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Day 69 Richland, OR To Baker City, OR
July 31, 2016
47.4 Miles for the day
3,797.4 Total miles for trip
5:18 Ride Time
I slept fantastic last night.
In the morning I packed up the bike first and then dealt with my 2 flat tires. It seems that the patches that I put on my tubes over 2000 miles ago are no longer holding air.
I think the heat from when I left my bike baking in the sun yesterday finally took its toll. I replaced the back tube and just squeezed the patch on and pumped it back up. I’ll need to buy a new bike tube when I get to Baker City.
I drank my leftover warm beer and had a PB&J for breakfast, while I worked on flat tires. I then had another breakfast at the diner. All the locals just stared at me the whole time I was there. Sometimes in these small towns the locals just stare and stare at you like you’re an Alien. When I was at a Burger King in Missouri, I stared back at some lady for a good 5 minutes before she looked away.
My plan for today was to ride the rest of the way into Baker City. It’s about 45 miles. Once I get to Baker City, I’ll find a good wifi signal, do my ARE Boot Camp and take the rest of the day off.
A whole bunch of cows just chillin and enjoying life. Oregon Cows don’t take themselves too seriously.
Calling it Baker City tells everyone right away you’re a tourist. The locals call it Baker. Baker City is too much of a mouthful. The locals also get pissed if you keep calling it Baker City. I learned this in 2005.
Todays short ride was super windy. The Transam takes you alongside the Oregon Trail and they claim you can still see the ruts in the landscape. The Oregon Trail Visitor Center is on top of a hill off the trail. I’m sure its rad, but it’s too far for me.
When I got to Baker everything was closed, because it was Sunday. It was basically a ghost town. I was kind of annoyed about this. I was really looking forward to being in a big town. I ended up finding a restaurant inside the Geyser Grand Hotel that had super fast wifi, so I could run my boot camp.
I sat there for about 3 hours doing my thing. After I was done my butt hurt more from sitting in that chair, a lot more then it did from cycling all this way across America. People on the road ask me all the time how my butt feels. It’s kind of a weird question to ask a stranger. I always just say “It feels great!”, And it does feel great. A sore butt is the least of my cross country cycling problems.
I had the rest of the night to kill in Baker. The waitresses told me where all the cool kids hang out on a Sunday night. I went across the street and got a beer at the sports bar. I met a bunch of people, got roped into going to another bar and ended up hanging out with a crew of locals for the rest of the night.
Everyone was so impressed that I just rode my bike here from Virginia that they ended up buying me drinks all night long. I ended up crashing on one of the dude’s couches at the end of the night. I knew I was going to have a lot of fun in Baker. Last time I was here, I was very impressed with this little town.
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