POMEROY, WASHINGTON: More Praise for the Palouse

August 13, 2019

Dayton was the first town of the day and it was pretty nice, in a historical kind of way. At least the main street (Highway 12) was nice. The rest of the town, from what I could see, ranged from not-so-nice to pretty bad. The best site was definitely the Columbia County Courthouse, which claims to be the oldest courthouse in the state of Washington. The second best thing was a giant man on the side of a hill.

I met two bike tourists today. They were two guys taking a break at the top of a long climb from the east and I was just finishing up a long climb from the west. I learned they were cycling the ACA's Lewis & Clark Route from Bismarck, North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean. We had a short visit and then we proceeded down from our respective summits.

You'll be happy to know that I edited my pictures of the Palouse down to only seven today. They might all look the same to you, but to me each picture has a distinct charm. Check 'em out!

According to my internal evaluator of artistic beauteousness, my Palouse photos rank in the upper 5% of all bike touring photos ever taken. Quite an honor. Astute viewers of such photographic art may have noticed that 4/7 of them have wind turbines visible on the hills. There are thousands of them out here. Wind turbines aren't exactly natural, but I think they enhance this agricultural landscape with a weird techno-industrial vibe.

Seriously though, the reason there are so many wind turbines is because there is so much wind up there on the hills. And the wind funnels down into the valleys where I'm riding and it is so unpredictable. One minute I'm riding with a fantastic tailwind, and the next minute I'm struggling into a headwind even though I haven't changed directions.

SHE LOVES ME! This was actually the 2ND result. The first time I conducted the experiment with these mini-sunflower-daisies, the result was "she loves me not." Fortunately I was able to detect a slight flaw in the methodology. I performed a re-do and, sure enough, I got the scientific result I was hoping for.

I stayed on Highway 12 all day. Surprisingly, the traffic levels were much better than yesterday. At times, I experienced up to ten minutes of quiet riding--except for the wind in my ears. The road continued to twist and turn among the hills with minor ups and downs, and one three-mile climb just to keep me on my toes. I liked it.

"I've got a bone to pick with you, Rand and McNally. Why in the world have you not given a dotted line to this stretch of Highway 12? That's messed up, dudes."

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Today's ride: 47 miles (76 km)
Total: 614 miles (988 km)

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Keith KleinHi Greg,
The Palouse looks like SW Minnesota without the soybeans. Same color, same lack of trees. Buffalo Ridge and it’s wind turbines comes to mind.
Cheers,
Keith
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5 years ago

Gregory GarceauI kind of see what you mean, but I assure you that the hills of The Palouse are MUCH higher, though my pictures don't show that very well.
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5 years ago