Rest day in Mitchell, OR

(July 25th) Sorry for the large backlog of posts and pics - we've had no Internet service for several days.

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Mitchell, population 138, is one of those places where the old joke "don't blink or you might miss it" applies. The town was established in the 1890s and, based on old photos from that era, looks pretty much like it did back then. There are a couple of houses, a school, post office, several abandoned buildings, an old-timey cafe, grocery store and 12-room hotel. A few tourists stop here on their way to and from the nearby John Day area fossil beds along with some cyclists (most of whom camp in the city park* just down the street from the hotel).
But it is otherwise very quiet. At the moment I am sitting on the front porch of the hotel. I have been here for about an hour and have seen only a handful of cars and other people going by on the main street in town. It's a good place for a rest day though because there is absolutely nothing to do other than journal and read.

The hotel is very quaint but lacks a few modern conveniences, like air conditioning and showers (bathtubs only). And it is run by a young mother who reluctantly took the job** and clearly doesn't like it. We picked up on this right away: can we put the bike in our room?*** (no); can we put it on the porch, or in a storage shed? (no - leave it outside); can we use the hotel's washer and dryer to do a load of our laundry? (no); can we use the hotel's phone?**** (no, you have to the pay phone down the street). You get the picture.

A couple more touring cyclists rolled into town today, including a guy from Scotland and another guy who rode up from his home in the LA area, intends to ride east (like us) on the TransAmerica route, then head back west to his home. He appeared to be at least sixty and said he has ridden across country previously, as well as the West Coast from British Columbia to southern California several times. We thought we might be a little bit special riding a tandem on a cross-country trip, but the owner of the grocery store here told us of a could in their late 70s to early 80s who - for THREE YEARS now - have come through Mitchell riding a loaded tandem on their way across the country. As much as we'd like to believe these folks are making this stuff up, I
don't think that's the case.

*It is very common for small towns to allow cyclists to camp in the city park, where the amenities can range from some (bathroom, water) to none.

**She is the daughter of the owners. She lost her regular job and came back to Mitchell to live with her parents. They told her she was going to have to support herself and her 3 kids, and could do so by living in and running the motel. You learn a lot of personal stuff pretty quickly in a small town, particularly with someone like her dad around (he seems to spend most of his time sitting on the front porch talking to anyone who will listen). He is also the owner of Henry the bear, who is housed in a cage across the street from the hotel. Henry used to belong to the local Boy Scouts but when they could no longer take care of him dad agreed to take over that responsibility, for which I give him a lot of credit. Henry eats a tremendous amount of food every day and needs constant attention (for example, he recently dropped a log on one of his toes and probably broke it).

***It is common practice on bike trips for cyclists to store their bikes in their rooms. For example, in the course of this trip we've only stayed in one other place (hotel in Ordway, CO run by a woman with a similarly dour disposition) where we were not permitted to put the bike in our room.