Day 74

I woke up and went for a 50 minute run through Medford this morning. What a crap town - there was nothing interesting there. No cafes, no cool bars, no shops, no nothing! Oregon is a beautiful state to look at but it has some of the worst towns that we have come across on the entire trip.

I went back to the hotel and sat by the pool for about 30 minutes. At least Medford had a bit of sun. Then we packed up and got the flock outta there. Paulo had to stop at the post office to mail a few packages back home. He emerged again forty minutes later. Yes, forty, 4-0 minutes. It seems the one and only staff member was best mates with everyone in the queue and had the chatsies with all of them.

We went to Quiznos for a sub and then to Starbucks for a coffee.

After a few phone calls, we decided to go white water rafting after all. Paulo had spotted a brochure in one of the kips we stayed in. We got the instructions and directions to the meeting point and then went to the Rogue Valley Mall to get some supplies for the trip.

We wandered around the mall for ages in a bit of a haze. But we did manage find eight dollar water socks that only ended up costing six dollars. Happy days!

Since the trip was near Crater Lake, we had to back track a bit. So, back on to 5N to Roseberg and would you believe we checked back into Travel Inn? The woman at reception even took another coupon for the night!

We spent a few hours watching tele and relaxing.

Around 8:00 we were both feeling pecky, so we hopped in the car and went to look for a place to eat. As I suspected - nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not a sizzling... We ended up going to a Chinese restaurant called Chi's that turned out to be really, really ropy.

During our travels, we have met a few characters. Small towns seem to collect characters. Weirdos. Oddballs. People who just couldn't fit in living in a big city. Roseberg has a few. We saw some confused looking guy sitting on the ground at the entrance to a Rite Aid. Ten minutes later he walked into Chi's with a blind guy. They sat down beside us and their conversation started:

CG (confused guy): "What do you want to eat for dinner?"
BG (blind guy): "I don't know. I think something Chinese. What do you want?"
CG: "I don't know. (long pause) Do you have any money?"
BG: "No. But a have a card. Actually I have a number for the card."

The waitress walked over to take their order.

BG: "Hi. I have a debit card. Can I use that here?"
W: "Yes."
BG: "Well, I want to know if I have any money on it. Can you check for me?"
W: "What? Yes, I think."
BG: "Well actually, my parents have the card. It's in one of my jacket pockets and they have the jacket. But I have the number and the expiration date, so if you put that in the machine I can sign the receipt. It worked for me the other day."

Paulo & me: "WTF!?"

The waitress actually entertained this idea and took down the number. She also took their order. While she was gone, the conversation continued.

BG: "I really like coffee. Now, I'm not proud but I just got out of jail. And when I was inside, I used to drink coffee every day. I like to get really wired, you know?"
CG: "I have lots of coffee at my house.
Do you have somewhere to stay?"
BG: "No."
CG: "You can stay at my house tonight. And you can drink lots of coffee if you want to."

The waitress returns and tells the guy that his card does not work. Surprise! The guy was stunned. She told them that they had to leave and walked off. Now, people I am not exaggerating. The two of them sat there for almost five minutes doing nothing before the confused guy said, "Well, I guess I have to cook tonight."

They got up, went outside and staggered down the street.

Back to us. The waitress was edgy as hell and not very friendly. We ordered. The food was terrible. But we ate it because we were afraid of the waitress. We ate it, asked for the bill and left quietly, not trying to cause any trouble.

We went back to the room and relaxed with a bit of tele before nodding off.