Karooo III

July 7, 2015

Dayville OR

I've spent a good deal of my life around motorcycles, motorcycle shops and motorcycle riders, a better group of folks would be harder to find. We went to the KTM shop first thing this morning and yahooo, they have a tire for the bike. Bad news is, Paxton the young kid running the shop is there by himself and can't change it. He says, "no problem" makes a quick call and says follow me. He closes up the shop, tosses the tire in his truck and off we go a mile or so down the road to "Cycle Parts" a Triumph Dealer. We meet Rod, the owner and tell him our story, he calls over his service manager and tells him to put our tire change on the top of the list, "These guys are on the road" and an hour later we are, on the road with fresh rubber. Of course while we waited Rod had me check out his new line of electric bikes, so I took a test ride on a new "Zero" dirt bike. It was unbelievable how fast it was! It took a little getting used to with no clutch and no sound!, but man did that bike go!!  So if you are ever in Eugene, stop by and see Rod and Erica at Cycle Parts and Paxton at KTM Country, real good folks.

Once on the road we head east and follow a nice road along the McKenzie River, then head up a great twisty, (no RV's Allowed Road) up over McKenzie Pass. We stop at a viewpoint overlooking a huge black crater and see Mt Washington and Mt Jefferson in the distance. We pass through the cool little town of 'Sisters' and the on to Redmond. Once past Redmond the 2 lane road weaves in and out of the painted hills to the town of Mitchel, where we had hoped to find lodging for the night. Not much in Mitchell, so we make a few calls to the next town and find all the hotels are full, reserved for fire fighters.....  hmmm firefighters??   Then I notice the large plumes of grey smoke up ahead, 2 large wildfires are moving through the hills. We move on and find a room at the Fish Inn Lodge in the tiny town of Dayville. There is no restaurant, just 2 small stores with some beer left. The firefighters have a camp set up in town with tents and facilities, it's in the 90's....  We sit on the porch and watch a hundred or so firefighters drive by, stop for beer and cold drinks and head for their tents.
The Inn has a microwave and our dinner of frozen bean burritos isn't so bad....