No, we fortunately didn’t get arrested for “stealth camping” – that would be embarrassing! At 7:00am an old man arrived at the campground and walked towards us carrying two gas cans. He asked “what’s for breakfast?”. In my sometimes smart aleck response, I replied “vodka and oatmeal”. He said “vodka is nice”
His name is Frank, he said he’s the last of the volunteers for this park because the others died over the years. In fact his grandfather gave the land for this park in 1934. The gas was to run the water pump to keep this oasis green. He was glad we were able to use this park to camp and he told us a few stories of his younger years as a rancher/farmer and his kids careers. Very nice fellow.
The hills were hard and the weather was hot but we had fun anyways and saw some cool sights. We met a fellow cyclist named Rico in the tiny town of Fossil. He’s was raised in San Diego but he’s now retired in Guadalajara.
After 80 miles, we arrived in Madras to stay at the Quality Inn – a good place to shower and do some sink laundry. It’s all part of the gig.
Nice. John Day is cool. Again, I am impressed by all the stories one receives from bike travel. Stories rule.