Wednesday, August 12, 2009

58: Vale or Bust on the Oregon Trail

Stoker's Log

Day Fifty-Eight

8/12/09

From Nampa, ID

To Vale, OR

61.9 miles

10 avg mph

My sentiments exactly. Eager to start the day that would take us into Oregon, we quickly packed up, ate breakfast, and laughed as we walked by what apparently passed for the hotel gym.

Just as we were about to leave, however, we noticed that the trailer tire was flat; I guess when we made the front tire impervious the problems just moved along the bike. The annoying hotel manager chattered unhelpful advice at us while we tried to fix it and look up bike shops, but eventually we escaped and headed down the road to the coolest coffee house ever: The Flying M Coffee Garage.

They drowned my granola in milk, but everything else was delicious and the space and atmosphere couldn't be beaten. It gave me an irrational urge to move to western Idaho.

Our next stop was a Walmart so that we could return the unused tubes that were the wrong size. As usual I waited outside, and as usual the crazies found me. This man was primarily concerned about the weather, so the conversation was almost normal...until he abruptly walked away in the middle of it with no explanation.

We rode through the usual Idaho scenery for a while, at one point following trucks packed so high with onions that they lost half a dozen every time they turned or hit a bump. We were half tempted to grab a bag and collect the castaways. Eventually we reached the town of Parma, home of a delightful little restaurant named Apple Lucy's. We talked with the owner and the other customers, admired the shelves full of teapots, and enjoyed a hamburger and a ham and cheese sandwich. We finished off the meal with grasshopper milkshakes, which were really just giant cups of ice cream. Delicious.

We rode along the river and crossed it and the border at the same time. We had FINALLY made our way into Oregon! I rushed to the first sign I could find to herald the occasion, even though it was technically for a cross-state bike ride.

Then less than a mile down the road we found the actual Welcome to Oregon sign, and of course I insisted on stopping again.

Can you tell I'm really excited to be here?

Oregon welcomed us with road and bridge construction, but it wasn't bad at all and we got to ride through mini tunnels into Nyssa, which announced itself as the Thunderegg Capital of the World. Curious, we stopped into Thunderegg Coffee Co. for an explanation, a break, and a cold drink.

The family who owned the place explained that thundereggs are just round rocks with geodes inside, and gifted us with a small one to take along. They also gained cool points by having xkcd comics in the bathroom and telling us stories from the Burning Man Festival.

We thanked them for the sodas, the thunderegg, and the stories and got on the road again. We took in the rural views:

We also tried to puzzle out some mysteries, like the shack structures dotting all of the farm fields -- we guessed hale bale storage, but couldn't be sure -- and the fact that we were heading into Malheur County; I knew "malheur" meant "bad times" or "misfortune" in French, which didn't seem like a very promising county name. I learned later that it took its name from the Malheur River, christened by traders who were upset that their cache of furs hidden along its banks had been stolen. (They always blame the water ways...) There is also a Malheur Butte, which we could see from the overlook where we stopped briefly to rest.

We made it into Vale before sunset, which felt like a miracle. We toured the town, which was full of historical wall murals celebrating its place on the Oregon Trail.

Then we had dinner at the Starlite Cafe, a diner featuring delicious home cooking, ranch themed decorations, a friendly but hyper waitress, and a cook who periodically wandered out of the kitchen looking very confused.

Then it was back to our lodging for the night: the Bates Motel. Yup.

I have no idea whether it predates Psycho, but we did enjoy watching people pull in, take a photo of the sign, and peel out in a hurry. The motel itself didn't make us fear serial killers, even though there was a hole in the window that could have been bullet hole, but we certainly felt visually assaulted by the decor.

It was kind of amazing, really.

We tried to get to bed early since we have an exceptionally long day tomorrow: 126 miles with long stretches of nothing in between towns. But hey, who cares; we're finally in Oregon and less than a week from finishing!!!

| posted at: 06:03 | permanent link and comments

You can view more entries using the archive links to your left or by looking at our index!