The Crane home team advantage

I am in Crane, Oregon.  The only store is half a mile outside of city central along Hwy. 310. A cluster of Cycle Oregon folks were there as I whizzed by wondering where we were camping.  Where was this Crane, Oregon?  Lunch was a six mile round trip, out of town and back to where we were camping... Well, I wanted a light day so I turned back to the only store on Hwy. 310, got three cheese sticks and peanut butter cookies.  Talk about a food desert, it was the only store I have seen for two days.

Turning north into a sweet, green small valley, I was handed free iced coffee mocha with whipped cream.  Then, for $5. I bought a recovery smoothie.  Turned into the Crane Oregon school grounds to find my tent where the porters had tossed my too large duffel upside down in front of Number 184, my mobile tent home this week.

The Crane, Oregon, volleyball team hosted one of our stops today, passing out strawberries, animal cookies, pretzels, soda pops, V-8s, Pellagrino lemonades and iced tea.  Crane High School is good in sports, even with only 60 students.  One reason seems to be that they have a captive audience.  The K-12 school is a public school boarding school, the only one west of the Mississippi River, I was told with 50 students K-12. If you live more than 15 miles from the school, you must board.  Jennifer from the Crane HS Volleyball team, at the food stop at mile 25 today, noted, "Everyone participates in sports because, well, so many kids board, what are they going to after school anyway?"

I arrived at Crane at 1:30, an early day today.  Only 38 miles for me. There was an alternate trip that added another 40 for the hardy folks. Tomorrow is 73 miles with a 3,900 foot vertical gain  on our way to Seneca.  I treated myself to an hour-long massage and an acupuncture treatment, hoping to "provide support" for the physical challenge ahead.  Dave, my masseuse from Portland, had given me a massage at the end of Day 1, 73 miles...When he pressed on my sore neck muscles, he exclaimed, "There is no way someone could convince me to ride 73 miles at 5000 foot elevation in one day!"  No wonder I ached in many new places.  

Cycle Oregon brings resources to these small Oregon towns, not to mention our strange behavior. The acupuncturist has 5 tables going at once and open and public to those who walk by.  I wonder what the folks from Crane think of these people lying on tables volunteering to have needles put in their knees, necks and hands.