Day 9 Pendleton to LaGrande

I'm at the library in LaGrande along with several other cyclists. It's close to camp and the interenet works! Before I forget, Jim and Tony, good on the haircuts, I'd like to see that. Thanks for the interest and the comments from our readers as well. It keeps us connected to home knowing you're out there.

I was up at 5 today, and it was cool until the sun got up. We left at 7, our earliest start yet. Fred is always ready to go. He must eat while he packs his tent or something. Maybe he puts his cycling gear on at bedtime. Wouldn't surprise me, lol. We took a few wrong turns getting out of Pendleton along with others. One time I had to chase Fred as he was in the lead but heading down the wrong road. "Hey Fred! Wrong way!" Get the picture?

Today was a big climb day, starting 16 k (10 mi)out. We started at 1100' and went as high as 3800'. I didn't mind it, the scenery was great, lots of switchbacks on the road. We met Walter V, one of the SAG drivers at 9 and had a water refill and cookie and some old country music to listen to. (Elvis, Crying in the Chapel). At 10 we stopped at a view point looking over the canyon. Then we stopped for brunch (tuna sandwich) at 10:45 at the Oregon Trail and Deli. Yes, this is part of the Oregon Trail we're on, now Hwy OR 30. The place is called Meechem, and Quentin, the Harley owning Messianic Jew (he told us) said that Meechem was once capital of the USA for a day in 1923. Look it up as it would take too long for me to repeat the story. Anyhow, Quentin knows all about John Calvin too.

By this time, the terrain had already changed from desert in Pendleton to alpine meadow as we got around 2500' or so. Quite different. After our stop at Meechem (Quentin and the "deli"), the road was up and down for 20 k (12 mi)for an 800' climb, after which it was largely downhill. We went on the I84 interstate for about 14 k, and missed a detour which would have taken us out of a construction zone. We didn't realize it until later. The I84 was fast, quite often above 50 kph (30 mph) but a little hairy due to the traffic, but my knuckles never turned white. It's still better than driving with certain people. Uh-hem.

We got into camp, Pioneer Park, a city owned pool and park place the same time as the gear truck at 12:30ish, so we biked to an icecream place, Hought's 24 flavours, and cyclists were already there, and kept on coming. After that I biked to the Eastern Oregon University for a look around and stopped at a Catholic church built in 1914. Had a look inside the sanctuary, quite different from our Protestant churches. There are 2 pictures from there. The first one is looking at the parsonage, and the other mainly the church. The old bldgs have old trees, so it's hard to capture somethings, like the huge steeple. The other church was just down the street and it's an Episcopalian church built in 1924. LaGrande seems like Small Town USA. Pop 12,000 and not growing, according to a local.

btw, Fred had no flats today, so of our 5:40 hours 4:40 or so was cycling. The cycling was slower due to the all of the climbing. Avg speed was only 21.7 kph (13 mph)

ps, Fred (Meyerink)loaded the last couple of days pictures on to his web site
pps, Congratulations Rick and Henriette with your 25th wedding anniversary! May God give you many blessed and good years together yet.