Day 12: Friday: Huntington, OR to Ontario, OR with a side trip to Idaho!

Actual Kms: 85 km

Overkill Kms: 30 km due to contact falling out and detour to Idaho!

Road Stuff: snake (alive or dead, I’m not sure), lots of dead birds, pretty friendly horses, and I think, a raccoon.

Money Spent: $3 Samuel Adams with Matt Zantingh in Payette, ID and I'm probably going to buy an ice cream after I post this, so let's say $2.

Wipeouts: None. “I’m getting good at this biking thing,” she says cautiously.

Interesting Person Pick: Matt Zantingh. We decided to bike together this morning, got separated and then ventured off to Payette, Idaho (about 10 kms off the beaten track) to explore the town and have a beer. We had a great conversation about our respective relationships (his Lynn, my Tim) and enjoyed the “This is America. Speak English” sign outside of the bar.

Favourite Part of the Day: Hitting 71 kms (my personal best speed) down the hill a second time today. You should have heard my “Woo-hooo!” down the hill.

Worst Part of the Day: Losing my contact 7 kms into the journey after a wicked ride down a hill at 66 kms an hour. I had to turn around, climb the hill I had just ridden down into the wind (going about 10 kms up the hill and only 20 km down the otherside) and grab a new contact from the Gear Truck. Lesson learned to always bring an extra set of contacts along with me. So, I added about 20 kms to my ride today, into a good headwind, which is probably just as well because it helps me train for headwinds and today was a seriously short day (55 km).

It was hard to get up this morning because I didn’t sleep well due to the wind last night. Also, it was stinking hot in the school building. But after I had some breakfast, I started singing a tune and enjoyed my morning. I left around 8 only to return for a contact and get on the road by 9. Then I motored it and caught up to Matt Zantingh and we took a detour to Payette. Which meant we got to Idaho before anyone else! Do any of my students recognize anything in this picture (besides their teacher)?

After pulling into the town of Ontario, OR, I had a shower (I’m getting to know people reeeally well on this trip) and then headed to the library. About 15 C2Cer’s are here now, blogging and emailing away. And I just found out that I’m the new “Creative Caption” for the Sea to Sea Newsletter. Check out http://www.crcna.org/pages/sea_follow.cfm and download “Week 3” and scroll to the bottom to see.

New helmet and sunglasses!

Day 11: Thursday: Baker City to Huntington, OR

Actual Kms: 75 kms

Overkill Kms: 5 kms to “town”.

Road Stuff: We had some interesting snake skins, live gartner snakes, and one live rattler that reminded me what the word “scared” means.

Money Spent: $2 for a Michelob Ultra…I.O. Brian. $3.50 Pizza I.O Lisa. Also known as “Sarah is out of U.S cash”.

Wipeouts: None, but a fatal one would have occurred with the rattler.

Interesting Person Pick: Art Smit. I found out he is Eritia’s brother which clears up a whole lot for me and I also found out that he is very good at Settlers. He’s a pretty chill guy. Even if he does tease me and call me Miss Terpstra the entire game. Grr Art.

Favourite Part of the Day: As Brian and I were riding beside each other along the road this morning, I thought I saw a snake in between us. I screamed and it (yes it was real…and we think a rattler) jumped up and I literally could hear it bite into the air. It was about one foot from my feet and although I was traveling at at least 35 km/hour, I was very, very scared.

Worst Part of the Day: I played Settlers today with five other guys. Big mistake. Should have made sure we had at least one other girl at the table. The entire table was tired, silly and the entire time they teased me and kept calling me Miss Terpstra; which was enjoyable and annoying at the same time. They kept saying “What are the rules Miss Terpstra?” and “Stop him from stealing from me Miss Terpstra”, etc. It was fun up to the point when Brian asked, “Hey, do you guys think Miss Terpstra is hot?” and I went all red and put my head down in embarrassment. They could all tell how I was feeling and just laughed in good humour. I guess it’s good to be reminded what embarrassment feels like but it’s been a long time since I’ve felt that.

Today was an incredibly easy day. Last night Brian and I agreed to book it to Huntington because we didn’t want to ride in the heat. So we started riding at 7 am and got into Huntington at 9:30-yes am. Hoo-yah! But, the ride was, probably the easiest ride yet. As Ed (Our Leader) says “It’s all downhill from here”…and it really was.
Last night before the Peleton meeting I told Jen that it would be a good idea to have one person who would deliver the mail to the post office instead of everyone trying to find it. I apparently didn’t think this out really well before the conversation, but I found myself offering to do this job. So I am the Official Mail Girl. They announced it at the Peleton last night and I have already delivered several postcards and letters in Dirkee today (the smallest town ever). I figure I’m a fairly fast rider, and I like delivering mail (seeing which people are writing, seeing where they are writing to, and in the case of postcards, seeing what they are writing…just joking!) so I’m in a good position to contribute to camp in this capacity.


When Brian and I drove into Huntington, just as was told us, the town was very small but it had a pub, so we stopped in, had a beer (yes, I know, at 9:30 in the morning) and ate some of our lunch. Then I found “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” in a Reader’s Digest set of novels on a table in the bar. Which is the book Tim and I were reading before I left, so I picked it up and reread some sections he had read to me, remembering how he had said read sections. I kept reading until about 10:30 when more Sea to Sea bikers joined us and the bar became the place to be in Huntington (population 500). We enjoyed some pizza and good fellowship with the crowd there.

Around noon, after I called Emily and Jamie, we headed back to steaming hot camp and I helped unload the gear truck to find my Settlers game. I played a little Basketball, played Settlers, had a shower and now I’m in the gym of the school here (student body 60, but a great huge building) watching Jolene (Ed-our leader’s daughter) run around the gym and kick a basketball. She is about 3 and deliciously cute. This is Brian and me being silly on the floor today. The school mascot was the "locos" or Huntington Locomotives.

At night, I found a payphone, called Tim, ate some delicious dinner (the food is great) and then played ping pong against Peter Kranenburg. He beat me by one point and bragged it up, but I will get back at him. Also played against Brent (who beat me by 2 out of 3 games and is very good) and another guy who I beat. Which was somewhat restoring to my sense of self.



When I went to bed the wind was howling and I tried sleeping for an hour before moving my tent inside because it was too windy. I was glad that tomorrow was a short day.

And here is the sight of what I woke up to. Yes, that's Peter Kranenburg and Denise. Great bed head and legs.