We left the Dunes by way of Mountain Home out of curiosity to see the town where our young friends from the night before came from. We discovered that Mountain Home was sizeable town on both sides of the highway. This was another nice discovery!
We passed Boise and headed toward Oregon. The terrain was flat surrounded by hills in the far distance. IT wasn't hard to believe this was part of an inland sea called the Bonneville Lake. The closer we got to the hills it was clear that this was an inland sea by the water line still easy to see.
We topped at the welcome center in Oregon and read more about this ancient lake.
While we were gathering literature we met a professor from Pennsylvania that was traveling alone cross country on his bike. He was the second human that was attempting this feat, the other being our young friends from Maine. Dr. Dave Hill had made it all the way across the country staying at motels. We were fascinated that at the age of 62 he was doing very well. He was planning to meet his wife in Portland, then would fly back to Pennsylvania together. He was relating to his friends through e-mail on his smart phone and his ride was part of a fund raiser for under privilege kids. His bike was a touring bike with thick tires and some spare ones on his pack. He had extra clothing in case of rain and ten gears to help him get up hills. At this time he was headed toward the nearest town for a few rest days and then he would be off traveling the same route we were about to take. We wished him good luck as he got on his bike and sped down the hill.
Soon we were nearing the Gorge and the closer we got the more wind mills we saw on the hills. By the time we rounded the corner it looked like giant, white daisies were in bloom all over the hills as far as the eyes could see. They were however, absolutely still as the weather was warm and the wind was not blowing at all. This was not good news as we wanted to do some windsurfing that evening, and the river was as flat as glass.
We stopped by the park office to get our site. We wanted a site with water and electricity and they gave us an RV site on a corner which was not good. First of all, it meant that we had to pitch our tent on gravel and out in the open we would have little privacy. So we scouted around and found a cozy site in the tent area without water or electricity. We weight the odds and figured we could do without internet that evening and we could blow up our mattresses using the bathroom electricity. It worked and soon we had our tent pitched and headed for the showers. This being a State Park we found that showers cost a quarter for three minutes. We were out of quarters so we had to go over the bridge to the trucker's stand and get quarters. We waited in line with the rest of the truckers and I happened to tell one our predicament. He said that the trucker stand had a shower and he was willing to let me have his cupons to shower there. I said thanks but I just needed some quarters to shower at the camp site. We finally got to the front of the line and the clerk said she could only give us one dollar's work of quarters. Great! That would be six minutes in the shower! We took our precious quarters and got back to the camp.
Timing was everything with taking a shower at this camp and after our long ride I really needed one. So I got into the cubicle and pushed my quarter in and jumped into a freezing shower and jumped right out, Yiiiiow! Finally, after a minute the shower started getting warm and I jumped in again. I figured I had at least a minute and a half and then three more minutes with my other precious quarter. The water started getting hotter and I went to the knob to get some lukewarm water, but NO! The water kept getting hotter and hotter. I was all soapy and Yiiiaow! I had to rinse with boiling water! Enough of this! I jumped out as the steam was getting filling the cubicle. I quickly dried and got dressed, brushed my teeth and jumped out of the @#%**# bathroom. A day in the life of a camper!
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