We spent our last night in Oregon in the small pioneer town of Vale. Lots of pretty murals painted on the buildings around town, but all in all a bit creepy to wander around at night – kind of a ghost town, with cement everywhere (virtually no grass to walk Angie on) and a creaking metal sign hanging over the door next to our hotel. The room WAS pretty nice – a two bedroom suite with a kitchen – but still, not a place I’m planning to return to any time soon.
On the way out of town though, I managed to get a bit lost. There were two ways to get to our destination near Boise, Idaho – one a bit longer but a nice smooth path and the other straight through the hills. After the past few days, I’m a bit sick of hills, so I definitely decided that I wanted to take smooth road around.
Now, like most men, I can be guilty at times of riding around, lost, without asking directions. Well, today I made an exception and decided to pull into the gas station to figure out which way I needed to go. And thankfully, the attendant at the station knew exactly where I was going and told me the exact direction that I needed to go to get there.
So I followed the road he sent me down towards Idaho. And within a few miles realized that he had sent me down the EXACT road that I didn’t want to go down today. Oh well, I guess I’m riding hills again today.
It wasn’t too bad actually – I’d already made it past the really big hills the days before – but still I was glad to see the road flatten out as I rolled into Nyssa, the last town before crossing the Oregon/Idaho border and, according to the sign on the way into town “the Thunderegg Capital of the World”
Cool. Except for one thing – I had no idea what a Thunderegg is – so I set off around town to figure out the mystery. And after hunting, and hunting, and hunting, I FINALLY found a shop – in the Thunderegg Capital of the world – that carried Thundereggs. (They’re basically these giant rocks, that when you cut them open have very pretty colored gems inside.) I’ve got loads of video of me searching for the elusive Thunderegg, so hopefully you should be able to see them online real soon. Oh yes, and the owner of the shop actually donated a small Thunderegg to me for the ride, so maybe we’ll auction it off at the end of our journey.
As I rolled out of Nyssa (Thunderegg in my riding bag) and crossed into Idaho (yay, milestone), it became pretty apparent that we were entering another non-Oregon world. The land of Agriculture. Farms, and cows, and tractors and farms and farms, everywhere.
And ironically, on the day that started with me cursing my luck for asking directions – guess what happened on the way into Nampa (the end of my route outside of Boise)… Yup. I got lost. So the day ended kind of like it started – only this time with me on the phone to my parents in New York, and them on the computer Mapquest-ing my way towards my final destination for the day.
And my favorite line of the day… as I said goodbye and got off the phone with my mother and father, my mom jumped in and said… “we’ll see you down the road”.
So from The Dog Cancer Ride Across America, this is Ted Schneck wishing you all a good night, and “I’ll see you down the road”
Bye for now.
- Ted Schneck
