Burns OR to Hat Creek CA

Woke up this morning in Burns to this:

Probably the first time it rained in Burns in months.  It was still drizzling when we went over to the motel office for breakfast.  I normally don't eat those "continental" breakfasts at motels as I like something more substantial to get me going, but there was not a real restaurant within walking distance so both Mike and I had a light breakfast. 

The rain had stopped by the time we got going, but we wore rain pants in case the road was wet.  Not too long after we came upon a pretty large herd of antelope.  Mike has a camera with a pretty good telephoto and he took this picture:

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Much of the riding today was on pretty straight and flat roads (hwy 395), but they were new to me and interesting for that reason.  A lot of it looked like this:

We did come upon a very pretty lake, lake Abert:

Mike took this picture at the lake:



With that light breakfast we soon got hungry and got a recommendation to eat at this place:

We found out they served breakfast all day, so we ordered our missing breakfast.  The prices were reasonable and the food was plentiful.....and so were the flies.  After swatting at them for awhile I finally asked the waitress if they could provide a fly swatter......and SHE DID.  Mike killed two while we were eating, and I forgot to ask if we would get a discount for services rendered. 

I didn't realize until after I looked at the picture above that there was a cow on the roof.  That might have explained the flies.

Next we came upon what looked like a secret government facility of some kind and Mike just had to ride up there and take a look.  This is what it looked like:

But it wasn't a secret government facility:

After some pretty neat roads in beautiful forest at high altitudes, we came to our lodging for the night at the Hat Creek Resort and RV park.  When we got there the office was closed, but there was a note telling us which room we had and that the door was open.  Mike's credit card was already charged, so I guess it was safe for them to do that.  Here is the palace for the night:

Mike is not missing; he was out searching for something to eat.  Turns out every restaurant for miles was either closed for the season or out of business.  We eventually found a store/gas station that had some kind of food, and this ended up being dinner:  (Good thing we had that large lunch)



Mike's meal is on the left and mine on the right.  You can clearly see how my diet is much more nutritious than his.  (Mine is a breakfast burrito.)

377 miles today.  Tomorrow is Lassen Park and then on to Lake Tahoe.