh, I don’t have to load luggage until 6:30am tomorrow – yahoo!
thecyclingdiva 