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Tuesday 17th August 2004

Dayville Bike Stained GlassFrom the County Campground, Prairie City, through to Dayville, Presbyterian Church - a massive journey of, well, 41 miles. We returned our empty beer bottles (6 bottles amongst 4 people - a big beer party clearly) to the store, as you get a refund on them in Oregon. The newspaper has statistics making clear that most people don't do this, and that recycling is pretty static in Oregon - not growing much at all. Certainly the reaction of the store owner did seem a little surprised. Do they recycle them, return them, or... throw them in the trash? We can only speculate. Nice to have 30 cents back though. It was raining, but looked like brightening up. Steve did the Sumpter Valley Railroad museum, which houses a nice collection of memorabilia, some railroad related, some just relating to the area. The railroad from here to Sumpter was really something - climbing three times over the 4000 foot contour. The big local family who had done well were represented - and an odd but stimulating collection of curious objects - including lots of gold mine pictures from happy days when gold was to be found in quantities in the local hills. We eventually cycled down to John Day - named after a local farmer and general entrepreneur. Even the river here is named "John Day". An excessively large lunch kept us in the park for some time (we were hoping to swim but the pool was densely packed with writhing small children), and it was pretty late when we finally made it to Dayville. The Presbyterian church offers hospitality to bikers, so we took them up on their offer. It is an amazingly generous offer - including showers, use of a kitchen and computer (where I am now) and space to sleep. I like this sort of Christian witness! Thanks Dayville Presbyterians! We heard that Didi and Jake are racing towards Mitchell - another 40 - 50 miles away. Anyhow, that was tomorrow for us. I typed "So I'm signing off, sleepy with pasta, tea (this is an alcohol free church) and typing!". A good place to be. The photo shows a piece of stained glass that is in the church hall - as you can see, a bicycle is going to church. Well, with this sort of hospitality maybe people would think there was something worth turning up at church for! Jesus would ride a bike if he were going from A to B today!

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