Three
Wheels Across America
Oregon
Tuesday, 24 August 1999 Halfway,
OR.
(55/1044 miles)
Monday, 23 August 1999 Baker City,
OR.
(0/989 miles) Received a very brief e-mail at 3pm EDT and a long phone call
at 3pm EDT. Apparently Conrad is in Baker City having a rest day. He is
having some problem with the altitude, nose bleeds earlier and a headache all day today.
Not much in Baker City but he did find a computer shop to send an e-mail and he went to
the post office to put a "trace" on the two parcels he sent to Florida that
never arrived. It is possible that because the return address was England they may
be now be stuck in customs. He is planning to call Cable & Wireless today. He lost
another spoke but had it replaced and the wheel trued at a cycle shop here. He is planning
to send another parcel with films to Florida but by recorded delivery of some sort.
I asked a few questions about life on the road and these were some of Conrad's answers: He gets up about 7:30 am and goes to bed about 10pm. He had scrambled eggs and a blueberry muffin for breakfast. He had a burrito for dinner. Some camp sites are free some he has to pay for. The forestry camp sites are less crowded than commercial or state parks but the toilets are just a hole in the ground! Commercial and state parks have showers. He isn't very good at asking peple to take his picture. He likes to take his picture at each summit - but there is never anyone around. He is using the timer on his camera. He has no bike problems, no traffic problems - there is very little traffic ouside the towns - he has had no contact with the police! He is impressed with the State Troopers and is not impressed with the county sherrif deputies. He doesn't have a sunburn problem but he does have a red nose. He needs a haircut but plan s to wait until he gets to Missoula, Montana. He has had no rain recently. It's cooler than it was but it's still very warm. He has seen a few deer, lots of cows and llamas and he hears coyotes. He thinks cycling across America is better than work! He is concerned that he will be in Yellowstone National Park on Labor Day Weekend when it will be very busy. He says he sees lots of people pretending to be cowboys. He expects to cross into Idaho on Wednesday when he changes time zones and loses (?)an hour.
Sunday, 22 August 1999 Baker City,
OR.
(72/987 miles) By camping at Dixie Pass and having a long day today he
avoided staying overnight in Sumpter and arrived in Baker City having saved a day. He is
travelling with a guy named Brian from New Orleans. Although they don't cycle
together they have been meeting up each night at the camp sites. He met a couple from New
England going the other way.
Saturday, 21 August 1999 Dixie
Pass, OR.
(53/915 miles) Clear 81 deg F, wind 17 mph. Conrad's parcels with the
films have still not arrived. Conrad was going to stay overnight in Prairie City but kept
going up to Dixie Pass campground at an Altitude of 5,277ft. He woke up at 2am with
a nose bleed and it stopped. However when he woke at 7:30am he was covered in blood as it
had started again. He believes this is due to the altitude.
Friday, 20 August 1999 Presbyterian
Church, Dayville, OR.
(45/862 miles) No news today. Population of Dayville is 185
and Conrad will be camping in the city park. Today I registered this web site
with a number of search engines, Lycos, Yahoo, Alta Vista, Infoseek and Webcrawler. A
group of 11 on an adventure cycling tour from Virginia stayed , with Conrad, in the
church. They were too organized (regimented) for Conrad's taste.
Thursday, 19 August 1999 Lion's
Club, Mitchell, OR.
(39/817 miles)
Received a call from Conrad at 2:30pm EDT. All is
well. He has met another cyclist who is heading to the Atlantic and although they are not
cyling together they keep meeting. It is in the 90sF again. He has been taking lots of
pictures but he is not in any of them. I reminded him to get other people to take
pictures of him and his bike and something of local interest! Conrad is sleeping very well
in his tent and in fact prefers it to the motel He has no physical problems with aching
muscles or anything. Evrything is just going well. The road he is travelling on is a
regular two lane highway without much of a shoulder. There is not a lot of traffic but it
is reasonably constant throughout the day. Conrad really liked this small town. The
people, especially the kids, were very friendly. It was small, 2 motels, 2 stores and a
cafe!!
I discovered that Conrad had sent his parcels to 19804 rather than 19824 Wyndham Lakes Drive. I checked with the Post Office but they did not have the parcels but they said they would keep a look out for them.
Wednesday, 18 August 1999 Ochoco
Lake SP, Prineville, OR.
(52/778 miles)
Received e-mail at 3pm EDT. All is well.
Conrad went to the library in Prineville and obtained access to the internet. He read and
sent e-mails and checked out this web site. He is only allowed 10 minutes access but he
sweet talked the librarian into letting him stay on longer. Weather is very hot, in the
90s F. The area is obviously very mountainous but also arid and dusty. He has seen lots of
dead snakes but no live ones so far. There was a spectacular thunderstorm this evening.
Lots of lightning but only about 5 minutes of heavy rain.
Tuesday, 17 August 1999 Sisters
City Park, OR.
(42/726 miles)
The McKenzie pass was 22 miles long and slow. Very
beautiful with the lava flows on the top and snow on the pass. TheThree Sisters mountains
were covered in snow and were fantastic. Conrad met two guys, one called Brian,
going other way and camped in the city park of sisters.
Link to more pictures of the Three Sisters
Monday, 16 August 1999 McKenzie
Bridge, OR.
(60/684 miles)
Still not received either of Conrad's parcels. This
web site is getting more popular. It typically gets 2 or 3 hits a day but there were 7
hits today. He spoke with the Register-Guard but they were not too interested as Conrad
had no supporting evidence of what he was doing. Also it would be more of a story
when he nears the end of the journey.He bought an innertube but decided against buying any
lights. he decided he didn't rally need them until Montana!!
Sunday, 15 August 1999 Eugene, OR.
(0/624 miles)
Received an e-mail from
Conrad at 5pm EDT and a phone call at 6:15pm EDT. He is having a rest day at Eugene,OR. He
is a little disapointed that so many places are closed on Sunday. He has decided not to
have any more rest days on Sunday. He is concerned that he is 8 days
behind schedule. He is grateful for all the e-mail he received from The Bucks Herald
and Mix-96.He is aware that there is a lot of climbing ahead to get over the Mckenzie
pass. At some point he had a puncture and had to replace the inner-tube. Unfortunately the
bike shops were closed on Sunday. He will stay around Eugene on Monday morning to contact
the Register-Guard and visit a bike shop to buy an inner tube and some lights. He realises
that he is leaving civilizarion behind in Eugene. No more large towns for many days. By
Tuesday he expects to be in semi-desert and he will be carrying 4 litres of water.
Saturday, 14 August 1999 Eugene,
OR.
(61/624 miles)
It is 72 deg F, humidity 43% and the forecast is
warmer weather. Went through a road tunnel. You press a button at the start and lights
flash to warn motorists that a cyclist is in the tunnel. Staying in a $38 a night motel
for two nights- with the luxury of a TV. Discovered that Eugene is the home of Nike. He
met a guy called Paul who works for
The
Register-Guard (the local newspaper)and he is going to try and get them to do
a feature. They met in a bar and then adjorned to a micro-brewery. Today was the first day
that it rained while he was cycling. All rain up to now had been overnight. Conrad is
looking out for other cyclists who are going coast to coast now that he is on the official
route. Today he only saw one cyclist and he was going the other way.
Friday, 13 August 1999 Honeyman
State Park, Florence , OR.
(48/563 miles)
Happy Birthday.
It is Conrad's
26th birthday today. Unfortunately he will not be getting many birthday cards.
He did some washing in a laundromat and is now sweet
smelling and clean. Some of the wildlife seen so far has included osprey's, turkey
vultures, a bald eagle and chipmunks.
Thursday, 12 August 1999 Sunset Bay
State Park, OR.
(55/515 miles)
Conrad walked into a "puddle" at night and
got wet up to his middle. He left his clothes out overnight to dry but it rained! (
This puddle was also described as a small pond by the path and he has no idea how he ended
up in it! I do not think that alcohol was involved!)
Wednesday, 11 August 1999 Humbug
Mtn State Park, OR.
(48/460 miles)
Conrad called Florida at 7pm EDT from Gold
Beach, CA. All is well. He is enjoying himself a lot as he now feels that he is getting
into a routine. He says he generally buys one meal a day and cooks one meal a day. He
enjoys breakfast with lots of coffee in the diners. No traffic problems so far. As it is
only 4pm local time he intends to continue on to the state park to camp. He has sampled a
few Coors beers but is not impressed.
Tuesday, 10 August 1999 Harris
Beach, OR
(51/412 miles)
Great achievement today he crossed the California
state line into Oregon. He met someone today who had cycled across the USA and received a
lot of encouragement. He told him not to worry about falling behind schedule as he can
make it up on the boring prairies.
Home .......... California
Last Updated
29 November 1999
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