This morning we were up and at it bright and early in order to get the RV to the HVAC repair shop. What we had hoped was a small issue keeping the air conditioning from working turned out to require a replacement of the whole unit. Fortunately, the owner of the shop and his team were able to set us up with a used one in good condition, and the whole deal was done in two hours at a cost so low we could hardly believe it. Thank goodness for honest people in the right place at the right time.
The silver lining is that we got to spend a delightful morning tooling around town on our bikes. First we stopped at the Smoke House, a great little diner. Chris got the biscuits and gravy, I ordered eggs, bacon and toast, and August had French toast. All were delicious. The place had an old-fashioned setup, with booths along the windows and a bar in the middle. I am going to greatly miss the luxury of being able to eat a full breakfast nearly every day when the trip is over.
Afterwards we stopped at Safeway for a few groceries and a park at a nearby school so Auggie could get some playtime in. As usual, he wasn’t afraid to tackle the big slides. This playground had a neat little platform attached to a spring-loaded metal frame so you could bounce up and down easily. August loved it, and kept stomping his feet to get it to shake (though of course his 25 lbs didn’t do much so mom and dad had to help a bit to really get it to move). We got back to the HVAC shop just as they were finishing up.
We headed back to Baker City to resume the route, and Chris started off for his 75-mile ride from there. We entered the Oregon I was expecting to see, and it was a beautiful drive. Tall pine trees, green valleys and crisp air abounded. The whole day felt like a perfect October day in Indiana, and made me think of fall.
Our destination for the night was John Day, an interesting name for a town. I will explain the origins more tomorrow, but for now I will talk about the place. It was late afternoon and I was pretty hungry so we stopped at The Outpost restaurant. I had a personal size Islander, a ham and pineapple pizza. It gave me the energy to continue on to the library.
August, as usual, was able to explore to his heart’s content at the Grant County Library. He perused several books (before throwing them on the floor), enjoyed hugging all of the stuffed animals, and tried unsuccessfully to boot up the computers. We spent nearly two hours there, and I was glad it worked out as tonight was a late arrival night for Chris since he had gotten a late start.
Did I mention the weather here is amazing? It was a perfect evening to sit outside while August tinkered with this and that. Our RV park is on the county fairgrounds here, and every spot has nice shade trees. I made a dinner of smoked sausage with green beans and fried potatoes.
We are on the last push of the quest, with only four riding days left for Chris. Trying to enjoy it as much as we can!
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