Pleasant night @ new camp spot, enjoyed the fact that it was well shaded.
Today is short ride, a massage, and drive to Hood River to meet w/ Les and Gloria , buds from Spokane days.
Bend trails are dusty but when I am the only rider, the dust is behind me. Knees hurt, today is an easy day,and tyhat is how I rode even w/ a 17 mile 2100′ climb. Happy Valley is free of snow but mosq’s are still there. Farewell springs trail is beat from all downhillers.
Bike had some issues to be fixed by brains bigger than mine: rear wheel not true from several sticks caught in wheel, a sqreatch in the front end i can’t find, and a loose front wheel. How to get the bike fixed. I picked Sunnyside, the Turner dealer in Bend, where I bought my brake pads. I walked in the store and saw eric who helped me previously. I explained my problems in a begging voice and he said bring it in and he would work on it. WOW! I was expecting something like “can you come back like in 3 days as we are slammed. he put my bike in a stand right from my hand and turned too. The rear wheel needed just a little help, the sqreatch came from the handlebar loose in the stem, and the front hub repsonded to the King tool. He even sort of washed my bike. All for $10.00. I say Super for the shop. Bend is hosting a bike road bike week and the shop was slammed. Eric said the shop hired 2 people and there are as many hours as wrenches want to work.
Then on to my massage. I drove to Amber’s house for the appointment, she has a spare room set up as her home treatment, complete w/ bicycle tools & assorted other toys stuck in the corners. Full nude under the covers massage, 30 m is for her intro fee of $25. She freed up my hips; Saturday’s ride will tell me if I am healed.
She is another free spirit to my bunch of people I have met. She has a sister living in Black Mtn, NC and knows of Pisgah Brewery. Look out Beerbike gang of Bruce & JUT.
Bend has a Whole Foods Grocery store, affectionaly know as “Whole Paycheck”, great grocery store w/ lots of great prepared things to eat. I bought my dinner from the deli section. i firts discovered the chain in Austin, TX.
Long drive to Hood River, actually to White Salmon, WA to meet Les & Gloria @ Everybody’s Brewing pub. Darn GPS would not recognize the Hood River bridge and had to backtrack on I-84 to cross over into WA.
What a feeling of returning to my “home” state, suddenly just crossing the Columbia River my license plate belonged to the physical location.
I savored a good porter and soaked up some past history w/ people from my past. Cal visited 2x and now Les & Gloria. Ties to my past. They are staying @ a XG on the OR side of the river. We drive back across the river into OR and I am no longer “home”, fleeting feeling. But today Les and I are going to ride in WA.
Driving over Eastern shoulder on MT Hood I saw a river running white from glacial milk, finely pulverized rock slurry creating like a colloidal suspension. I have seen streams from Inland NW and Rockies clear to the Mississippi River mud and the porter colored streams of lower LA. I have seen alot.
Off to Bfast & a WA ride.