Well, we were all slow pokes getting up and out the door today.  I don’t know what happened but we did not get going until 11:00 AM this morning.  We even had the maid knocking on the door to see if we had checked out yet.  That is the first time that has happened to us on this trip.  I think our stay in Sacramento spoiled us a little and broke up our packing routine.  We needed the rest, though, because we have some long days ahead to try and get back to Calgary before the snow hits.

Just when we thought we were finally on our way, about 1 KM down the road from our hotel, just before the on ramp for the interstate, a guy in a car pulled up along side us with his windows down, vigorously circling his hand in the air and pointing at our motorcycle.  Now, he was either warning us that there was speed trap ahead or we had something wrapped around something on our bike.  Oh, yeah!  I had hooked Koira to the passenger peg while we were doing our last minute preparations to ride.  Thankfully, I remembered to put Koira in the bag, though!  I just forgot about the leash on the peg!  I must send out a thank you to that man in Bend who made us aware of my blooper.  I hope he did not think we drove off with a dog attached . . . and then lost it along the way!  Jeremy pulled off safely to the side of the road, I detached the battered dog leash from the peg, got back on the bike, and THEN we were on our way out of Bend.  Someday we will be back to stay longer.  Koira’s leash almost stayed there permanently.  I am sure Jeremy could have fashioned a temporary leash out of aircraft wire if he had to, though.

We definitely found a great route through Washington today – central Oregon.  We were trying to avoid, by any means necessary, the wastelands of Washington state that our GPS took us through two years ago.  Central Oregon is absolutely gorgeous.  Oregon keeps on impressing us.  We took the Journey Through Time Scenic Byway and found some amazing roads and scenic vistas.  The stretch of spiraling highway outside Spray reminded us of Highway 1 minus the guard rails and ocean.

We stopped for a quick lunch in Spray at the corner store/gas station/restaurant that you see in all small towns since there were already two motorcycles parked out front – a Triumph Tiger and a Suzuki Hayabusa.  These are sport bikes with just a silly amount of CCs.  The Hayabusa was the fastest factory sport bike when it came out a few years ago.   It is the first time that I had seen one standing still.  The riders of these bikes were probably resting up to tackle the spirals outside of town, but much faster than we went through them.

After our quick lunch of classic American grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches, it was time to hit those amazing central Oregon roads again.  We wound through little towns and around hills and through valleys for several hours.  We saw almost as many horses in central Oregon as we saw in Kentucky.  This area is definitely horse country.  Every home seemed to have cordoned off at least part of their front lawn for not one, but several horses.

We knew we had crossed the border into Washington when we could smell onions.  We had picked Lewiston, Idaho for our destination for the evening, but, when we came to the outskirts of Walla Walla, Washington, I started to think about the wine-tasting and little bistros that I had read about that were supposed to be in Walla Walla.  Poor, Jeremy.  I asked him to re-route us through Walla Walla to see if we could get a room at the La Quinta Inn near downtown Walla Walla.  We passed through a whole “vintners” alley of stores and restaurants that did not smell like onions and, at the end, was the La Quinta Inn.  As we drove into the lot, I was thinking about an evening of walking along the quaint little downtown street and tasting some Washington wines and trying to ignore the very pungent, rotten vegetable or meat smell in the air outside the hotel.  Well, there was no room at the inn anyway . . . or at the Best Western next door.  It was for the best anyway as that smell would have gotten to all of us eventually, but I was mad at myself for wasting twenty minutes of our precious riding time in Walla Walla.  Goodbye, Walla Walla!  You are stinky!

After Walla Walla, it was all about getting to Lewiston, Idaho, before it was too late to find a hotel room.  I don’t know how Jeremy did it, but we made it, just after sunset, to the Red Lion Hotel in Lewiston.  We were cold and tired and a little afraid that they would not have a room for us.  The parking lot was full and there just seemed to be tonnes of men coming out of the hotel in groups wearing plaid flannel shirts like there was some sort of lumberjack convention going on.  Well, I was very relieved when Jeremy came out and said they had lots of room and Koira even got a cuteness discount again!  Apparently, the hotel has the hottest “dance club” in town, so some of the vehicles in the lot were from the club . . . and maybe plaid flannel shirts were the acceptable attire for the club?  I am thinking line dancing club now . . .