Ken & Christine's USA trip 09: Following the Oregon Trail

We left Boise, Idaho this morning not really knowing how far we'd get or where we'd end up tonight. It was simply a case of put LA in the GPS & ride. It wasn't cold, but I was waiting for the sun to bring some heat fairly quickly.

The town of Nampa went by, then we were back into the food belt region. As yesterday when we went thru masses of crops of potatoes and corn, today it was acres and acres of potatoes, corn, sugar beet & onions. All irrigated, all incredibly healthy & green. There were also crops of wheat & barley, and huge stacks of hay & lucerne.

Just prior to the Oregon border were a large number of aquaducts. They wound in & around & ended up in a pretty big lake. The Oregon border sign unfortunately was hidden behind a large tree, so we called into the Visitor Centre right next to it & took the photo's. There was also a lovely Oregon wagon display.

As a matter of interest - on our trip from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City, we counted at least 9 motorists that had been stopped by police. Most of the cars were unmarked, 4 wheel drives, a white looking Monaro type with black stripes over the roof, bonnet and boot, another one that was black with white stripes, no way could you tell they were Police cars until you got next to them & saw the line up of lights in the windows. They also had unmarked jeeps, station wagons & a ute as well as the standard family type car. Today we saw a few more stopped, these however were by a uniformed motorcycle policeman, & one in a Police car. There was one car that cruised by us & we didn't realize until he'd passed that it was the police. Certainly makes you behave yourself!

Once we were into the Oregon state proper, the country changed to rolling hills and wide acreage. Just as we came through the hills a coyote streaked across the road in front of us. While we had seen a few dead ones that had been hit by vehicles (yesterday) this was the first live one we saw. Ken was lucky enough to see a Road Runner (bird) the other day on Route 66, it was so fast I missed it. We have also seen beavers, and heaps of gophers (both dead & alive), and little squirrels in the last day or so, plus of course deer & cattle on the road.

We came down into a beaut little town called Vale. It has its history painted on various building walls - stunning. Unfortunately we weren't able to get them all, but we took a fair few. We also had morning tea in a little bakery, the people are so lovely & all really interested to talk, especially when they realise we're from Australia and on a bike.

Each state in the USA puts the first initial of the town on a high and visible hill, note the V in one of the photo's. On leaving Vale we saw more plains, then followed a river (creek) through & down a winding, curving spectacular mountain road. On reaching the base of the range the terrain changed to wide open very dry plains. Basically - heaps and heaps of nothing. Not a house, a shed, a track or for many many miles even an animal anywhere in sight. The roads were straight, & simply disappeared into the distance until you got there, & then it repeated itself all over again.

We finally made it to Burns, then on to Bend where we refuelled and had lunch. Once we left there it was time for the stop start part of the day, road works again in progress. Didn't mind too much until one of the stops we were at, we'd been waiting probably 5 mins or so when the "Follow me car" came back, but instead of turning ready to go it raced on into the rest area where the toilets were. The young lady driver jumped out, left the lights flashing and vehicle going, & raced to the loos. Quite some time later, out she came, raced to the car, drove off around the whole block to get back in front & lead us on. They are retarring the road, & we ended up having 3 stop & starts for the afternoon.

Going through the National Forests again (Fremont, Winema, Deschutes & La Pine) meant we saw heaps of carvings of bears, reindeer, elk, eagles etc. Simply gorgeous. Only problem is, by the time we see them, we are past.

We were starting to get pretty tired, so decided that we would stay at the next town Klamath Falls. Our first sighting was of Lake Klamath, apparently it is only about 8 feet deep and is covered by algae, so no water sports at all take place on it. Looks really pretty tho'. The road snakes right around and alongside the lake, & once again a train was heading along below us into the town. We counted at least 200 plus carriages.

The first motel we saw was the Quality Inn, & that's where we stopped. The room we got has a jacuzzi, & just perfect for Ken, while I downloaded the photo's etc he was having a well deserved relaxing spa. We went across to a Chinese Restaurant, had a wonderful (& oh so filling) tea - & will soon be ready for bed. It is just after 9pm, (actually 10pm for us as we wound the clocks back an hour this afternoon). Will head off in the morning - route as yet undecided.