Idaho here we come!

Day 10 & 11
Hello again, Kristen here. So before we left Mitchell, I went outside to grab our clean cycling clothes off the clothing line to find them soaking wet because it rained all night! The innkeeper offerred to dry them for me in her dryer, I was very happy that I didn't have to put on wet shorts. We grabbed some snacks at the grocery store, across from the cage where the towns black bear lived...weird right, I just can't get over that. We left in high spirits waiting to tackle Keyes Creek Pass, and we shredded that 6% grade, elev. gain of about 1300 feet, in about 9 miles! We were definitely rewarded when we raced down the backside and descended 1500 feet! It was so sweet! It lasted for 20 miles!!!! If only all the miles were that easy!! Then we decided to stay in Mount Vernon after shivering from the afternoon rainstorms! We ran into what looked like the towns only open restaurant. We ordered some Mexican food and Mark claimed to have been craving a milkshake for two days so he ordered a raspberry shake, he drank the whole thing and almost threw up! Ha! We then ran out into the elements again put on our rain jackets and rode to the campsite a mile down the road! We saw two sweet teepees and opened the door to find shelter! We were stoked that we had a home for the night with electricity! We set up our stuff and we were listening to some tunes and we heard a knock on the teepee door, it was Earl Nelson, the park host. He was awfully nice and informed us that the teepee we were in was reserved and the family had arrived! They turned out to be really nice and said they would take the other teepee and it was no big deal! After Earl took me for a spin on the golf cart, the family in the other teepee invited us over for tofu soup and s'mores! Sidenote, does anyone know if the term golf came about from the old Scottish game that was for Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden? I read that somewhere. Anyways, I met a woman named Gloria who was a bird watcher and who had recently travelled to Uganda. We spoke briefly about the Invisible Children and about a first grade kid who had a penpal in Uganda. After writing back and forth, the kid started fundraising in order to put wells into villages in Uganda! His penpal was apparently captured by the LRA and became a child soldier, he somehow escaped and his American penpals family adopted him and they became brothers! Such a cool story, it's really neat that at such a young age kids are able to make such a difference!
We decided to hit the hay at about 9:30, gosh I can only remember those good ol' college days when bedtime was in the morning time...tear. Ha! We woke up this morning and bolted to John Day, Oregon where we ran into the grocery store and grabbed some coffee and bagels. We then made it to Prarie City where we called Christy, the store owner in Austin Junction, where we were going to stay for the night. She was originally closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but was planning on meeting us at the store to open it just for us! Before we got there we still had 16 more miles to ride. We climbed for 10 miles up about 2200ft. and were again rewarded with a 6 mile downhill, Mark asked if I wanted my rainjacket and I said no, let's just say I was an icecube! We arrived at the country store, literally the ONLY thing in the town, there isn't even a population size on the map! Christy met us at the store where we grabbed some food and she showed us where we could put our tent in the back lot. Its crazy how the landscape changes, earlier today we were in the high dessert and now we are in dense forest! Its so cool to witness the change actually being outdoors! We ate some ravioli and took cold showers using the hose, next thing we knew, we were ducking for cover in the tent to escape the attack of the killer vampire Mosquitos, they were everywhere! We heard some wolves howling, real comforting when you're camping in the woods! Tomorrow we have two short steep passes to ascend and we plan on staying in Baker City tommorow night! Almost through Oregon! Yeah baby!! This possibly is the hardest thing I have done in my life up to this point but equally the coolest! Hope everyone is having a lovely day!!