I woke from a great night's sleep at about 7:20 AM. I do not believe I have ever been in such a quiet campground. It was awesome. I ate granola breakfast while setting things out to dry, getting cleaned up, packing and loading. I was on the road by 9:30 and just 30 minutes away from meeting Officer Todd Burke of the Oregon State Police...the nicest cop on the planet.
Officer Burke tagged me for a pass in a 55 without a signal. His consternation was up a little when we first met because he had been following me for a couple of miles, lights flashing, before I noticed him. (STella's low mirrors provide a good view of the lanes to my left and right, but a poor view directly behind...where he was.) When I did, there was not a safe place to pull over (it was narrow and the shoulder was unpaved and gravel), but I slowed considerably and found an ok place within about a half mile. He gave me a pointed lecture, which I took without protest, which softened him considerably. He asked if I was an Iron Butt rider. I said I was and asked what he rode. He had the same Honda Shadow I had ridden before getting STella...as well as three other bikes, including an old Honda V45 Magna, which stood as the fastest production bike in the world for many years. In the end he cut me loose with the lesser of the citations he could have issued, re-cautioned me about my passing, reminded me about the near universal 55 MPH speed limit on Oregon highways and showed me where I could find the best motorcycling routes in the area.
I had pretty low expectations for today's ride... Just a meat and potatoes run across western Oregon, which I have heard is pretty flat and boring...about like a ride across West Texas. Well, I was mostly wrong. The road from Prineville right through John Day was just a delight. Sure there were some flat straight spots, but they were worth it for the rest of the trip. The road is threaded through the hollows between the hills that dot the area and was punctuated by "Picture Gorge" outside of John Day. Needless to say, that part of the route was slow going, but that was fine.
The final leg in to Boise was 75 MPH Interstate, but the roadway was good and the traffic was not too heavy. Jan found me a great hotel near Micron where I have a meeting in the morning. I ran a couple of errands including buying a new headlight bulb (I noticed yesterday that one of my two high-beams was out) and getting it installed. After a light dinner I went back to the hotel, which features a 1:00 PM check-out time, so I did not need to worry about getting loaded up before my meeting. Sweet.
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| Dawn |
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| Sunrise |
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