March 30-April 3

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).
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