Oregon Figure-Eight Tour, Day 4

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! [↩]

Tagged as: Motorcycling