a blog about riding motorcycles

Day 4 – July 5, 2010 (Monday)

Start: Moscow, ID
End: state campground between Mt. Vernon and John Day, OR
Mileage: 294 miles

We awoke early and, faced with the prospect of exactly zero concrete plans, we decided to grab breakfast at a place recommended by our friends. The appropriately named Breakfast Club in downtown Moscow lived up to its advanced billing:

Huckleberry stuffed french toast, anyone?

Over breakfast, we discussed potential southerly routes and settled on taking Hwy 395 with a goal of making it to John Day in the late afternoon.

We walked off the hearty breakfast with a brisk walk back to our friend’s place and packed up our things. As I was loading the SV, I noticed a few black drips of oil on the ground under the engine in the vicinity of the front sprocket. Ever get that sinking feeling?

Many choice words went though my head, most of which were unsuitable for the delicate eyes of babies and moto-blog readers.

I pulled out my tool roll and removed the front sprocket cover. The oil had clearly originated from the area of the clutch pushrod; classic signs of a failing seal. And of course this had to occur on Monday, which everyone knows is the second worst day for attempting to contact a motorcycle repair shop.

After reaching the answering machines of all 6 Suzuki dealers within a 100 mile radius, I sent a plea for help on Twitter and called up someone I trusted. The consensus was that a leak was likely developing at the pushrod seal, but that it would probably be fine to keep riding as long as I kept an eye on it. Well alrighty then!

Dealing with the oil drip shenanigans delayed our departure about an hour and we finally left town at 10am¹ We backtracked on Hwy 95 to Lewiston, but this time stopped to take pictures from a viewpoint over the city and the Snake River far below.

We turned off on Hwy 12 at Lewiston and headed for Walla Walla. This part of the ride was somewhat blah as there was quite a lot of traffic heading home from the holiday weekend. The views of the Snake River were quite nice, but the road soon diverged away from it as we headed west.

We reached Dayton, WA around lunchtime. Something caught my eye and we pulled around the block and found ourselves outside the Manilla Bay Cafe.

The food seriously blew our minds.

Shrimp and sausage ravioli.

Kahlua pig.

Up close and personal with the kahlua pig.

Dessert!

Wow.

If you ever find yourself in the sleepy burg of Dayton, WA, you owe it to yourself to stop at the Manilla Bay Cafe.

And now the quality of this part of the RR is going to go downhill, because the rest of this day is pretty much a vague blur. Fatigue was definitely my nemesis.

Once past Pilot Rock, Hwy 395 is beautiful. It was neat passing by Ukiah from the other direction since we’d passed it only a couple of days before. The road is wonderfully curvy, particularly in the Umatilla National Forest. Too bad I couldn’t enjoy it as I was getting tired. The Ironbutt folks aren’t kidding when they say that your average daily mileage will start to drop during longer trips. Every corner started to look like a hairpin, and I slowed down so much for corners that Stacey definitely noticed it.

Fatigue sucks.

Anyway, we made it to a nice state campground between Mt. Vernon and John Day and called it a day.

Steak, anyone?

It was a day of firsts:

• first time I’ve had a mechanical issue while on a multi-day trip
• first time I actually had to use the GPS to find the way out of a town instead of being able to rely on signs (twice!)²
• first time in Walla Walla and Pendleton (and seeing the famous Pendleton Roundup Rodeo Grounds)
• first time thinking the SV might not be suited for long distance touring after all³

1. See? What did I tell you? [↩]
2. Frakking road construction in Walla Wall and Pendleton. F U poorly marked detours! [↩]
3. Fatigue-induced blasphemy! [↩]

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Day 3 – July 4, 2010 (Sunday)

Start: Enterprise, OR
End: Moscow, ID
Mileage: 120 miles

Our Fourth of July began with a bang, as we awakened to the sound of gunshots rolling through town. Apparently, the locals don’t waste time getting right down to explody business on this noisiest of holidays, and a gun shooting competition was taking place that morning down at the fairgrounds.

The view from the hotel parking lot wasn't bad as parking lots go.

We found a small eatery and enjoyed a basic but hearty breakfast. On the way out of the building, we met a fellow moto-traveler who pulled in next to our parked bikes. Turns out he faced the same camping conundrum that we had the night before, only he happened to stop at a brewery — and they offered to let him camp there for the night!¹

True to form, we departed town around 10am and headed directly north on Hwy 3. The scenery steadily improved as we left the fields surrounding Enterprise behind and climbed into the mountains making up the northern part of the Wallowa National Forest. Our first stop was the overlook at Joseph Canyon:

After the overlook, the terrain turned steadily drier until we hit the infamous Rattlesnake Grade. This road is FANTASTIC.

FANTASTIC! (Look closely up top and you'll see the road twisting, and twisting, and twisting...)

This part of Hwy 3 had miles, and miles, and miles of twisties, and was without a doubt one of the highlights of the trip.

The next 20 miles or so was mostly bland farmland on a high plateau. But once we reached the edge of the plateau, the road dropped through a technical set of twisties down into the Snake River canyon and Lewiston, ID.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat in town while Stacey took photos of her impressive bug killing skills.

After lunch, we headed for Hwy 95, which features an impressive climb out of the canyon but is really just the equivalent of a four-lane interstate for most of the way to Moscow, ID.

We spent the day with our friends in Moscow, seeing the sights around the area. Too late I realized I forgot to bring my camera, or I would have taken a few photos of the verdant green Palouse. This photo I stole from wikipedia will have to do:

The Palouse (photo source: Lynn Suckow, Wikipedia)

Everyone had to wake up early the next morning, so we hit the hay around 10pm only to have our sleep constantly interrupted by the noisy Mormon kids upstairs. Quiet, children!²

More to come…

1. Note to self: find and remember this brewery! [↩]
2. Who knew Mormons could be so wired without caffeine? [↩]

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