Big bike, little car

Friday, June 23 - After the stress of the last two days, we really needed to get out for a ride.  We decided to ride out to the Prineville Reservoir and back, a 32 mile trip with 2300 feet of climbing.  It was a beautiful morning and a great ride.

Steins Pillar

As we were climbing out of Prineville, we took a quick stop to answer the call of nature where a side road came up to the main highway.  A truck came down the side road and caught Beth literally with her pants down.  The driver waved and went on.  Why are we sharing this embarrassing story?  About an hour later, after making it out to the reservoir and on the way back to town, we again were pulled over on the side of the road.  The same truck pulls up and the older "gentleman" asks whether we need "paper".  No, Beth's pants were up this time.  He then proceeds to tell us that "protocol" involves covering your face with both hands when caught in that compromising position.  He learned this when he was driving across the Mojave desert and anyone caught in the "call of nature" position" did just that.   Just an example of how friendly the central Oregonians are.  On this same ride, we had a truck slow down and offer to take us to the top of the climb.  It was a 5 mile long, ever steeper climb, but we knew that going in.  He didn't seem to quite understand the bicyclist masochistic tendency to go look for steep climbs and the creed of you must climb it to earn the "Wheee!!" back down.

After returning from our bike ride, we needed to visit Oregon's MVD.  For $30 we were able to get a travel permit for the GeoTracker, thus making it a legal vehicle until we get back to NM to register it there.  Again a fairly simple process and amazingly quick for how busy the MVD was on a Friday afternoon.  It's amazing what new information we have learned on this trip.

Big bike, little car

We were still waiting for a call from Daryn at High Desert RV letting us know the tow bar adapters for the Tracker had arrived.  At about 3:30 a call came in, the parts were on a truck that had broken down in Redmond, a small town about 17 miles away.  Daryn didn't have anyone that could make the trip to pick up the pieces but if we would go pick them up, he would help us attach them.  Ted made the trip and got the parts without incident.  Daryn then drilled the necessary holes and bolted the attachments to the Geo's towbar.   He refused payment for the parts or his time working.  Again we cannot thank him enough for all the help he provided.

Saturday, June 24 -  We needed to test how the bike rack would work on the Tracker, so we loaded up the tandem for a quick trip out of town.  The hitch on the Tracker is closer to the ground and the tandem can drag going through short dips, most frequently pulling out of gas stations onto the street.

It turned out the road next to where we bought the Tracker, 10 miles out of Prineville turns into a forest service road.  So we drove there with the tandem on the rack without a problem and found a pull-off to unload the bike. A 24+ mile ride with 900 feet of climbing took us through a farming valley and then into national forest.  Again the morning and scenery were gorgeous.  Along the way we passed Steins Pillar, a 350' high volcanic spire.

Photo of property for sale from their Zillow listing...
Price reduced to only $1.75M

Not much further up the road, but 10 miles from the highway and 5 miles of OK dirt road, we passed a small house with a couple of guest cottages and 2 ponds which was all very well kept.  It was for sale so we stopped to take a look at the property info that was posted next to the "For Sale" sign... Only $1,990,000 asking price for the 185+ acres with a mile of stream frontage, house, cottages, ponds, out buildings, etc.  Even if you could rent it out for watching the solar eclipse in Aug, which is a HUGE deal here in central Oregon, it would be a tough sale.

And speaking of the solar eclipse, people are renting out their front yards for camp sites at $200-$800/night with a two night minimum around August 21.

Anyway, we couldn't have asked for a better morning.  Ted needed to purchase some brake and shift cables to accommodate the change in how the bike will be mounted on the rack to get it higher off the ground.  He wants to turn the handle bars backwards which needed just a couple  more inches of cables to twist it around.  The afternoon was spent with Ted working on the bike and Beth working remotely for her contracting company, EASi.