1 Comment
We are testing out a potential new site for blogging. Meghan is working on trying to link the new blog site to this one. If she can, you will automatically see the feed here. For now, please click here to be directed to the new blog site. This site allows you subscribe to the blog so that you get an email when a new post is up. This way you are in the know.
 April 4, 2019 Idaho here we come. We are packed and ready to go. It’s only 20 miles until our next destination in Fruitland. We met Callie and her mom, Susan last summer on the beach in Lincoln City and they have been following our journey and have invited us to park at their house. We will park there tonight and Ron will ride around their area to bank some more miles so we aren’t sitting idle. Meghan grabs a quick shower and Team Ronyx gets ready to hit the road again. Ron leaves 9:30 am and peddles out of Vale. Meghan catches up to him at 7.5 miles outside of Vale at the Scenic Vista. They discuss the next couple of turns as Ron will have to start making turns in a couple miles and Meghan wanted to make sure he had the right directions. Meghan stays within sight of Ron so he can navigate through the outskirts of Ontario. They arrive in town around 11:30 am and decide they should do lunch to kill some time before they go into Idaho. They decide they will all travel across the bridge together into Idaho to get their pictures. They grab some Subway for lunch, then Meghan moves the truck across the highway into the Walmart parking lot so they can see the truck. Then Meghan and the dogs cross the highway again to catch up with Ron on the other side and they all travel to the Idaho border, get their pictures and then walk back. Ron’s phone has been acting up for the last week, slowly charging and glitching. They decide they should stop into Verizon to see about getting a replacement because this is the fourth phone Ron has had that has done this to him a year after getting it replaced. He goes in the store and they tell him he either has to contact the warranty company or buy another phone and upgrade his plan again. Ron doesn’t want to buy another expensive phone that is going to do the same thing to him. He leaves the store. They decide to cash in the 2 miles it will take them to get to their destination. After we arrived to Susan and Callie’s we all chatted and Susan warned us about the infamous goat head thorns that are all over Idaho and how cyclists out here get tubeless tires or line their tires with special material to ward off getting flats. Meghan decides she is going to get their blog finished and Ron gets his bike gear out to ride around the neighborhood. He is gone for less than 10 minutes and returns asking Meghan to assist him with a flat tire. He pumps it up and rides around again and returns with a flat. They ask Susan about a nearby cycle shop. It’s back in Ontario. Meghan and Ron prepare to drive the Great Adventure truck back to Ontario. Susan offers for them to drive her truck. They are extremely thankful. They go back into Ontario to Eastern Oregon Cycles. The gentleman there knows exactly what happened to the bike tire. He places a special liner in both front and back tires and explains how to fix a flat with the special liner. While they are back in Ontario, Team Ronyx gets an idea to go get a Verizon Prepaid phone to fix Ron’s phone issues. Meghan runs into Walmart and gets a phone for Ron. They decide they will wait until his phone is worse before they use it but for now they will have it just in case. They head back to Fruitland and enjoy some pizza and salad with Susan and Callie. Meghan gets out the laptop and her and Susan try to find the best exact route across Idaho and the next few places for Team Ronyx to camp at as they venture across new territory. Soon it’s time for bed. April 5, 2019 Team Ronyx is ready to head out today, Ron decides he is going to shower quick before they leave. He turns on his phone to check for messages and it starts glitching again. Meghan suggests they should just use the new phone so he doesn’t have to worry about it while he is out on the road. She gets the new phone out of the box, puts in his sim card, and transfers all the files and messages. Success! Or not! Ron goes to listen to his voicemail and he is redirected to Verizon’s customer service line. They try to call out on the phone and it doesn’t work. Meghan calls customer service and explains their situation. The woman on the phone explains that since they bought a prepaid phone, their policy is that you have to pay at least one month’s service on the prepaid line before you can activate the phone for a paid phone plan. They decide they don’t want to pay that much more to get the phone working so Meghan asks what can be done about his existing phone. She talks to the woman for awhile who attempts to trouble shoot the phone with her, then she connects her with another technical support person. After discussing the issues with the charging port, the technician suggests Team Ronyx just buy a wireless charger for the phone. Meghan had an "aha" moment as her coworker/friend had given her one before they left for the trip. She told the technician she wanted to hold off on purchasing another charger if she could make this one work and they disconnected. Meghan had to find it as it was tucked away in their tiny home but, guess what!? It was compatible for Ron's phone! So that fixed having to use the USB port to charge it but it didn't fix the pulsing vibration that his phone was doing. After 3 hours of backing up his phone and rebooting, the phone was still pulsing and glitching. In a last ditch effort, Ron took the phone and plugged it into Meghan's truck charger (which has been the only way the phone has even taken a charge) and eventually the pulsing stopped. Now they can only charge the phone on the wireless charging pad. They have decided to keep the pre-paid phone just in case and will activate it if and when Ron's current phone finally bites the dust. April 6, 2019 We are moving pretty slow this morning. We woke up to rain. Not our favorite. One last trip check and we decided that we will drive the first few miles to get to better roadways. We let the dogs play with their new friends Ollie and Bell. Team Ronyx and their new friends say their goodbyes and they hit the road. First they take a trip around the neighborhood to measure Ron's biked miles. He biked 20 miles around their neighborhood yesterday while Meghan worked on the phone situation. They drive 6 miles on 95 South towards Parma, Idaho. Once they find their spot to unload, Ron gets his gear all set and starts peddling down 95. They planned to stay at the Old Fort Boise Park but once they got close to Parma they decided they could probably go ahead and travel another 15 miles to Caldwell, ID. Meghan does a quick check on campgrounds and they find the Caldwell Campground and RV Park. She calls and they have 2 spots left, so they grab one while they can. 20 miles into the journey on 95/20 he flags Meghan down. He has another flat tire from a goat head. This time it is a trailer tire. But have no fear, we have spares. Ron swaps out the tire and heads down the road once again. The wind is making for a tough ride for Ron, it makes him feel like he is traveling uphill or twice as far as he really has. April 7, 2019 We are changing our route today. We have to get the roof to our tiny house fixed and it’s raining, again. We changed our route to travel south of Interstate 84 so that we didn’t have to ride on 84/20/26 from Boise to Mountain home. Now we are going to jump on 44E to go to the hardware store, then continue East and get on 26 to go into Boise. We booked a night stay in the Boise Riverside Rv Park. On our way to the hardware store, we stopped at a Shell Gas Station in Middleton and ran into a woman that we had met in Vale, OR. When we met her in Vale, she had told us she lived outside of town in the country and she had a black lab that was 10 who disappeared in January so she just wanted to look at ours. We told her our story and she thought it was a really good cause. We wished her well in hopefully finding her dog or at least finding answers as to what happened to him. Her and her neighbors believe something may have killed him out in the wilderness. Flash forward to today and we run into her again as she travels out to Idaho on the weekends to watch her grandkids. We exchanged hellos and wished each other well. How cool is that!? We go a few miles down the road to the Ridley’s Market and Ace hardware. A grocery store and hardware store combo. That’s different. Ron gets the screws he needs and Meghan grabs their groceries. It's still overcast and raining. We decide to drive for a little further and see about the road conditions. They are ok in some spots but for the most part they aren't great. Ron decides to cash in some of his 94 banked miles to just get to their spot for the night and fix the camper. They arrive at the Boise Riverside RV Park around 1:00pm and traveled 24 miles. Ron fixes the roof, then Team Ronyx goes for a walk on the Boise River Greenbelt. It's a really nice walking, running, biking path that follows the Boise river. There are places for the dogs to get in the water, they get to do their favorite game of fetching sticks and logs. After we return we met our camping neighbor John, he's got an awesome little tow-able camper and a beautiful brindle Great Dane named Astro. Ron and John hit it off right away and chatted while Meghan made the dogs their supper and worked on downloading pictures and the blog updates. After supper, Meghan took another 1.5 mile walk on the path as she needs to stay active on this trip too! Tomorrow we will head to Pleasant Valley. We will probably end up in an OHV staging area since there doesn't seem to be too much in the camping/rest area department out there in the desert. March 30, 2019 Wow does it feel good to get a nice hot shower! We feel like new people. Today's agenda is to find a laundromat. We drive back out to where we entered Burns to find the truck stop where there is a laundromat. Ron walks in and asks about laundry. The lady behind the counter says, "well, we kinda have a place to do laundry". Meghan went upstairs and found, one washer and one dryer, both in use. No luck there. She goes out and tells Ron. They decide to try and find something else in town but for now, they wanted to get the dogs out. They took them back across town to Burns Pond, there were two ponds joined together by a spillway type of gully. There were fisherman in the first of the two ponds so Team Ronyx walked through the tall grass to the other unoccupied pond. The ground was soft. Ron threw sticks into the water for awhile. Onyx loves to dive. Phoenix, he's still leary of swimming. He will wade in water but is hesitant to swim. Ron jokes and tells Phoenix he isn't a real lab or he would swim. Meghan uses the time to call around to find a place to do laundry. They find a small RV park just outside of town on Highway 20 E that will allow them to do their laundry. They drive out there. It's called the Burns RV park. It's a quaint little place, very well kept, they have full hook up sites, pull thru sites, tee-pees and cabins that you can rent. The staff (a family) is super friendly. We thought about parking there for a night before we left burns because we like it so much. After laundry, Meghan wasn't feeling quite right. She thought it was because they hadn't eaten much that day. They went back to town and got some food. Ron got a calzone and Meghan got a BLT. They went back to their hotel room and Meghan was still not feeling well. That night she got pretty ill with some sort of stomach flu. March 31, 2019 Meghan still isn't feeling great. She's tire and has no energy, Ron books them another night at the hotel to give Meghan the day to rest. He hops on the bike with Onyx and rides 12 miles outside of town and back. He banks up 24 miles for the next day. He comes back and Meghan is feeling a bit better so they decide to take a walk through town. Today is a laid back day, not much happening. They start to organize their gear and prepare to head out to Juntura the next day. April, 1, 2019 No fooling around here, Team Ronyx is gearing up to hit the road. Since Ron already rode the 24 miles yesterday they decide to drive that far this morning. They load up, fuel up the truck and generator gas can and head out of town. They get to the Buchanan Rest Stop and Ron preps his bike and Fonyx for their trek to Juntura, OR. Meghan has no cell service out here so they decide that Meghan will sit for 45 mins and if Ron doesn't see her in an hour he will double back in case Meghan has run into some sort of problem. Ron and Fonyx head out, Meghan snaps a few photos and cracks open a book that her friend sent along to kill some time. About 30 minutes later Ron comes rushing back into the rest area that Meghan is, thinking something has gone wrong. Meghan was confused, she set a timer and Ron had only been gone 30 some minutes. Why did he think an hour passed by. That's when it dawned on her. The time change. Ron's phone had service on the hill outside Buchanan Rest area and switched time zones on him as he was working hard to peddle up the hill, he hadn't realized that an hour really hadn't already passed. Meghan never thought of the potential time change as she didn't think they were far enough East yet. They drove the truck back to where Ron had turned around and he got back on the road with Fonyx once again. (I guess the universe decided to play a trick on Team Ronyx since they weren't playing tricks on each other intentionally) When they arrived in Juntura they calculated their miles. They drove 25 and Ron rode 34 miles of mountainous terrain. They decided to grab a late lunch/dinner at The Oasis Cafe (only store/eatery in Juntura). Meghan got a cheese steak and Ron got the mile high mushroom burger. After dinner, Team Ronxy drove out to Chukar Park. It was 6 miles off of highway 20 along the Malheur River (the most narrow river they have ever seen). The park was gorgeous but there was absolutely no cell service. No calls, no texts, no blogs tonight. Instead, they build a fire, played with the dogs and enjoyed the sheer peacefulness of nature. Their campsite was right along the river with panoramic views of the hills and valley. At dark time, they set up the generator, turned on the heat and went to bed. It was probably the best night's sleep they have had in awhile. April 2, 2019 8:30 am (We are still on PST) we rise and prepare to head off to Harper, Oregon. We load up our gear, clean off the dirt from our stairs and drive back out to 20 E. Ron gets out the bike, cart, Fonyx, Meghan double checks their route now that they have some limited service. They decide they will go to Harper and see what's there. Ron heads out on the bicycle and Meghan snaps a few photos of his departure and updates their Facebook page. They are a few steps closer to Idaho, they think they should be there on Friday. It's overcast and raining all day. There is no cell service for most of the drive. Ron passes the shoe tree just before Harper and gets a few photos with the bike and cart, Meghan is close behind and gets some too with the truck in the picture. She catches up to Ron and they make their way to the Harper Junction. There is a little gas/service station there. Ron decides they should go ahead and fill the truck up while they are there. They share their story with the people there and tell them they are headed to Harper and asked what was there. The locals tell them there isn't anything there and that Team Ronyx is probably better off going straight to Vale so they have cell service and conveniences of stores and a place to camp. Meghan and Ron discuss their plan of action. They decide that Ron will continue to bike as far as he can as he has already ridden 34 miles to this point and he is soaked from the rain. Vale is 22 miles away. Ron rides another 8 miles. When Meghan and him meet up again, he decides to cash in 14 miles of his banked miles and drive the rest of the way since the weather is getting worse and they need to find a place to stay as well as get something to eat. (They carry protein bars, stuff for sandwiches and snacks but they have limited food storage) Ron is usually famished when he is done cycling for the day. When they arrive in Vale, they find the grocery store, Meghan grabs them sandwiches, water, some more snacks and milk. They find the only RV park in town and snag a spot. It smells like farm out here but they are happy to have showers to use. Meghan works on contacting a few media outlets to let them know they are in town and heading to Ontario/Fruitland in a day or two. A friend of Team Ronyx tells them that the Malheur Enterprise (local paper for Vale) would like to interview them and do a story. Meghan sends them a message. They decide they will walk around town in the morning to explore and wait for the newspaper to contact them. April 3, 2019 Meghan and Ron wake early today. They get dressed and Ron puts on his hiking pack, they grab business cards and set out to walk around town with the dogs, spreading the word about Onyx's Great Adventure. The town is small and it really has the "Wild West" feel to it. There are murals on most of the buildings. The Oregon Trail runs through this area so there is heritage on every corner of the city blocks. Ron likes to inquire at the realtor offices when we are in towns like this. Just for fun, he pokes his head into some offices and talks to them about land, etc. They ask him why he would be interested in land out there. They chat for awhile and Ron shares their story. A little before noon, Team Ronyx decides they are hungry for lunch. They pick a little cafe in town that has outside seating so they can sit outside with Onyx and Phoenix. They run into a couple from California who are currently on their own road trip of sorts. Morgan and her husband are helping their friends bring a vehicle out to Oregon to their new house from Florida and have been visiting and exploring all around. Team Ronyx finds out that Morgan is a Massage Therapist and works with patrons with all sorts of disabilities. The four of them discuss the taboos and fear mindset that some people have towards those who are different and how much they (themselves) feel connected with them and want to help. It was really neat to connect with them. Once lunch was over, Meghan and Ron decide to walk over to Malheur Enterprise since it is only a block away. Ron goes in and meets a gentleman named Pat. Pat comes out to talk with them and take a few pictures. After a few minutes of battling the traffic and outside noise, Pat invites all of Team Ronyx (even the dogs) into their office building. Their meeting with Pat went super long as they discussed Onyx's Great Adventure in detail, the joys, the struggles and the appreciation they all have for those who have more struggles that we do. They even touched on how not too long ago, people rode out here in wagons without modern day conveniences. Pat also shared his story of how he was in the military and his tour in Iraq. They all discussed the things that most of us take for granted in our every day lives and how if you have never dealt with poverty, homelessness, or living outside our technological world how our views would be different. The discussion could have went on for hours but we knew we had to get on our way. Meghan assured Pat that she would send them some photos to use in the article and Team Ronyx went on their way. They ended up hiking 5 miles around town. Later in that afternoon, Ron, Meghan and the dogs decided to hike outside of town to gauge a route for Ron to ride later. They ended up walking a 4 mile loop. Once they got back, Ron got out his bike and took Fonyx for a ride, while Meghan worked on uploading photos and videos to the laptop. She has been experimenting with trying to edit the videos so that they can be trimmed and time lapsed to shorten the viewing time. This takes all evening for one video to upload. (Technology is challenging us slightly). March 24, 2019 This morning, Ron woke up and put on his riding gear. He biked around the Redmond neighborhood. Meghan worked on the Blog Name Vote post and put it out on Facebook. We had over 30 name suggestions for our blog and we were able to narrow it down to 28 (as some were common). Meghan and Ron sat down and picked their top 5 blog names and Meghan put them out for their followers to vote on the name. She then updated their spreadsheet with their miles driven, biked, hiked and banked. Ron rode 20 miles this morning. After he was done riding, he, Meghan and the dogs took another hike around the Dry Canyon. This time they hiked the entire Dry Canyon. It is full of bike paths, a disc golf course, a paved walking path, a rock wall on the arch of the bride, and a dog park. After their 5.5 mile hike, Ron and Meghan headed back to Janet and Frans. Janet picked Meghan up and they went to pick up a pizza for supper. When they returned, Ron resumed his biking around the neighborhood and got another 20 miles. So far Ron has banked 60 miles around the neighborhood. Plus he and Meghan have hiked 9 miles. March 25, 2019 Last night, Meghan saw an article online that reported that the generator that they purchased for their trip has been recalled due to potential gas leak and fire hazard. First thing on today's agenda is trying to find a place to repair the generator. All Honda service stations are not prepared for the recall and would have to either send the generator out or wait 3 weeks for parts. Meghan and Ron decide to wait until they are further down the road to get it serviced. After several hours of working on the generator dilemma, it's time to travel again. Meghan prepares business cards for the the road, Ron packs up the camper box and they plan out their route for the day to get to Millican, OR. They drive from Redmond back down to Tumalo, OR where they left off and tracked their miles. Ron was fighting a headache this morning so he decided to the drive the Bend City portion of the route rather than fight directions and traffic. Once we hit Alfalfa Market road we had cashed in 10.5 miles. Ron then got out his bike and cart and headed down the road with Fonyx. He biked 16 miles out to the Alfalfa Curves OHV Staging Area. This was the middle of nowhere! We saw dust storms and tumbleweeds. Online, the Alfalfa Curves OHV is advertised as having an port a pot, but there wasn't one there, but there was a fire ring and picnic tables. Ron and the dogs collected sticks and wood from the surrounding area and built a fire in the fire ring. After the fire was nice and hot they cooked left over steak, hot dogs and potatoes over the fire. Nothing beats the taste of a campfire dinner. That evening, they ran the generator for power and heat; but they made sure it was away from their tiny home in case it went up in flames. They looked up the next closest campground but it seemed out of the way. Team Ronyx decided to make up their minds after a night of sleep. March 26, 2019 This morning we are tired, and dirty from all of the dust. Tonight we will have to shower. We ditched our plan to go to the Sand Springs Campground and decided to just head to the town of Brothers. This is 36 miles from where we are. Ron isn't sure about the terrain but he decides to take Onyx for a ride since it is "his" journey. Ron and Onyx left Alfalfa Curves this morning at 10:00 am. Meghan catches up to him after 5 miles and checks up on him. He is doing well. They meet up a few more times before Ron gets back out to Highway 20 from Reservoir Road. It takes Ron 3 hours (including a couple small breaks) to get to Hwy 20 with some of the hills. It's another 2.5 hours before Ron and Onyx make it to the Brothers Stage Stop Cafe. They don't actually have gas there but their burgers were amazing and right next door to them is the Oasis Rest Area. This is where we will park for the night. Ron has rode 30 miles to get here and he is tired. They set up the "dog house" and Ron builds a fire in our tiny wood stove. A pair of gentleman from ODOT stopped in to check on us and asked what we were doing. We explained our journey and they thought it was really interesting. They wished us well and went on their way. Throughout the evening we met several more intrigued individuals. We even had a little girl yell out her window as they drove off, "that's really cool!" Once stock pot half full of water was almost to a boil on the wood stove, Meghan set up a shower for Ron. This set-up takes a little work and patience but does the trick of getting you clean. Once the curtain was hung and the collapsible dog pool set up as a catch basin, Meghan takes the pot of water off the stove and fills up the remainder of the pot with room temperature water. Then a rechargeable shower head pump is inserted into the pot. When Ron is ready for water, he or Meghan push the button to turn on the water. The trick to this shower is to get wet, turn off water, soap up, turn on water and rinse and then turn it off again before you run out of water in the pot so it doesn't burn up the pump. Once Ron is done his shower, another pot of water is started for Meghan's shower and the whole process starts over. March 27, 2019 We woke up to snow showers. Hampton, OR is our destination today. Ron heads out at 8:40 am with Fonyx in the bike trailer. The weather is dreary. The first part of the ride is wet and snowy. After Ron rides 9 miles, he meets up with Meghan and sits for an hour to warm up and change his outer layer of clothing since he is soaked. Ron has 15 more miles to tow Fonyx until he will reach the Hampton Station aka A Taste of the Ranch. Meghan arrives at the restaurant first. She lets the dogs out for a bathroom break and leg stretch. As she is walking the dogs she notices some RV hook ups right next to the restaurant. Ron arrives around 1:30 with the dogs waiting patiently watching him from a far distance. Today's biking only took 4.5 hours. Meghan and Ron discuss the potential to camp there for the night. They decide they will go have lunch/dinner and ask about the spots. The place is homey feeling. There is a sectional sofa in one part of the restaurant and various sized tables around the room. The decor is antique and modern farmhouse style. There is an antique store in an adjacent room. Things for purchase. You can find specialty teas, photography, handmade soap, and other goods for sale. They have a dessert case full of slices of apple pie, lemon bars, cake, and mini cheesecakes. Their menu is small but they have a good selection of breakfast items, burgers, salads and sandwiches. They also sell gas, but they sometimes run out of it since there aren't any gas stations between here and Bend, OR. We order our meals, Meghan orders a Cowboy Breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon and country style potatoes. Ron orders steak and eggs. After they order their meal they inquire about the camp spots and the waitress gives the owner a call to ask. They agree to allow them to park there for the night and use the electric for a small fee. It's quiet there except the occasional truck throughout the night and early morning. March 28, 2019 Meghan is up early today. Her body won't let her sleep. She gets out of bed at 6:00 am and takes Phoenix out to go to the bathroom and much to her surprise, there is a few inches of snow on the ground again. Her and Phoenix play outside for awhile and then go inside to prepare to leave for today's destination of Riley, OR. They pack up and head decide to go back to the restaurant for breakfast to give the roads time to clear up a little. They have a filling breakfast and Ron heads out on the bike at 10:15 am. While they were eating breakfast they discussed the plan for the day. Meghan would stay at the restaurant for 2 hours to work on the blog and then drive up 20. Today's ride is 41 miles and Ron isn't sure about the road conditions and if he will be able to ride the entire thing if the road conditions are too difficult. After a little more than 2 hours, Meghan heads up Highway 20 East to see how far Ron has gotten. The sun is out and the weather looks great. Ron was able to get 24 miles in 2.5 hours. He and Meghan leap frogged up 20 E until they reached Riley, OR. Riley is another small town, with a convenience store/ gas station, archery store with a post office across the street. They have RV spots and Team Ronyx is able to rent one for the night. While they were in the store a really lovely family approached us and asked if we had the custom truck camper outside. We told them yes and explained a little about what we are doing. They informed us that they have a Youtube channel and asked if they could interview us. We told them we'd love for them to interview us and we met them outside. After our quick video interview we chatted for a few moments and learned about their travels. They are the van Stralen family from Canada and they have been traveling as a family since 2015 and vlogging about it via Youtube and Social media. You can learn about them on their Youtube channel: Epic Family Road Trip. After we talked with them we went and set up camp for the night. Tonight is a quick wash up night, Meghan heats up water on the electric burner they brought while Ron spent some time outside talking with our neighbor camper who also had a black lab. Here we found out that he lives in Waldport which is a town just south of Lincoln City where Team Ronyx lives. He is up in Riley to hunt for Sage Rats. An invasive rodent that kills the farmers crops out here in the high desert. Apparently it's a pretty big sport as there are advertisements for Sage Rat hunt expeditions out in this area. People actually pay money to go out in a field and hunt these things. After quick wash ups, Team Ronyx plan out their itinerary for their trip to Burns, OR. Ron's mom has offered to pay for a hotel room so that Team Ronyx can get a long hot shower and a good night's sleep. March 29, 2019 Team Ronyx is up at 7 am discussing what their plans would be for the day. They pick a hotel and Ron's mom books the room. As soon as the post office opens, Ron goes across the street as our friend Kem M. has sent us another surprise package. It's banana bread, our favorite! Ron heads out of Riley at 10:15 am with Fonyx. Meghan leaves around 11:30 am. She finds Ron 9 miles up the road. Meghan parks at the rest stop that is 17 miles before Burns. They chat for a few minute and Ron and Fonyx peddle up the road again. After about 45 minutes Meghan meets up with Ron a few more times. They meet once more right outside of Burns at the city of Hines. Meghan tells Ron that she is going to head into Burns and find the store near their hotel. After about 40 minutes, Ron arrives at the store. Their journey for today is complete. They return their bottles and cans and grab a few groceries and then head over to their hotel. They check in, unload their valuables from the truck and camper and then take a walk around town to give the dogs and Meghan some exercise. The evening is filled with relaxation and blogging. They grab some dinner from the restaurant next to their hotel. Ron watches TV while Meghan blogs away to summarize their week. Enjoy the pictures below from our week of travels. March 17, 2019 We are starting week two with another resting day. Ron, Meghan, Lynette, and Brenda walked down to the bridge in Mill City to play with the dogs in the calm spot of the river. Brenda and Lynette took lots of pictures of us. After we visited for awhile. Ron and Meghan hiked around the town of Mill City checking out the mountain ranges that surrounded the town. Today was a good day to rest up to prepare to travel again. We ended up hiking 4.5 miles around town. March 18, 2019 This morning we packed up and Ron and Fonyx headed out around 8:45 am to head out to Idanha and then Detroit. Meghan packed up the camper box and headed over to the post office to ship some Team Ronyx gear. Meghan caught up to Ron and Fonyx just outside of Mill City at the City of Gates. Meghan snapped a few pictures of Ron as we rode past the sign. The route today is a lot of hills. We are trying to make it 32 miles to the Idanha Country Store. After we got out of Gates we went to the Niagara Park. We took a brief break and took the dogs down to the view point. Ron left on the road again while Meghan sat at the park. He traveled 13 miles to the Detroit Dam Viewpoint. It is a lot of hills for Ron to travel up with not a lot of shoulder to ride on. After a little break, Ron decides to turn in the Bike and Cart for his hiking Pack and both Onyx and Phoenix, The trio headed up highway 22 towards the city of Detroit for 2 miles. Then Ron took out the bike and Fonyx again. Meghan drove ahead and parked at the Detroit State Recreation Area. Once Ron reaches the park, the discuss continuing the trek on the highway for another 7-8 miles to get to Idanha Country Store. They decide to stay at the park to enjoy the scenery. Ron was exhausted from dodging traffic and climbing all those hills. They pay for their spot and park. The scenery is beautiful, there is snow all over and the water level in the Detroit Lake is so low you can see what lies under the lake when it is full. The dogs and Ron play for awhile in the snow while Meghan sets up camp. They hike around the campground and map out a route for Ron to bike to bank up some miles. Meghan contacted Charene who they were supposed to meet in Idanha to let her know that they weren't going that far. Charene offered to come and visit Team Ronyx once they got settled in the evening. Her and her husband and two daughters came down for a visit and brought us some milk since we forgot to get some on our way out of Mill City. March 19, 2019 We have decided to stay another night, it's beautiful here and Ron wants to ride as many stress free miles as he can around the state park. Team Ronyx heads out to hike around the entire area, they played with the dogs, hiked 6 miles and took lots of pictures. Then Ron biked with Fonyx around the campground. Later in the evening, Ron built a fire in the fire pit and they cooked their supper over the fire. Ron was able to bike over 24 miles and hiked about 9 miles during our 2 day stay. We map out our next destination that night. We are going to try to make it to Marion Forks which is about halfway between Idanha and Sisters, OR. March 20, 2019 It's the first day of spring and time to move again, we pack up and Ron and Fonyx head out towards Detroit. As Meghan is preparing to leave the campground she receives a message from Sam. A reporter with the Central Oregon Daily News, Sam wants to meet with Team Ronyx to learn about their journey and they decide to get in contact when the team is in Sisters. Once Ron gets to Detroit he calls Meghan and she meets him in town. They discuss their next move, they decide that Meghan should drive ahead and park at the Idanha Country Store and wait for Ron to catch up. Once Meghan is in Idanha she contacts Charene to let her know that she is in Idanha and asks where the store is located. Meghan arrives at the store and goes in for some snacks. Charene and her husband show up and introduce Meghan to the store owners. Ron shows up in about an hour. They all discuss their planned stop at Marion Forks and figure out that the campground they were looking at staying at is probably still inaccessible. Meghan and Ron decide to cash in some banked miles since the shoulders are narrow and the traffic is heavy. Ron drives their tiny home to Marion Forks Fish Hatchery and as suspected, they are not able to get into the campground. They continue to drive out highway 22 to see if they can find a place to park for the night but there isn't anything they could find so they continue onto highway 20 and head into the town of SIsters, OR. They went to the grocery store and grabbed some things they needed and discussed where to go. They were not able to find any open campgrounds (or so they thought) so they headed through town and parked at the Sisters City Park. Once they secured their space, they took the dogs for a walk and explored a little bit of the East side of Sisters. That evening Meghan worked on trying to contact some local news outlets to see if they could set up some interviews to share their story. Meghan sends a text to Sam to let her know that they are in Sisters and they plan to meet the following morning at the Sisters Coffee Company. March 21, 2019 It's laundry day for Team Ronyx, a week on the road can get pretty dirty! And living in a small space, they don't have room to store dirty clothes. The laundromat is just down the road from where they are parked and they have time to wash and dry their things before they head over to meet with the Central Oregon Daily News. Meghan decides to reach out to some other news outlets while they wait for their things. KTVZ News 21 calls Ron and leaves a message. They want to meet with us too. At 10:30 am we head over to the Sisters Coffee Company to meet with both News outlets. After interviewing and answering questions, Team Ronyx heads over to Shulers Pizzaria for some lunch, they are hungry and looking a little tired from their travels. They have lunch and then walk around town looking at all the shops and giving the dogs some exercise. That evening they discuss their next destination, they decide they will head to Tumalo State Park. March 22, 2019 Ron and Fonyx headed out highway 20 and Meghan and the Dogs stayed in Sisters. Meghan ran some errands before leaving town. She caught up with Ron about 5 miles outside of town. They leap-frogged their way out to Tumalo. Meghan parked at Pisano's Pizza and waited for Ron to arrive. Once he arrived they decided to go in and get a sandwich. Their meatball subs were delicious! Then we headed to Tumalo State Park where we found our reserved spot and parked for the night. Meghan and Ron walked the loop around the campground to calculate the distance so Ron could bike it and bank the miles. Ron then headed out with Fonyx for several hours biking loops around the compground. Our friends from Redmond drove over to the campground and visited with us around 5:30 pm. They invited us to park at their home in Redmond if we wanted to head over there the next day. Ron thought that would be a good idea to see the area and visit for a day or two. After our friends left, we headed to bed. March 23, 2019 This morning, Ron got up and headed out the door with Fonyx and the bike again. He began to ride loops around the campground. He was joined by a young man named Xavier T. Xavier asked Ron all about what he was doing and then continued to ride laps with Ron for 5 miles, talking the whole time. It was fun to watch the two ride around the campground. Meghan took Onyx and Phoenix for a walk around the campground. After lunch time, Team Ronyx packed up the truck and headed over to Redmond to Janet and Fran's home. We decided to take a few more days to explore the area and visit before we left the area for the next few months. Once we got to Janet and Fran's we explored their new home, talked with the neighbors and then Fran took Team Ronyx down to the entrance of the Dry Canyon that is right next to their development. Meghan and Ron took a 3 mile hike around the Dry Canyon and then headed back to the house. Once they got back to the house they talked with Janet and Fran about a route around their neighborhood for Ron to bike. Once they figured out the route, Ron and Meghan walked the loop and found that it was exactly one mile. When they arrived back at their starting point, Ron got his bike, cart and Fonyx and headed out to start loops. He rode for 2 hours and banked up 20 miles. Meghan visited and worked on the updating the website, maps and creating the blog. That evening Meghan was able to use a whirpool tub, boy was it nice to relax in a jetted tub for awhile after being on the road for 2 weeks! Enjoy the pictures below of our week! March 12, 2019 Today we packed up and headed to Rickreall Oregon via Highway 22. Ron and Fonyx encountered unpleasant road conditions as there was lots of rain and hail. After a few stops he arrived at the Polk County Fairgrounds in Rickreall, Oregon. Once we reserved our spot, we were able to hook up to shore power (an actual electrical outlet) and charge our devices and run the heater. Ron and Meghan were both able to grab real showers in the bathroom facilities provided on site. It sure felt nice to be able to take a real shower. After getting settled for the evening, they discussed their next destination and made contact with the people who invited us to camp on their property. We also had two businesses reach out to us to to invite us over for a visit as well. We ended the evening with food from Rock N Rogers. March 13, 2019 Today we traveled into Salem. We traveled along the East Side of Salem on Edgewater Street,where we stopped at Safeway along the way. As we were preparing to leave, we got a surprise visit from our friend Lynn F and her husband. It was nice to see people we knew. We even got some phone calls from other people we knew that saw us on our travels. When we got close to the Carousel Riverfront Park, Ron was having some issues with his bicycling directions as the bike path there is very confusing if you have never rode it. After fighting with directions for awhile, Ron decided to cash in some of his banked miles so we could drive the rest of the way for our night's stay in Aumsville, OR. Upon our arrival in Aumsville we were greeted by a lovely couple, Brenda and Brian Watts. Brenda made us a home cooked meal and offered hot showers to us. Since Ron was feeling so under the weather he spent his evening in bed to rest up for their upcoming busy day. While Ron rested, Meghan was able to visit with Brenda, play with their black lab Duke and even get to hold their pet skunk Ruby. March 14, 2019 At 9:30 am we departed from our stay at the Watts' home in Aumsville, and headed out to highway 22 towards Stayton, OR. Today we have two stops to make, the first is to stop at D'-Tail Pet Grooming and then head down the road a mile to Squatchy's BBQ. We stopped at D'-Tails first around 11 am and met Theresa and her fabulous grooming crew. We got to meet lots of new furry (and non) faces. Onyx and Phoenix thoroughly enjoyed romping around the fenced in area with a few other dogs during our visit. If you are in the area, we highly suggest you check them out for your grooming needs. Next stop, Squatchy's BBQ. Jason and his crew were ready for us. We had pictures taken by Elizabeth G from Beating Hearts Photography. Jason and his staff were super friendly, they went above and beyond to welcome the entire crew from Team Ronyx (even the dogs) into their establishment for a delicious lunch of Pulled Pork, Smoked Mac N Cheese, Pork Belly Burnt Ends, and Corned Beef sandwich. The dogs even got to have some scraps. Squatchy's posted on their Facebook that 10% of today's sales would go to Canine Partners for Life. We were so honored to have them donate to our cause. Once our bellies were full, we hit the road to head to Mill City. Ron rode for 7 more miles making the days total of riding miles 11.5. Due to being under the weather still, we cashed in 7 miles and drove the remainder of the way to Mill City. We arrived in Mill City at 4:30 pm. We stopped and got fuel and then dropped in on Angie and Rex of Rex Images. They invited us to their house to park for the night and shower. Tomorrow would be another busy day but not for riding. These events would be for visiting with people, spreading the word about our journey and helping Rex Images welcome their new friend "Big Foot". March 15, 2019 This morning is a slow go for Team Ronyx. We are tired. Last night Meghan was able to finally figure out how to embed their Facebook feed onto their website so that there were updates on the website as well as Facebook. She has a lot to learn and is learning it all very quickly while on the road. There is a lot to keep track of, miles ridden, miles banked, miles driven, updating the map, figuring out their next stops and communicating with followers and news outlets as well as taking pictures and trying to keep a log of events and invitations. Today we went to Rex Images to welcome the arrival of Big Foot. A ten foot high, 5,000 lb chainsaw carving made by Kevin S and crew at Oregon 3D Art. Kevin also carved our Fonyx (Fake Onyx) statue for Ron to use during questionable road conditions to protect the live Onyx. We met Charene and her family as well as many other people who were interested in our journey. We even got a surprise visit from Virgil and Sally M. They drove all the way from Newberg, OR to Mill City to see us and of course spoil the dogs with treats. Virgil is the one who made our custom signs (Click here to email Virgil for a brochure) for our camper box and is offering to make custom plaques for anybody who wants them for their pets too. After we visited at Rex Images, went to the post office to pick up our first package and then headed to Brenda and Rik's home. We hung out there for awhile and rested. At 6 pm we went to the local Eagles club to have their prime rib supper and talk about our cause. Brenda and the Eagles club arranged a bake sale to a benefit Onyx's Great Adventure. We had a lovely dinner, spoke about our journey and then headed home for some much needed rest. March 16, 2019 It's Saturday, we have decided to stay a few more days to rest up. Ron and Meghan are still recuperating from this nasty bug. Rex Images is printing us new hoodies as we speak. Today Ron, Meghan and the dogs head out for a hike around Mill City. They ended up that the Fisherman's Bend Campground. Unfortunately they couldn't explore inside the campground/park due to logging in the park but were able to see the beautiful mountain town scenery. Our hiking total for today was about 3 miles. The rest of the day was spent resting and visiting with Brenda and Rik. Lynette B, came to town to spend the night too. Our shirts were delivered, Meghan organized the orders to be shipped and delivered. Tomorrow will be prep and play day. Check out our photos below to see our busy ending to our week.  March 9, 2019
It's take off day! No rest for the weary here with Team Ronyx. We have been busy for the last two weeks, on a daily basis, getting ready to hit the road. This morning, Ron was up at 4 am packing the camper box and securing his home for it to sit unoccupied for the six months. Cooler is packed with food, bike gear loaded. Meghan shows up around 7:30 am to assist with last minute prep before she heads back into Lincoln City to pick up a few last minute items that they need for the trip. Ron arrives at Mo's around 9 and for the big send off. Meghan shows up around 9:30. Our friends are there, Sally, Virgil, Brenda, Debbie, Don, Juanita, Nicole, Brooke, Jaelyn, Aria, Van, Lori, Greg, Carolyn, Kem, Paul, Denise and some people we didn't know too. Justin Werner was there to do News coverage for the Lincoln City Homepage. (Sorry if I missed anybody as it was high energy and lots of commotion). At approximately 10:45 am, Ron heads out of Taft Beach on his bicycle; towing Onyx up highway 101 with Juanita for the inaugural ride. They ride through Lincoln City, Juanita sends Ron on his own with Onyx once they hit D River. Ron rides up through the Oceanlake district of Lincoln City and meets up with Meghan who is fueling up the truck at the Chevron station. They do a quick check in and Ron continues up Highway 101 towards Otis, Oregon. Meghan swings into the Community Center in Lincoln City to say some final goodbyes and to drop off something to a wonderful supporter. Meghan then drives out to Rose Lodge in Otis, Oregon, she stops at the Fire Station across from the Rose Lodge Market. When Ron arrives, they grab a drink, some water, trade Onyx for Fonyx (Fake Onyx) and head up the highway. Ron takes several hours to peddle up through the valley and hills of Highway 18 towards Grand Ronde. Ron and Fonyx arrive at the Spirit Mountain Casino at approximately 5:30 pm. They set up camp at Spirit Mountain. Meghan grabbed dinner at the casino for them and they settled in for the night. March 10, 2019 Ron is sick! The cold air and heavy sweating climbing those hills yesterday have made him ill. Little did we know that we both contracted a virus during our send off as some of our friends and well wishers also fell ill. We decided to stay at Grand Ronde another night since we only have 60 miles to travel before we have our first big event in Mill City on Friday, March 15. Ron decides to take the dogs on a 5 mile hike. Then when he returned from hiking, he set up the bike and cart and took Fonyx out for a 5 mile ride. Upon his return to the parking lot, Ron and Meghan took another hike that was 3 miles and then took the dogs out to a neighboring field to play fetch. Even though Ron wasn't feeling well, he wanted to start to store up extra miles while we waited to move to our next destination. That evening, Ron fired up their tiny home wood stove. Meghan set up their shower and they boiled water. Their tiny house shower consists of a battery powered shower handle, a collapsible dog pool, shower curtain and S hooks connected to a grate suspended from the ceiling. When the showering is done, the water is dumped and shower curtain left hanging to dry. March 11, 2019 Meghan is now sick. She uses her time to organize and re-organize their tiny home. Ron and Meghan decide to hike up to Fort Yamhill State Heritage area as it is just a 20 minute hike away. The hike up to Fort Yamhill is a little dangerous as the highway doesn't have much shoulder. As they neared the park, a familiar van pulls up beside them. It is Rex from Rex Images. He and his wife run an apparel and promotional product business out of Mill City and they printed Team Ronyx's T-shirts and hoodies. After a brief chat, Team Ronyx continued their hike to the Fort Yamhill, State Heritage area. There they let the dogs run free until they found the signs that said no Dogs Allowed near all the grassy entryways. They decided they better not stay there and they headed back down to the casino. Team Ronyx planned their journey for the next day. Their next destination would be the Polk County Fairgrounds in Rickreall Oregon. Ron and Meghan met in 2015. Ron began to tell Meghan a "crazy" idea that he had to raise money and awareness to help out a nonprofit and people with special needs. His idea was to bike from Oregon to Pennsylvania. He asked Meghan if she was good with computers and if she could help him do research on finding a special cart he could pull behind a bicycle that he could tow his dog, gear and tent in so he could ride across the country to raise awareness for service animals. In 2016, Ron brought Meghan out to the Oregon Coast on vacation and she instantly fell in love with the coast and mountainous region. Meghan went back home to PA and began to explore the options of moving to the coast. In a short 4 months, Meghan was able to make the decision and gigantic step to move to the West Coast. During her time here on the Coast, she and Ron explored the area and started to plan Onyx's Great Adventure.
What started off as a dream of Ron's, quickly turned into a Team. As Ron started to share his idea and their plans to travel across the country to friends and acquaintances, the Team began to grow. People offering suggestions on routes, collecting maps, soliciting news coverage, sharing our story, and helping to build our tiny home. Stay tuned for more detailed "tails" of how Onyx's Great Adventure came to be a realty. |
Team RonyxRon, Meghan and their dogs, Onyx and Phoenix are traveling from Lincoln City, Oregon across the US to Cochranville, Pennsylvania to raise money and awareness for service dogs. Ron is traveling by bicycle towing Onyx or his replica statue "Fonyx while Meghan is driving their tiny home. A camper box built to look like a Snoopy Dog House. Meghan updates their progress on the map, social media, pictures, trip status and funds raised. Both have a passion for animals and people who are disabled. Check out our blog to learn more! Archived Stories
May 2019
Dog Blog, Travel, Tiny Home, Off Grid Living, Service Dogs, Fundraising, Bicycling Cross Country, Traveling with Dogs |
RSS Feed
