Ok, I gotta be quick. I'm trying to get this recorded during the beer run!
The ride today was good. It started with 3 mile of down, then 13.5 miles of up, climbing 2,200 feet (or so) over Ochoco Pass in 2 hours. Then I had 30 miles or so to Prineville, and then another 20 or so to Redmond. All in all 68 miles, 5:20 on bike, arrived at 4:30pm with an 8:20 leave time.
After the pass it was headwind central, so even the gradual post-pass downhill was work. Today was work. Hot, headwindy work.
Today was also a lesson in trust.
In Prineville a local told me to take a different road then 126. He said to take the O'Neil Highway, which is not the adventure cycling route. Fewer cars and prettier he said. So, I did, and it was WAY BETTER.
In Redmond I wasn't sure where to stay, but I figured I'd do OK even though it's a town of 26k because there are lots of baseball diamonds with baseball dugouts. I did have more of a plan than this though.
First I went to one of the two bike shops in town and asked if they knew anything. They directed me to a park I could stay in, but warned of 3am sprinklers. They also said bikers sometimes can stay at the firehouse.
Anyway, yadda yadda yadda, I checked both out and that involved some off-road riding near some dugouts that wouldn't get sprinkled, yadda yadda yadda, and so then I find myself at the firehouse and no-one is there and I have two flat tires because of Goathead Thorns that picked up in the park.
Friggin Goathead thorns, found in central Oregon when you leave the road, gave me at least two punctures in each of my tires (turns out it was more.) I had one spare tube and a bunch of patches, so I changed one out and failed to find all the holes in the rear one with my patches. As I was riding across town to get to a concert in a park I heard about, it went flat again.
Eff.
The bike shop was closed, but I found a guy in lycra eating at an outside shop and asked him if he had a tube. Another exercise in trust. He had one that was a bit too skinny, but it still worked.
One thing I learned from reading Tolkien is that travelers get to ask for things that other's would feel guilty asking for. Travelers get a free pass. It's a karma thing, if could be you next time.
Eventually I got to the park with the music, where I met Sue who had bike toured across the US on a 1952 tandem some time ago. She was friends with the guy throwing the concert and invited me to stay in her yard. For the next hour I helped break down the show, and now I'm at the very chill after party.
So... yea. One of those many bike touring moments of "how the hell did I get here again?"
Talk about a day of ups and downs. Thanks for the life lessons Redmond.
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