Day 126 - Worley, ID to Spokane Valley, WA - Two Far 2023 - Oranges to Apples

August 19, 2023

Day 126 - Worley, ID to Spokane Valley, WA

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SMOKE was the word of the day. There is large wildfire which started yesterday just west of Spokane. The fire has already destroyed many buildings, caused evacuations and closed I-90 at Spokane. Our destination today is just about 10 miles east of Spokane. We rode into increasing smoke and haze the whole way. Fortunately, it was only a 28 mile ride, with lots of downhill, so it wasn't a hard ride. Tomorrow we are driving to Missoula, MT - home of Adventure Cycling - and there are smoke problems in that area too. Rain is in the forecast for the next three days, so maybe conditions will improve.

We left the casino hotel about 10:00. It was already busy with the blue haired ladies chain smoking and playing slots. The area around Worley, ID did not seem very prosperous.

This is not meant to be representative of Worley, ID, just an interesting old house.

It was only 3.5 miles to Washington.

We knew we were back in Washington, because there were apple trees here and there growing alongside the road.

We also saw these huge wheat fields being harvested.

There were several stacks of wheat straw in the fields.

The combine had just finished harvesting this field and was presumably headed to the next one.

You can see how really smoky it is getting.

Here's another shot that shows how obscured the trees in the background are.

I see a feline face in this field. Does anyone else?

Can't have rural photos without an old barn in the mix.

We stopped for a break in the little town of Rockford. Kerry had seen online that they had a museum. He rode around the three whole blocks of downtown and didn't find it. We asked in the convenience store and found out where it, but also that it was closed today. So the sights we saw in Rockford were these:

Downtown The museum is in the white-fronted space next door to the Harvest Moon.

This the Rockland Grain Growers Elevator, but it actually located in the next town, Freeman.

We completed our ride with a couple of moderate climbs and two last, fast downhills. It felt good to get out of the smoke into the clean indoors.

After we went to the grocery store and rested for a little while, we took the bike out to load it on the car. I was very lucky that Kerry was able to enlist the help of a tall, young, strong guy walking across the parking lot to lift the bike high enough for him to get it on the rack. It is almost impossible for him to do this with only me to help. Now we're ready to drive to Montana tomorrow.

Today's ride: 27 miles (43 km)
Total: 5,514 miles (8,874 km)

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