Thursday morning after breakfast at the Broken Yoke with Shelby we left the Murrays with panniers full of clean laundry and headed to our next house in Springfield! It was a much needed nice, easy ride... except for the rain which we're getting used to. We hung out downtown Eugene then attempted to find the Jones' house which was in Springfield (without a map..don't know why we thought we could do that since we get lost when we DO have a map :) ). After a frustrating forty minutes of biking around trying to get around the interstate we hopped on a bus for $1.50 so we could make it to Tom and Julia's for dinner!! We have been so blessed! Thank you Shelby and Joe for hooking us up with your friends in Springfield! Tom and Julia made us an awesome and organic home cooked meal, followed by hot cocoa, and popcorn and a big comfy bed! We did not want to leave in the morning thats for sure!

Friday we had a late start, but it was finally beautiful weather and we had the best ride along the McKenzie River and stopped at McKenzie Bridge (which we learned from the man at the convenient store that it was NOT a town and there was NO library to get internet access/charge phones... so we just hung out there for a few hours :) ).

I don't even know what to say about yesterday.... probably should start about a mile down the road while approaching our first hill when kels tries to put her bike into lowest gear and her chain fell off.. Important to note: we were climbing the 5325 ft. McKenzie pass and the lowest gear is pretty much a necessity when ridin fully loaded, so this wasn't cool. After messing with it for a solid 30 mins on the side of the road and getting so desperate that we even called Mr. Fix-It-Luke back in IA for repair tips we were pretty close to giving up when some legit cyclists come by heading up the McKenzie Pass. A few mins later we had localized the problem to a bent inner chain ring, which means, kelsey was S.O.L. and would not be able to use her lowest gear until we could get to a bike shop for a new chain ring. Problem being, we first had to climb the mt. to get there. Kelsey was a CHAMPION, and three and a half hours later we reached the summit!! We couldn't have attempted it at any better time, the road had just opened up, and the snow (yes SNOW! in OR in June!!) had been plowed off the roads and only bikers were allowed through so there was NO TRAFFIC to fight on the switchbacks. We met another bike tourist, Mark, at the summit who made us feel pretty good about hauling our load up while all the cyclists on their roadbikes sped past us. So thankful we met Mark, cuz on our way down we got word that there was a rodeo in Sisters, the town we were plannin on stopping at, and that all campsites were full. But Mark had sent a message for us through this other biker to tell us that people were camping out at the high school! Thanks, Mark!! So we put down tent for free!! and snuck in the high school during a basketball tournament, used the girls' locker room showers then headed into town for dinner. The town is super cute, western store fronts, perfect for a rodeo! We felt a little out of place in our smelly bike attire. After dinner we roamed around to an icecream/cafe/coffee shop where we were hoping to sit down, charge our phones, and chill out for awhile. The lady told us that they were closing soon and we must have looked a little pathetic because right after she said that she said, "ohh, girls, how 'bout you sit down. Relax, relax. I'll clean, you sit." So we sat. :) Then as we were leaving she handed us this HUGE container of homemade chicken noodle soup and told us she was going to throw it away otherwise. She told us to be strong and courageous and shouted, "I love you!" as we headed out the door. People in Oregon are great....we might just stay. :)