July 12, 2005
Lewis and Clark State Park - Pierce's Green Valley campground, WA: When you see that many wind turbines, you know you're in trouble.
Lewis and Clark State Park near Dayton, WA was an oasis of green in the middle of the dry plains.
The cool, rainy Montana days were long behind us. so were the filth strewn Montana road shoulders. The roads in Washington were exceptionally clean. The number of flat tires in our group decreased drastically.
Today was another carry day for food. We had major discussion on where to buy the food. Walla Walla was the obvious choice. Except it was about 25 miles from our campground. That would be a long carry. Touchet was closer, but we weren't sure how good the services were.
I did pretty good with the directions traveling through Walla Walla, but got lost in College Place. I tried back tracking. Traffic was a bit tight in the area around the college. I finally stopped in at the post office for directions out of town. You have to be careful of whom you are asking directions of when cycling. Car drivers don't think on the same level as cyclists. I knew the post office personnel would know about road names and distances. I was correct. : ) As I was leaving the post office a local woman stopped me and talked about her cycling experiences.
Walla Walla is famous for their onions. I really didn't see any onion fields. Lots of wheat fields. I did see a couple of roadside stands selling the famous onions. There was a large sign saying they shipped. I debated sending a box back to my mother to use on the hamburgers at the drive in movie theatre. I decided against that and continued on. Later, when I spoke with my mother and told her of my choice, she laughed and said the local grocery store had Walla Walla onions on sale. I had made a good choice.
Today wasn't a long mileage day, but the temps were certainly warming up. We were approaching the Columbia River Gorge area and expected the winds to increase. They did.
I stopped and chatted with a state road construction worker. He said they had passed our group several times that day. He was a nice fellow and gave me some idea of the terrain (and wind!) ahead. In my opinion, road workers are also good to ask about mileages and road conditions. Not all of them are friendly,though.
I stopped at the last outpost of Touchet. The country was more and more desolate the further I pedaled. Touchet did seem like an outpost. I stopped at the convenience store/grocery/gas station/Subway store. I filled my Camelbak with ice - ah!. I purchased a Subway and sat down with the newspaper. I delayed going back out into the heat. Carlton, Ryan, and Smoker John soon showed up. John had delayed buying his groceries until now and was wandering around the little convenience store - out of luck.I believe he was after bagels and was wondering if hamburger buns would do,after all they are both round. There were a couple of very faithful bagel eaters who were not going to be very happy in the morning . . . .
We sat in the nice air conditioning and talked. Bob and Robert pulled in.There was considerable discussion as to the buying of beer and what temperature it would be at the campground. Some campgrounds have little stores. The beer drinkers were very sad at Chief Timothy State Park as no one had bought beer in advance, town was five miles away, and there was no store. Last night they brought beer in from town just in case. They decided to err on the side of caution and buy beer here, taking a chance on drinking hot beer as opposed to no beer. The beer was a big relaxation factor every evening. No one drank more than a beer or two, but it was part of the evenings routine to compare the local specialty beers. I hadn't seen this particular facet of bicycle touring previously.
The same construction worker stopped by for a cold drink and said hi. He said they saw a couple of loaded tourists riding side by side on the highway. He hoped it wasn't some of our group.
While we were in the convenience store we noticed a very large number of wind turbines across the road. Several of our party hadn't heard of wind turbines before. These are used to generate electricity by harnessing wind power. There are a few wind turbines in Lamar, CO where we lived for 10 years. We saw even more turbines in Wyoming. I had never seen this many grouped together. Given the number of turbines, I didn't feel like the wind we were facing was too bad so far. The possibility of more wind forced me out into the heat.
We all started out together. This was the most fellow riders I'd ridden with since going into the Montana Wheat Factory in Three Forks, MT. On and on we went through dry brown landscape. The road undulated a bit and narrowed down into a canyon.
Our destination for the evening was Pierce's Green Valley Campground. It certainly sounded inviting. As we were descending a long hill, we could see the campground below us. It was quite small and primitive. There was only a porta potty and a hose for drinking water and 'showering'. The host was very friendly, going back home for ice and apples to give us. She recommended pitching our tents close to the embankment and trees to lessen the wind. We questioned her about the wind and she said it typically blew all the time, today was a pretty good day. She said they'd had many cyclists stay there over the years, some of them giving up in frustration with the wind. We were feeling fortunate at that point. I was more than a bit apprehensive about the wind going through the Columbia River Gorge. I've heard of people heading east going 20+ miles and hour without pedaling. I've also heard of people going west in the bottom of their granny gear and struggling to stay upright. We had several days with low mileage coming up just in case we hit that infamous wind.
My carry item for the evening meal was dessert. I chose to buy the fixings for s'mores. Instead of marshmallows, I bought marshmallow creme. I thought I was very tricky. Dessert was a resounding flop. Typically dessert is cookies and the cook informs us of how many cookies per person. Everyone stands right there for their cookie allotment. No one was interested in the s'mores. Robert did come back later looking for another Hersey bar. It was so hot the chocolate had melted and I'd thrown it away. Oh, well. $1.00 package of generic cookies, here I come.
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Today's ride: 50 miles (80 km)
Total: 810 miles (1,304 km)
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