AAN day 05 - Prineville, OR --> John Day, OR

Day 05 - Prineville, OR --> John Day, OR

Today had an early start. We had breakfast at 4:50am and rolled out of the parking lot at 5:50am. The beginning was easy enough until the rain started along with the climbing. The second hill started at 2-3% but the second half of that 8-mile uphill was 7-8%. Along with a cold rain, it was a long one. At the top of the second hill, about 5000 feet, the temperature was a brisk 35 degrees. The weather forecast said no rain and temperatures in the 50s so no one was dressed for this. There were some extra clothes in the truck and I was relieved to get a rain jacket, which made life bearable.

At mile 95 of 117, I was heading into the home stretch. It was raining and I was interested in getting out of it. Then I had a flat tire. Everything was wet and had a layer of gritty dirt on it. I had to use my water bottle to clean off the tire to find the damage. Replacing the ire with my spare was no good because it had a hole in it, too. Then the support vehicle went by and rescued me with another spare tube. On my way again, I spent another hour in the rain to get to the hotel.

During the day, I imagined the jacuzzi at the hotel and how good it would be. Well, the county inspected it two days ago and shut it down. Everything was wet and gritty from many hours on the road today so let's do some laundry. Nope. One of the two washers is broken so the competition is too high for the one that does work. Off to thelaundromat about a half-mile away.

I barely had enough time to do a load of laundry when it was time to walk back to the nightly meeting about the next day. That'll be to Baker, Oregon, 81 miles away with lots of climbing.

Dinner was ok a buffet of chicken and pasta. Then it was time to clean up my bike from the day's abuse. Wake-up time is 5:00am again.

Even with the difficulties today, Oregon is still a luxuriously green state with so many picture-postcard views.