Ride report June 2012: Day 15

Grangeville, ID to John Day, OR

I ate a muffin and bowl of cereal in the hotel lobby, chased down with a cup of coffee, before packing up and heading into town for breakfast at Oscar's. The sign on the back door said they wouldn't open until 8 AM, a 45 minute wait, so I headed down the highway about 45 miles to Riggins.

I stopped at the Summerville Cafe for breakfast. The inside of the restaurant smelled like someone's damp, musky basement. My breakfast burrito was the size of a small child, but was adequately tasty. I overheard a few patrons make some seriously racist comments about President Obama and what would happen to him if he ever visited their town. I decided I'd better leave before the locals started playing banjo music.

Back on the road, I continued south through New Meadows and then into Cambridge where I fueled up. I then took highway 17 across the Snake River at Brownlee Reservoir and back into Oregon before hitting highway 86 to Baker City. That is a fast road with great sweepers and excellent site lines. The road surface is in pretty good shape, too, with very little gravel in the corners.

In Baker, I stopped once again at Subway for lunch. An older gentleman came up to me as I was eating and said, "You look like a biker." We chatted for several minutes, and he told me he had been riding for over 65 years. He wished me a safe trip and left.

I then gassed up at the Chevron in town and got on highway 7 heading southwest past Sumpter, then at Austin Junction I got on highway 26 and headed west into John Day.

I pulled into the John Day Best Western and got a room. The gal at the front desk was super friendly and gave me the same room I get every time I stay there.

Again, my usual routine of unpacking, taking a short nap, and showering preceded dinner in the lounge of The Outpost restaurant a block away.