Day 13 Wednesday

Lakeview, Oregon turned out to be a lovely little town to stop for the night. After settling into the local motel, we walked uptown to grab a bite. The vote was Chinese so we stopped into a little place called King’s Hunan Café. We each ordered a different dish so we could share. Turns out, each entrée was large enough to serve 4 people. We did as much damage as we could then walked around town to work off some of that damage. Lakeview has an old theater with a marquis. We’ve seen a lot of those out west. Most of them, like Lakeview’s, are still in operation with current movies listed. Makes you feel good to know some relics are still hanging in there. The town was full of historic buildings that have been lovingly preserved or restored. A couple of them are even on the Nat’l Registry. We found an authentic bakery that we returned to in the morning for breakfast before we took off again. The decision to travel this route has been a good one so far. Most of the day, we travelled through foothills, buttes, and finally mountains. We began the day in smoke from yet another fire (Cascade Range) but the air cleared as the day went on. We stopped to check out a couple of alkaline lakes (pee-u) and the fault line that runs through Oregon. There was a perfect mountain stream that ran beside us for most of the afternoon as we wound through the mountains. We wanted to put our feet in it but the rattlesnake warning signs kept us from hiking through the brush to get to the streams edge. Oh, we thought about it…….. There were very few towns along the route. We drove over 90 miles with very little traffic and only one “rest stop” (a very loose term for an outhouse, picnic table, and more rattlesnake warning signs). There were mountain passes named “Stinking Water” and “Drinkwater” just a couple of miles apart. Not sure who to trust around here. There were horses running through the valleys around every turn. They were beautiful and mesmerizing to watch. For a second I thought it would be great to be a cowgirl…..ONE second! We finally found a place for ice cream so we called that lunch. Our drive took us through more farming valleys with crops including onions, beets, and corn. Since we had already been through the garlic capitol (Gilroy, CA), and the olive capitol (Corning, CA), it was only fitting that we visit the onion capitol, Vale, OR. There is NO mistaking what the crop is in any of these places. You can smell them as you approach. We got to Boise in time to check out the downtown night life and grab some dinner with Sue. Boise is such a cool place. Downtown is full of bars, restaurants, theaters, parks, all bicycle and pedestrian friendly. We checked several of them out on a quest to find Mark his Black Butte Porter and finally settled in for beer & pizza. We went back to Sue’s and hung out with Nick & Moose (Nick’s awesome dog). I wish we could stay here longer but it will have to be another time. Tomorrow we head up to a cabin in McCall, ID for a couple of days with the Nagel clan. Peg, Cliff, Sandy, & Amys all fly in tomorrow so it should be great fun!