June 27 Day 8

Day 8; Mitchell to John Day:  70 miles

Left at 5:30 am to get a jump on the heat and the wind.  Wind really kicks up at the day goes on and does the heat.  I quickly topped out on the main pass of the day then descended through a beautiful canyon.  This is fossil country the territory sure looks like it.  Soon I was in the very cute town of Dayville where I sat at the post office bench in the shade to eat my second breakfast.  Then more Wild West Country side quickly was in Mt. Vernon where I met up with T and L.  We chatted it up and I ate first lunch then quickly finished the last 8 miles into John Day.  We set up camp at the Grant County Fair grounds which was actually really fun then found the city pool.  Wow, that was awesome and so refreshing.  We went back to camp and soon Colleen arrived transported to John Day by Mary.  Colleen flew into Redmond, stocked up with food to feed her and Hortense then drove to John Day.  So I now have a riding partner!  To finish the day, I discovered my headset was a little loose.  Ultimately needed to FaceTime Cenna (Cenna's Custom Cycles) who is Tamara's good friend, Barbara's husband.  He is a mechanic and has a bike shop in Longmont.  He walked me through the process to fix my headset and voila, it was better!  When I meet up with him in Colorado, I'm gonna buy him a beer!  Thanks so much Cenna!