Day 33, September 3rd 2007 (Mitchell, OR to Bend, OR)

I'm not even sure how to begin to tell you about my day today. It was about 5:30 when I first woke up and I heard some rustling in the trees around me so I figured I would stay in my tent and write a little. I continued to hear the rustling all morning and I was trying to look at the tent and see what it was. Then whatever it was came over and started to sniff around my tent. After spending the first hour of the morning in fear and wondering why the bear wasn't scaring this animal away, I opened my tent. I was relieved to only see a family of 5 deer and thankful it wasn't anything else. I packed up my gear and headed towards a cafe at the bottom of the hill. They were open even though it was Labor Day. I was surprised since it was only a town of around 200 people, but I went in to enjoy a good breakfast and some coffee. I was able to chat with a couple of different couples and ended up sitting there for over an hour. When I walked out of the cafe and was about to leave one of the couples I had been talking to came out and asked if they could pray for me. Not thinking anything of it, I said that wouldn't be a problem and welcomed the idea. So we stood outside and they said a prayer for a couple of minutes before I hit the road. I couldn't have been further than two blocks down the road when a huge dog saw me coming. He leaped over the fence and onto the highway and started to chase me up the road. He was right on my rear wheel and I thought that he was going to bite me. I escaped, but it made me think that maybe we should have prayed a little harder just a few moments ago. I was riding along and I had some good climbs and some good downhills for the afternoon and didn't see anything until I made it to Prineville. It was a good morning ride and it was then that I pulled off for some food. I looked at my messages and was able to find out that the family I intended to stay with in Bend had returned my message and were very welcoming to me coming to their place. I was relieved to hear that I would get a nice shower and couldn't wait to see what Bend had to offer. Bend, OR was supposed to be the beginning of Oregon's beautiful terrain, I couldn't wait. I arrived in Bend around 4:30 and just as I turned the corner to make it where I would stay for the evening, my rear tire blew out. This was my second warm showers house that I had been to and both times a rear tire had blown out as I turned the corner of the last block. I couldn't believe it. I pulled into the driveway and was instantly greeted to Roger Rudolph, the host, and his two other guests from Washington, Peter and his wife Carol Anne. Everything was set up to take a shower and once I was out of the shower I was given an ice cold brew that Roger had actually brewed himself. It tasted great and I just felt that this was a great way to spend Labor Day, relaxed. I spent about the next hour just getting to know Roger and Peter and they both seemed to have a life that I could only dream to live. They had both met eachother as park rangers back in 1968 at Yosemite National Park. Now as far as what I have heard from Yosemite, it is supposed to be an incredible park with all sorts of great trails to hike on. So they would lead tours and just live the life. They had such a great time together that they have kept in touch and have stayed in contact almost every year. Carol Anne, Peter's wife, was a french teacher in Washington and she was such a wonderful ladie to meet. Roger's wife, Connie, showed up after getting done coaching for a cross country practice at a local high school soon after, and it was great to be able to meet her. I was able to find out that they were both active triathletes and had both met eachother while training for an ironman triathlon. From that moment I knew that I had entered the right house and couldn't wait to hear more from their adventures. The evening was on its way as Chinese food had already been ordered and just needed to be picked up. We had ordered what was said to be enough food for 6 but it could have been enough for 10. There were only 5 of us so we had a lot of left over food and no one was left hungry. We spent the rest of the evening just sitting on the back deck just enjoying eachother's conversation. Roger and Connie had three hens that lived in the backyard and so it was cool to have them for some entertainment, as if the evening wasn't full of it already. They had a nice big garage fully equppied with a bike stand and all of the tools that I could ever ask for to just get my flat fixed and my bike ready for the road. I had truly been blessed to have been able to spend the evening in their prescence and couldn't have asked for a better Labor Day. They had a nice big futon in the basement that they made sure was all ready for me to sleep in and a computer for me to update the blog with. My whole day had just been laid out for me and I couldn't believe that life could be this good.
Daily mileage: 83.9 miles
Average Speed: 13.4 mph
Total mileage: 1928.7 miles