Day 4: Weeeeeeee!

June 5, 2017

Today is the kind of day you dream of on a bike tour, at least as far as the wind is concerned. It blew hard from the start and never wavered, in my direction. Woooo-wooo!

In fact when I crossed over the river to the Washington side I had to stop when trucks passed because of the crosswinds. But once I turned east, weeeeeeeee!

My first stop was for cherries and fresh asparagus at the farm stand. I asked if the cherries were local,

"No they are too early here, they are from California."

Figures. Still the asparagus was local so I bought a bunch and a bag of cherries and moved on to Stonehenge.

No not That Stonehenge in England, this the Stonehedge built after world war I to honor servicemen killed in the war. It is next to another memorial to honor locals who died in all the subsequent wars as well, because we never seem to get tired of them, wars that is. The last local serviceman honored is from Afghanistan.

After that is was pedal, pedal, pedal. I felt really fast of course, on a conna the tail wind.

My favorite part was when the road got closer to the river. It was about that time the came out too. I like the sun...

Anyway, around 3:00 I made it to Roosevelt, which is not so much a town as clump of houses with a store/cafe. And its at this point that I had that feeling I used to get while riding cross country, when you are getting tired and have been riding for hours in between towns and you need a drink or food and in the distance you see the town and are happy and relieved all at once. It must be a tiny bit like what the immigrants felt like after walking for days or weeks in open country and then saw "the fort" or a town or whatever in the distance. it was a place they could rest and get an ice cold Coke. Okay I am taking liberties with eras but you catch my drift.

So anyway I got a burger amd fries and checked email and so forth and talked to the lady on duty and she was really nice, but then it was time to head on the Crow Butte campground...

....which I gotta say is the nicest campground so far on this trip,and better than most of any trip. When I asked the host the cost he said,

"Well I dont really know what to charge you. And you can pick any spot because its a weekday and few are taken...."

So I picked a nice spot and later he came over and said he called The Boss and the boss said I can stay for free. Wooo-hooooo!

After seting up camp and showering, I tucked in to a dinner that included fresh steamed asparagus and cherries.

A perfect ending to a day that was just about perfect.

This place had killer asparagus and cherries, on and I forgot home made sourdough bread made from 51 year old starter.

This guy almost made it. A few weeks affer he died the war was over.

River with mount Hood the background. I think thats Mount Hood anyway. Pretty sure...

....and speaking of oil trains, as I was yesterday....

I stopped and counded 110 oil tankers on this train, and it was not the only train with oil tankers I saw.

Almost there, to Crow Butte, that clump of green trees on left. Even with tail wind I was pooped by now.

Today's ride: 67 miles (108 km)
Total: 175 miles (282 km)

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