Travel to Eastern Oregon's Desert Completed

Some of those who travel know that the "Travel Gods" must be appeased before embarkation! The mystery is just how to best appease those "Travel Gods." J and I left Saturday morning in the van (had thought real serously about taking the pickup) to swing through Jordan Valley, through Burns, and back home on Monday. Everything went pretty well if the two flat tires are overlooked, but most people tend not to view flat tires as a small matter easily overlooked, but our luck was pretty good considering we had two flat tires in less than a twelve hour period.

The story which would be best left to the oral rendition, but, since that is not format in blogging, here goes:

First we drove to Succor Creek and then on to the Owyhee Reservoir through Leslie Gulch. Both Succor Creek and Leslie Gulch are beautiful areas somewhat reminiscent of the country seen in southern Utah, but with less than one percent of the traffic. We ate a picnic lunch on the divide between Succor Creek and Leslie Gulch. Pretty spectacular setting for lunch.

Then on to Highway 95 and a twenty-six mile (0ne way) to Jordan Craters over a gravel road. All went pretty well until the last mile which a sign advised the use of 4-wheel drive. I remembered the last mile not being particulary rough and I was correct, but after an hour of walking around the lava flows (only 3200 years old) and viewing into the caldera (yes, J really did walk this trail), we came back to the car to find the left front tire flat. J had a travel emergency kit stored away in the car which contained a can of compressed air with a latex sealant designed to inflate and seal flattened tires. Amazingly, it worked. Well, one would do better with two cans per tire, but we drove out the 26 miles on a half inflated tire. Near the highway I thought, "Hey, Jane has an air compressor that plugs into the cigarette lighter." We stopped and put that to use, but it was of no value. Onto the highway and an eight mile drive to Jordan Valley where we had motel reservations at the Basque Station Motel. Not bad for $59. Well, that was my opinion which opinion is usually contradicted by J. The service station (a real service station, ya know what I mean?) has an air pump in back so I borrowed a tire guage and added air to 36 pounds of pressure and then drove a quarter mile to the Basque Inn for an excellent Basque dinner served family style. Walking back to the car while holding our breaths waiting to see if the tire was still inflated, we hurried a peek around the neighboring car...and were we surprised? Naaaah--the tire was flat! I probably blew out the sealant when I fully inflated the tire. So, out comes the donut. Oh, before that we had stopped at the second gas station in town (they are both owned by the same guy as we later found out) and bought two more cans of sealant, but a different brand. We found out that the two new cans were about useless. Well, they were useless. So, as we were finishing up the job of putting on the donut, a couple stop behind us and tells us they had a flat tire that day and that the Shell station fixes flats (tires that is) and, get this, they are open 24 hours a day. So back to our home station (remember we have a motel room next door), and present our flat problem to the attendant. He says he will fix it, but it may take some time because he has to pump gas, but he does say he will stay after work (10:00 pm) to get the tire fixed because the next guy can't do that kind of work. He does stay. I check with him at 10:05 he is done and has started another job for another couple with a flat tire on their trailer. He charges me 9 dollars. I was flattened like the tire. I offered him a ten dollar tip and he was happy with that. Acted like he never had been tipped before.

Now get this. We get up in the morning and I hurry out to see if the tire is still inflated and am stopped cold by the flattened left rear tire. So, I take that off and roll it to the station (about 1oo feet) and the new day-time attendant says sure he can fix it and he does. Quickly. And the price is the same and the tip is the same. WOW!! I was impressed. Best flat story I ever had. The AAA option was of little value since there is no cell phone service in Jordan Valley and I don't know where the tow truck would have come from. Probably Caldwell!! Geez!

Tomorrow I am buying four new tires because these tires are the original tires on the car when bought new in 2003.

More about the adventures of Papa Coyote and J in the next blog. Yup, there is more to this story.

Yeeeeeoooooowww!
The end of the trail for now,
Papa Coyote