Heading down the freeway towards Yellowstone National Park.

Anyway, they met me in Hammett late this afternoon and hung out at my great uncle’s place for a few hrs.  It was a beautiful warm evening for riding for riding. Another day of clear blue skys and no jacket freedom.  You know, one of those days that just makes you feel sorry for those that don’t ride, and yet smiling inside yourself…cause you’ve found a secret!

I was hoping to make it to Pocatello, ID by this evening, but the rest of them had already been driving all day to get to Hammett, so we stopped for the night in Jerome, ID.  Tomorrow it’s Yellowstone National Park!  I haven’t been there since I was a kid…maybe 8 or nine years old.  That should be fun.  I’m hoping to get some good pics there.  I guess we’ll find out tomorrow what I end up with.

Me and my bike at my cosin's place in Cove, OR near La Grande.

Day 3 started with a good country breakfast at my cousin’s place in Cove, OR.  It wasn’t going to be a real long day, so I was not concerned about leaving real early. I left cove around 8:30am and headed for my next RCGT Check point in Horseshoe Bend, ID.  This was another place that I had never been and I could only imagine what it must look like.  As usual, I was wrong. lol I was a very scenic ride and one that I would recommend.

If the last two mornings are any indication of what this tip is going to be like, I’m in for a lot of back tracking for various reasons.  But hey, I’m on a bike and have no real time limit on when I have to be back in Oregon, so who cares?  As long as I’m riding it’s all good, right? The morning air was much warmer than it was in Moscow yesterday morning. Still cool enough that I started the day off wearing my cold weather riding suit, but still a lot warmer than yesterday.  The sun was shining on the snow capped mountains and the view was breath taking.

The dam at the park in the Black Canyon on the way to Horseshoe Bend, ID.

South of Ontario, OR I got off of I84 and headed North on Hwy 30, then East on Hwy 72.  This was not my favorite scenery thus far by any stretch of the imagination.  But as always, the ride was good no matter how brown and dead the scenery looked. 

Once I started into the Black Canyon on Hwy 52 I started enjoying the scenery again.  Canyons are so cool, even if it’s brown all around you.  Although it was pretty green along the river in the canyon.  The hwy was in good condition and was a very nice motorcycle road.  Lots of moderate curves that followed the river along the bottom of the canyon.  It was and easy, enjoyable riding.  Before getting into the Black Canyon, it got warm enough that I was riding in my sleeveless shirt and leather vest.  Another perfect day for riding.

Here I am at Kit's Riverside Restaraunt, the RCGT check point in Horseshoe Bend, ID. A great restaurant and a great ride through the Black Cannyon.

Horseshoe Bend is a small pleasant town with mountains on all sides.  My check point here was Kit’s Riverside Restaurant.  And when they say riverside…they mean riverside!  The back yard of the restaurant was beautiful and set up with picnic tables and went right up to the edge of the river.  It seemed as though there was only 20′ or so between the back of the restaurant and the river, but I’m sure it was more like 60 or 70′.  But it was very close and felt even closer than it was because of how it was set up.  That back side of the restaurant was set up like an old western building.  It was a very attractive place and made the some what boring ride before the Black Canyon all worth it.

This is the back side of Kit's.

I still wasn’t hungry after my country breakfast earlier that morning, but it was getting pretty hot, so I just had an iced tea and sat out in the back lawn at one of the picnic tables to drink it.

There was a Harley in the parking lot when I pulled up.  So when I finished my iced tea, I looked around to see if I could spot my fellow riders.  Sure enough, I found them.  What a pleasant couple. We chatted a while and exchanged ride stories, where we came from and where we were headed. Unfortunately, they were heading for Washington for a funeral.  I gave them my condolences and hit the road again.  This time, headed for my great uncle’s place in Hammett, ID.

A shot from the hill over looking Horseshoe Bend, ID.

I didn’t know where they lived, but they were expecting me, so I decided to call them from a rest area and get their address.  For some reason I was under the impression that they lived in Twin Falls, I stopped to call them from a rest area about 25 miles East of Hammett.  Yup, you got it. I rode right past them and had to back track again.  But once again, that turned out to be not all bad.

Since I had just been on the freeway and was tired of that nice, but incredibly boring road, I decided to take the back roads from the rest area back to Hammett.  That turned out to be Old Hwy 30 and then some other back roads into Hammett.  A much more interesting ride than I84, although pretty bumpy. 

Me and my bike on the hill above Horseshoe Bend, ID.

I arrived at my great uncle & aunt’s place around 5:30pm, had a beer and chatted for the evening.  I will be spending the evening her tonight.  I don’t get to see them very often and we had a very nice and enjoyable time together.  I’m looking forward to going back again next summer. 

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I’m not planning on getting any motels on this trip.  I will either stay with friends or relatives that I get invitations from, or sleep on the pavement beside my bike in a truck stop parking lot, in a layered fashion.  Looking at the layers top to bottom, street light, me, my handgun.  lol

After leaving my brother’s house, I stopped to top of my tank at the gas station in Brownsville then on to my first destination, The Corner Cafe,  another RCGT check point in Metolious, OR.

It looked like rain to the East…the direction I was heading, so I decided to just put on my riding suite there rather than stopping later to do it.  As I started into that Cascade mountains it started to rain.  No big deal.  My bike is my only vehicle so I ride year round anyway.  I’m used to riding in the rain.

But as I got higher, the rain turned to snow!  Now this was exciting.  And not in a good way!  Ok, so it did give me a bit of pleasure…how many other people are crazy enough to ride motorcycle in the snow.  I know I’m not the only one, but hey, it kind felt good to be in a small group of crazy people.  lol  I had snow to start with.  But getting snowed on while riding a motorcycle is not something I want to repeat.  The road was to wet for the snow to stick, but it was sticking to my windshield like feathers on a honey coated window!  With no windshield wipers, I just stuck my head out the side enough that I could see where I was going.  Fortunately my eyeballs were warm enough that the snow didn’t stick to them!

The snow only lasted for about 10 miles. Once I got to Sisters it the sun was shining again and it was warm.  That was a relief.

This is the Corner Cafe in Metolius, OR. It is one of the check points on the RCGT, but they went out of business, so they passed the stamp and paper work on to the Desert Inn Bar in Metolius.

When I got to my first destination in Metolious, OR,  I found out that they cafe had gone out of business.  There was a sign in the window telling the RCGT riders where the check point had been moved to.  It was just down the street a ways, but I decided to take pics of my bike in front of it anyway so so that I would have proof that I had been there.

After taking a pic of my bike in front of the Corner Cafe, I headed down the street to the new check point…Deasert Inn Bar.  When I got there I found the place locked.    It was about 11:00am by that time.  I figured, it’s a bar so they probably won’t open till noon.  I went to the business next door and asked what time the bar opens.  They told me 11:30.  So I decided to wait.  At 12:20 a pickup truck comes flying into the parking lot.  The drive got out and ran to the door of the bar and opened up.

As it turns out, she was the hired help and was late because of some family issue.  She had a misunderstanding with her boss and didn’t realize that she was supposed to open that morning.  Oh well.  I was the only one waiting on her anyway.  I just thanked her for stamping my Grand Tour Passport Book and was on my way again.  This time on to the next check point in Boardman, OR.

Shaniko Wedding Chapel - Shaniko, OR

The ride form Metolious was very beautiful and uneventful.  The weather was warm and sunny.  It was a great feeling to be on the road, out in the open.  Non bikers just don’t have a clue what they’re missing! 

The route to Boardman took me through a small ghost town in Eastern Oregon called Shaniko, which as of the 2000 census, had a population of 26…making it a virtual ghost town.  After stopping to take a few pics, I continued on to Boardman.

After getting my RCGT Passport book stamped in Boardman, I decided that I still had enough time to make it to my next check point, the Best Western in Moscow, ID.  I know, I said I wasn’t going to get any motels on this trip.

Shaniko jail and farm house - Shaniko, OR

Somewhere after riding through Pasco, WA I started feeling like my bike wasn’t running quite right.  It seemed to be short on power when climbing hills, but ran fine on the flats.  I stopped to check things out and found nothing.  It seemed to be running just fine.  So I continued on to Moscow.  The problem seemed to have gone away for about 20 miles or so, then started again. This time it was worse and before long there was no doubt I had a problem.  I was out in the middle of now where and didn’t know for sure what I was going to do.  I finally came upon a wide spot in the road just West of La Cross, WA about 5:30pm.  There was a gas station/convenience store there, so I stopped and asked if there were any motorcycle shops in the area. They said there was a

Harley shop down the road, but that they thought it was already closed for the day.  A quick phone call confirmed that.  I didn’t have much choice but to try to make it to the next town. So off I went.

Just a few miles down the road I realized that there was no way I was going to make it to the next large town, so I decided to stop in La Cross and find a park to sleep in until morning and then see if I could get some help.  As I pulled into the small “Poke & Plum” town (a town so small, you see a dot out in the distance, and by the time you get to it, it’s plum gone), I noticed an auto mechanic shop with a light on inside.  They were closed, but were working late in the back.  I knocked on the window and a young man came out to see what I needed.  I told him of my situation and said I suspected the fuel filter.  They were just the kind of people that you always want to find when you are broke down.

RCGT Check Point - The Riverside Grill and Lodge in Boardman.

The mechanic found a fuel filter that was bigger than the one on my bike, but it looked like we could make it work.  I was told that this was a car and truck shop and they knew nothing about motorcycles. But if I was willing to do the work they would let me use their shop and tools and would help where they could.  So I pulled my bike in the back door and started taring my bike apart.  Actually not that hard to get to the fuel filter, but did require taking some things apart.  We got the new filter on and started the bike.  It ran like nothing ever happened.  They said my bill was $23 for parts and labor.  I was so grateful for their willingness to help me that I just gave them $30 and told them to keep the change.

With my mechanic’s bill settled, I headed East again.  I was fairly confident that the fuel filter was the problem and that it had been fixed.  So I decided to try to make it to Moscow yet that evening.  I figured that if my bike quit on me again, I would just dig out my tent and pitch it beside the road wherever my bike quit.  I didn’t really relish that idea, but how bad could it really be? 

About 9:00pm I pulled into the Best Western in Moscow, ID.  Fortunately, it was a motel and thus open all night.  I got my coveted stamp in my Passport book.  Now it was time to find a place to sleep!  I chuckled to myself at the thought of what I was doing. Here I stood in the lobby of a nice motel, and I was looking for a parking lot to throw my mat on for the night.  lol  See, I told you I wasn’t going to buy motels! 

RCGT Check point in Moscow, ID was a Best Western.

Well, the irony of the motel/parking lot situation just got better.  As I walked out of the motel lobby, I notice a construction trailer in the parking lot of the Winco across the street.  I got on my bike and rode over there.   I figured the chances of that trailer being moved before morning were pretty slim. So I parked my bike beside it and put my mat and sleeping back between the trailer and my bike, and went to sleep.  Thus ended my first day on the road.  And in spite of the breakdown, what a great day it has been.  Now if my night ends up as good, I’ll be in great shape and ready to hit the road again in the morning!