D12 Unity Lake to Vale, OR

(In Brogan's City Park. Find the yellow bike)

Mileage: 74

Tomorrow's Destination: Boise and Kent and Cathe!

Video: (the pictures aren't in the correct locations!) https://www.relive.cc/view/vRO7g4NgoyO

Map: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/91329052?privacy_code=ADwvX0iYyiuawa

Today was a grind and tomorrow will be too, but I have some of my dearest friends at the end of the ride and a rest day. I lucked out because there was a chance of thunderstorms but I didn't encounter any. I was scared of getting stuck in the open in the most 'service free' ride so far. Also, I got hot. 

(Ready to leave)

I packed up fast because the t-storm chance went up after 11. I got out at 7! Mike and Kathy probably wondered if I was a dream. I quickly made it to the town of Unity where the woman running the only store found their last breakfast sandwich for me. Despite plenty of literal signs that we didn't agree on politics, she wished me a happy and safe journey and said she would have made me a sandwich of they'd been out.

(7:15 or so)

I made my way up another canyon, found that yesterday's climbs had taken a toll. The landscape alternated between sagebrus, range, and farmland. 

(The sagebrush part)

Somewhere along the way I got a howdi from a man who was shooting Belding's ground squirrels, AKA sage rats, with his wife. Since she was shooting and he was talking, I think she's the better shot. He said yesterday she fired 1500 rounds hitting a squirrel every other shot. They were shooting them to reduce their load on alfalfa fields. He had two friends who have ridden across the US. You can't make assumptions about rural areas a bikes. (And BTW Mike and Kathy have a friend who biked across the US a year after open heart surgery!)

At the end I asked to take his picture but I didn't give him a chance to say no (kind of like the waitstaff at dim sum). I think I was treating him like a 'colorful local' and not a human being so I deleted that photo. I'll get a book people can sign. I'll still snap pictures of people but only if it's not like a tourism opportunity.

(The agricultural part)

The valley got more agricultural as I went on. In Brogan I saw a sign "Haruda Japanese Garden". Well, that's interesting! I went up the gravel road where the arrow pointed, but could find the garden. Back in the City Park I hello'ed a woman leaving her home. She said the garden was right by there sign. This is the garden / lawn. Taking with her was very interesting. She said this valley had a lot of Japanese farmers in it. The Harudas where some of the last. She was the second person who told me they move away from their tiny towns but keep returning. She also said she doesn't see eye to eye with neighbors on politics. After my last photo experience, I opted not to ask for a photo.

(The Haruda Japanese Garden)

The Bates Motel is full (the woman in Brogan knows the Bates BTW) as was the other motel. There was one more  interesting hotel in town that seems more like an apartment that rents rooms. The manager didn't answer the phone so I got a spot at the Vale Trails RV park. My spot is nice but right by a train yard. I have an outlet to charge my electronics and ate some raspberries from the grocery. I'll try to leave earlier tomorrow on the longest ride of the trip so far, 80 miles. As I wrote this the sun has come out and the threat of rain seems to have gone for now 

(I wrote this in the chair)

(My soul food)