Day 22

Day 22,

August 13, 2003.

Fruits, tires etc… J

In the morning, I woke up and took few pictures of the garden and peaches. While rolling the bike back to the road, I noticed number of sharp thorns in the front tire. Oh… sign of future problems… again… K I picked up the bike and carried it to the road avoiding the grass.

After the park, road started going downhill among beautiful gardens until it crossed snake river near town called Marsin. There was a little park near the river with beautiful playground. I stopped to take pictures and watched few ducks peacefully swimming in the near by lake. J

I rode further and stopped at the hardware store to fill up the water bottles.

Then road was going among terrific fields with corn and hay. The air was clean and fresh and the sun was shining playfully. I was in a great mood and was riding loudly singing bicycle theme songs. J

I stopped near a field with interesting looking plants, and when walked closer, it turned out to be green beans. I ate few of them and continued a bit further to the vineyard, where I got a cluster of grapes but had to put it in the plastic bag as it was pretty dirty. Then I climbed a little hill and stopped at some bench in the shade, washed the grapes and tried to eat it. Half of it was all right, but mostly it was not ripe yet. J

Front tire was becoming soft, so I had to stop and pump it up. Checked e-mail in the library of some tiny town the road was going through.

An hour or so later, I was thinking, how nice it is, that the bike is working properly; the rear wheel is perfectly straight with a new tire and absolutely doesn't wobble.

To make sure, I looked down to the wheel, and in that same second, I heard a loud metal popping sound - BUM – of the broken spoke, which momentarily made the wheel wobble. Not too bad though. Well, time for repairs again. The spoke that broke was also rusty and old. Since I had the freewheel remover, spoke wrench, few more extra spokes, and now so valuable experience, it didn't appear as a big problem to me. It’s like that Murphy’s law “If something seems to be too good, - don’t worry, it will change soon”.

I was continuing on Hwy 95 going north. It was not very busy and mostly went through little towns with occasional fields or gardens on the sides. I was not going very fast, so at around 3 pm, I approached an intersection going to Nyssa, Oregon. It is approximately 4 miles east from 95 by highway 26. At this point, front tires was loosing air badly, so I had to do something soon.

I also want to mention, that I was not very happy with this IRC tire at all, as it seemed to pick up absolutely anything and let it puncture through. Also, at approximately 700 miles from the start, it was already noticeably worn out.

So, as it is right now, there was a new Wal-Mart tire on the rear, old IRC on the front and new Michelin World Tour tire packed on the rear rack.

I crossed some little cute river and rode into Nyssa, Oregon; what a cute little town; stopped by the library and updated photos from the floppy disks.

After library I went to the grocery store and got some milk with bread, and there must be something else, but sorry J I don’t remember.

By the way, just heard an expression about some writing style- something like “and then we went there and did this, then we went there and did that”… I really hope this isn’t that boring. J

So, after the lunch, I made a right turn on highway 201/20 going 12 miles north to Ontario, Oregon. This road was called Central Oregon Highway, to the point where 20 goes more to the West, and then Olds-Ferry Ontario Highway.

Right after the turn, I saw a big tire shop, and stopped to see if they had air hose. They had it outside as the guy pointed and so I pumped the front tire quickly. Actually, since 12 miles should last about 40 minutes, if I inflate the tire a little more than normal, which loses the air in 30 minutes to the point when it’s not rideable anymore, so extra 10 minutes could be compensated by extra pressure. Well, the tire was supposed to withstand 90 pounds per square inch pressure. I pumped the tire up and it was rock hard. Since I usually kept the pressure at around 65-70 and remember how it feels, now I was estimating 90 to a 100 psi in it.

I took off and rode a block when the loud pop notified me of the wrong estimation and abusing the poor tire. It blew up and got off the rim.

Well, as they say, everything that is done, is done for the better, so I was indeed glad that now there was a reason to get rid of this unlucky Indonesian made racing IRC HP 90 tire. J It did its job to some point and it was enough, especially considering that it was only 6$ to start with.

I dragged the bike to the grass lawn, took front bags off and put it up side down. The tube inside the tire was ripped open as well. I put a new tube (had 2 spare) and a new Michelin tire on the front. What a beautiful peace of rubber J. This was it, 10 minutes job. I actually tried to wrap the old tube around the new one and keep it inside, but nothing but a mess came out of this idea.

In 12 miles, after riding along some beautiful fields with little traffic on the flat road, I arrived to Ontario.

The town greeted me with numerous discount grocery stores where I bought some cookies can food and sodas. A bit later, I found out that Wal-Mart was on the other side of town and so was the library. Not hurrying, I rode for about 5 miles through Ontario and found the library but it was already closed, of course.

The main road came to a T-turn with the rail road ahead. By going left for a mile or so, traffic was going under the overpass and then in another mile and half, to the shopping center with K-Mart, Wal-Mart and other typical American consumer’s stores, including Mc Donald’s where I ate an ice cream cone. Wal-Mart was a huge supercenter, so I also got some nice cakes from the bakery.

The sun was setting, so soon I had to find a place to put the tent.

Oh, by the way, when I was riding by the apartment complex, I talked to some lady living there and found out that the rent was under $300 a month. Question was, are you sure you want to live in Ontario?

I stopped by some restaurant and wrote in the journal sitting by the window and keeping the bike in sight. After this, the sun was completely gone, so I went searching for the spot to put a tent.

Closest thing was the railroad, with some old barracks along the way, facing away from the street, which was good enough. I found a flat surface near one of those old structures and peacefully set up the tent knowing no one is going to walk here at night.

Tomorrow I will have to fix the spoke on the rear wheel and switch tires from front to rear.

Today- 45 miles. Total – approximately 835.

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