Got up at the crack of dawn and packed by headlamp since I was still in the gorge and the sun hadn’t risen enough to even illuminate the steep valley. Made it into Silverton by 12:30 with a thunderstorm at my heels for the last 2 hours. Got a hitch into town with a 3 generation Hungarian family on vacation. The son, wife, and kids live in New York and the grandparents were over from Hungary on a 16 dya tour of the U.S. Grandma was driving the van, squealing the tires around the switchbacks. YIKES!!! They dropped me off in the center of town. I walked a couple blocks to the hostel. Nobody there except a note with a phone number. I called it. The guy soon shows up barreling in the door like a bull in a China close. Cassie was laying under the table and growled at him. He launched into a lecture about how he couldn’t have a dog growling in his place. I could see Cassie was a good judge of character and I was not goign to get along with this guy so I left to find other lodging.

Stopped at a burger place and leafed through the listings while I ate. Finished and headed over to the Canyon View Motel where the owner was super dog friendly. I dropped my pack in the room and grabbed my wash and headed to the laundromat just up the street, stopping by the grocery store to beg for quarters. Bought the little box of soap at the laundromat, dumped it in the washer, put my wash in, placed my 6 quarters in the slot and tried to push the little tray in to take my quarters. No can do. The sucker wouldn’t budge. Crap. Tried another washer. Same thing. Tried all the washers. Couldn’t get a single one to work. Grrr.

Grabbed my wash and headed down the street, stopping in at another business to ask about another laundromat.

Clerk: Oh, yeah. There’s A&B there. They have a laundromat.
Me: Oh good. Can you tell me how to get there?
Clerk: Sure. It’s just past Wyman.
Me: Uh. Where’s Wyman?
Clerk: Why it’s just past where ol’ Jimmy’s used to be. Make a right.
Me: [banging head on wall]

I found A&B RV and the friendliest owner. Did my wash and then went ot the bank to get quarters for the grocery store from whom I begged quarters earlier.

Me: I’d like to get some change for this ten. A roll of quarters please.
Teller: Ok. Do you have an account with us?
Me: No, I’m from out of town.
Teller: Ok. We’ll need to charge you 5% to make change then.
Me: Seriously? [banging head on wall again]

I suddenly didn’t want to spend all day tomorrow and a zero day in this tourist trap so I went back to the hotel, canceled my reservation for the next night and went for groceries and then supper at the Brown Bear. Yum!

Got back to the room and got my food set for the last leg then got my water filter out to figure out why it wasn’t working so well lately. An hour later I got it going and sat down with my phone to download some books to read. Then a little TV and off to bed.