Houston We Have A Problem

We are now in Bend Oregon after 4 days on the road. Almost 2000 miles. Stayed in Boise Idaho last nite. The roads were clear and with light to moderate traffic all the way through the desert of Utah. Only moderate traffic in Boise Idaho and Salt Lake City. It was in Burns, Oregon that things got interesting. This is what the country looks like:


You might recall Burns was in the news in January of 2016 when a group calling themselves Citizens for Constitutional Freedom holed up at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.  There were about 12 of them intent on taking over the US and starting a new government to make America Great Again. Followers of Ammon and Ryan Bundy who ever they are. Click on the link if you want to know more. Anyway, that's not what I'm writing about today.

What I'm writing about today is what Burns looked like when we arrived - Gridlocked. Looked like an evacuation. Every friggin gas station had multiple lines waiting to get gas at over $3.00 per gallon. There were like 6 stations and all had lines.

We finally just picked one and waited our turn. When we made it to the pump the pump attendant told us it was the Solar Eclipse. He said the town had been like this for 3 days. People from the west coast and parts of Idaho traveled there to view the eclipse and were heading home. Looks kind of like it did in New Orleans after Katrina but without the devastation. Amazing to see that out on the high desert. Kind of scary. Both the gridlock and the attempted take over of the United States government.

Any way that is only part of the story. When we got to Bend we found out there is a wild fire out of Sisters Oregon. A big fire called the Milli Fire. Like 11,000 acres big and right on our route in a few days. So we now have a humongous wild fire on our route we are going to have to plan contingencies for.



That's it, I'm tired. We pick BJ up at the airport tomorrow afternoon. Then on to Florence on the coast. Gosh I hope we don't see any more drama. This is supposed to be a nice leisurely bicycle tour.

More soon.