By Kris Koivisto

I awoke to the hotel phone at Wildhorse, which rang at 9:18 a.m. with a receptionist on the other end telling me that my party was looking for me.

I threw everything in my two duffle bags and quickly slipped unnoticed into the Sedona before I caught the wrath of the always prompt Kevin Duckworth. Ready or not, Day 2 of the Tour was officially underway.

We showed up at the Rec Center in Pendleton to not one, but two reader board greetings. Once again, I led warm-ups and stretching to get the 100 campers – who were decked out in ‘Bucs’ gear - limbered up.

Other than a broken light bulb, the clinic went without a hitch and the kids had fun. Toward the conclusion of camp, Dick, Lisa and I signed a few autographs. Maybe our John Hancock’s will be worth something someday; traveling with Duck and Jerome gives us star status!

I picked up some wireless internet from a local sandwich shop to upload photos from day 1 and eat lunch.

Next, we thought we were headed toward the radio station, but we found ourselves on the freeway back to Portland. Blame the GPS. Once we got on track, we hit KJXZZ 1330 AM to talk Trail Blazers.

Then it was off to Taco Bell for another surprise visit (and another round of Fruitista Freezes!) before we hit the overwhelmingly windy road toward Burns. Through mesas and bluffs, we zigzagged in and out of the Malheur National Forest. The awful bends and dips almost made Lisa lose it.

Midway through our trip across the desolate land, we approached a road crew, despite no one in sight for miles. We thought the lady was joking when she said it would be a 10-15 minute wait to get through.

Sure enough, there was a pilot car that led cars 12 miles across the gravel road while cars coming the opposite direction had to wait their turn. We made the most of it, and it made for a nice photo op with the girl holding the road sign.

Once we finally settled in to the ‘suburbs’ of Burns, we hit a local grocery store for some snacks and spent our night poolside.

Summer Tour stops: The Dalles | Pendleton | Trip 2 homepage

"Blazers return the love", The East Oregonian.