Severe Passes and Baker City

We are at a park in Baker City and the sun is shining on us, the kids are playing and everything is rosy, but about 2 days ago things were rough, giant passes, rain, a pinched nerve in my hip and long days of grinding away.  On the brighter side, Eastern Oregon is way more gorgeous than I ever dreamed it would be, mile after mile of dramatic landscape and friendly folks, the ones that aren't were comical, last night somebody drove right up next to our tent and yelled at us to wake up and ride our f-ing bikes, we thought maybe we'd slept in too late and looked at our phone, it's 6 a.m., we concluded that they must just need something to do, but we did get up and got off at about 9 a.m., good for us.  In Mitchell, we spent an extra day just because, we flipped a coin and that actually settled it, the kids played all day and we met all kinds of interesting folks there, the owner of the mercantile was a rip-roaring banjo player who taught the kids all kinds of songs about goofy looking girls and heroic boys. In the morning our friend Kaleb showed up and brought his bike to ride with us, I don't think he was expecting such a gnarly climb, but made it to the top with us, riding my bike and me riding his vintage Peugot touring bike, what a sweet, smooth ride up. Most people have been quite friendly, in Dayville we came into town at 6 or 7 at night and asked at the local store where the nearest campground was, they told us there was a church up the road has a hostel for cyclists, sure enough, a block up the road was a little white church on a hill, the Dayville Community Presbyterian Church, a sign on the door said to check in with the house next door, we met Rose there and she showed us around, they had a washer and dryer, shower, kitchen and a t.v. with all kinds of family type movies, we were stoked, I made dinner then hopped in the shower, that was fun, we set up beds on the floor and listened to the rain outside, so thankful for a dry place to stay, I hope the folks there keep on doing their thing there, they are making so many people happy, we want to thank them again.  The passes were brutal, three in a row, 7% grade for mile upon mile right outside of John Day, we felt like tenderized meat by the end of three of those suckers, and finally into Baker City, OR, where we are surprised to see looking so green, we were told by so many people that it was dry and desolate out here but on the contrary, this place looks like paradise, a man we here laughed when I told him I thought it would be wasteland out here, "that's great!" he says, "that's what we want everyone to think, they can all stay out on the coast".  We hope to head out tonight, there is some camping outside of town and we still have some stuff to grab at the store, life without salt is no life at all.