Burns, Oregon 625 km

After yesterday’s exhausting day we enjoyed a very quiet good night’s sleep. The Cobb Mansion B and B continued to amaze us this morning. It is so tastefully decorated and the antiques are boundless.

Breakfast started with fresh fruit and home baked cinnamon rolls and German buns (baked by Paul – he has promised the recipe to Norma – just need to email him to remind him) followed by eggs Florentine. Paul and Jeff joined us for breakfast. We then were given a motor tour of the historic mining town of Virginia City by Paul, the co-owner of the mansion and Tasha (the dog) in his 1948 Chrysler woody convertible (one of three of his antique vehicles). We had just barely finished our lovely breakfast when Tasha started poking at Paul’s leg as she knew it was the routine and time. She loves to go on these tours and insists on riding balanced on the back of the seat and the edge of the window as you will see in the photo. We were required to wear appropriate hats, of course. Attached are some pictures of the B and B (the Canadian flag was in our honour- they have a wide variety of flags which they change to match the guests origins) as well as some pictures of the tour.

We were very impressed and have vowed to return to spend some more time there. Apparently the mansion has so many repeat visitors (we can understand why) that the owners are considering closing it to the general public and only taking repeat business. We consider ourselves lucky to now be on “the list”.

We hit the road late this morning on another beautiful cloudless day. Around lunch as were travelling through a small town in California, out of the corner of my eye I spied an object coming rapidly toward us! Bird! Just missed me but. . .here’s Norma:

All I saw was a big black blob then felt a massive thump against my helmet and shoulder. I often have my face shield open when going through towns and at a slower speed and had thankfully just put it down or may have had an injured cheek bone at the least. That was the end of that poor thing’s life – I killed a bird today!!! We went back to the scene and found out the bird was a  full grown northern flicker!

We were in the middle of nowhere around lunch but went past a small market with a sign outside saying deli sandwiches so we stopped there and purchased a wonderful lunch, which the shop owner put together for us and which we enjoyed under a shade tree at one of the rest stops. Our little cooler bag sure comes in handy for that sort of thing.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful except for lots of conversations at the various rest stops with other bikers out enjoying the day.