Tuesday, July 28, 2015
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Alberto’s tale… DAY SIXTEEN - BILLINGS
My alarm went off at 5:00 am. I set it last night to make sure I was up… For sure! Reason being that we will have a challenging ride today. But I am getting ahead of myself.
We spent the night at the Flea-Bag Motel, in Pendelton if you recall. Like I had guessed, Harvey and Chris took exception at my calling it a “flea-bag” and I was properly labeled fancy-ass, or some other appellation - “appellation” is this a word?. Whatever, I bet you got what I meant.
Everybody was up at 5:00, imagine that! Not only that, but we were out and on the road in 30 minutes. “Hey guys, how about we ride an hour before breakfast?” That was the plan, and you must very well know what happens to - well laid out plans… Yes?
We ended on highway 206 in Eastern Oregon. While the highway is magnificent as a riding-road. Twists left and right. Up and down. Great sunny day, no clouds. All requirements were present. And yet, I was not happy.
Eastern Oregon is a very old geography. The mountains are huge and eroded by glaciers, meaning, gently sloping mountains that change in elevation easily over 2,000 feet. The road has no guard rail, if you miss a turn…. You are history!! So? What is the problem?
The immenseness of the geography distorted all sense of perspective. You, or anyone driving this area will realize the insignificance we as humans have. Smaller than a bug, is what I felt. The Earth, is one huge place! Picture the first humans in Mars, now you get it. Vast, desolate, enormous… No one around. That’s it! No one around. You are alone in this universe. Ahh, lonely. Mighty lonely existence.
That’s it. Enough of my diatribe. After some 40 miles of this “immenseness” we arrived at The town of Condon… With an “n”. Small community with a great history. Two Nobel price winners come from this town. But the small community is getting smaller. Ten years ago, population 800, four years ago six hundred. The youth is departing never to return. The proprietor of the restaurant, a very sweet lady, sadly told us the town’s history. Did I see her eyes mist? Probably. But such a history is repeating in small rural America very often and faster with every passing year. The mega city magnet calls… Not for the better.
Chris wanted to see an Air Museum in Madras, Oregon. We must make tracks in a hurry if we are to accommodate this and get to southern Oregon today.
It took several tries. Twice lost. Thrice, confused. In the end, the Ericsson Air Museum in Madras was found. It was quite good! Chris was all over. Reading cards, looking at old WWII planes, and engines. Even me, who has absolute illiteracy on the subject found it interesting.
My cel phone is on the fritz. It will not charge and I am down to 10% battery. I think it is the charging cable which is frayed. Asking, I am told “next to the Burger King, at the other end of town is a Tech-Mart (not the real name but, what the hell, I am tired and, it works, you get the idea).”.
I get the cable, and no. It will not work, we came for nothing. The phone is toast! “Forget it, let’s eat”. Needless to say, STEAK LUNCH, at Burger King is called for, my treat. We all had a lunch Number One, you know, hamburger, fries and coke. While eating … Randy shows up. No, not the same Randy that decided to ride solo, who knows where he may be. This is a brand new Randy, Randy Rademacher. A total stranger who is traveling from Nebraska to California to meet a friend in Crater Lake. He comes to us, and like nothing we are all yapping like we have known him years. The jesting and kidding is in full bloom. We invited him to ride with us as he is also going South. In fact, his ride goes quite close to Harvey on his way home.
We had a fast pace. While Harvey and Randy (new Randy) will go West, Chris and myself will continue South.
Again I was saddened to see Harvey go. I have become fond of his humor. Farewell Harvey,, maybe we’ll cross paths again. Until that day, fare well.
Chris and I decide to head as far as Medford, Oregon. That is another 140 miles. “We can do it”. enthusiastically I put on. In fact if we really try, Old Station, CA is not out of the question!, - ” no Alberto, way too far”. It is now 5:00 pm and we decided as follows: “Chris, let’s go to Medford and there we can decide weather to continue or not”. - ” Let’s go” was his reply.
Believe it. We made Medford so fast and we are pumped. “Yreka?, if we hustle, bet we make it, not only that, but my brother lives there!” - ” Let’s go” was my time to say. “Have you seen the pass from Oregon to California?” , “yes, but I am okay seeing it again.” And so we pressed the bikes forward arriving at Yreka by 8:00 pm.
Okay, I am not going to pull punches, nor be polite: “My ass is sore!” Could it be the 471 miles for this day?
We had dinner at Ramos Mexican Cafe. Delicious. carne Asada, beer, and we talked each other to death… Good thing as we are both… Dead tired.
Good night.
Day 16 Pictures
Condon, Sad town… dosappearing
Taking a break Oregon
Air Museum,
New Randy