Day 6 Crow Butte to Kennewick
02:51 a.m. I awaken to the sound of the rain fly on the tent flapping in the wind. Our camp site is nestled amongst huge sycamore trees and their leaves are rustling briskly. The bikes! We left them next to the picnic table as the kickstands have served to keep them safely upright. But the wind…that four letter word that makes most cyclists cringe! It could be the death of them should they blow over and fall on the drive side. A broken derailleur would be devastating! Drew quickly went into action moving them against a wooden fence, obviously erected to protect the table from the wind. Teachable moment-When you enter a campsite that has partial fences, all on the same sides of the tables, it’s probably to protect the site. Got it!
05:27 a.m.
Our friends in the trees bring in the new day with their lovely songs. The trees are calm, there are clouds in the sky and we are ready for the next best day ever! I’m getting pretty good at this oatmeal thing and I think I could probably write a cookbook on all the different things you can put in it to change things up! lol!
The people you meet in campsites is interesting. I have been fascinated by watching the different behaviors amongst groups. Some, after doing a good thing, have to tell everyone about it, while others, just move on.
07:34 am and we’re ready to roll. Crow Butte campground is on a small island in the middle of the Columbia river accessible via a bridge. As we leave, we see a pair of American white pelicans in the water. Today will be long stretches with no services. We are both carrying plenty of water.
The road is amazing with great pavement and wide shoulders. There are cars every now and again but for the most part, fairly quiet. I think the mild vibration of the bike shakes loose a lot things on the body like clearing the lungs and sinuses. It seems that the blood rushing through the veins clear the sides of debris just as the fast moving river has no algae. And the mind… memories and thoughts that have been stowed away for decades find their way to the surface…to the conscious level. And during those long, uninterrupted miles on the bike, one has time to visit them. Reliving and enjoying the good; and choosing to discard those which do not serve me. The load is lightened.
Somewhere along the way, we stop for a short break. It’s unbelievable the things you see on the side of the road-yes, that you miss when traveling by car. I’m standing there and I look down and see a small object on the ground. It is yellowish-white, more narrow on one end and about 3/8th inch long. At first, I thought it was a zipper pull from a piece of sports clothing but it didn’t seem to have a hook at the end. Oh no! It’s an incisor! I called Drew over to look at it. I couldn’t believe someone’s tooth got knocked out and was laying on the road. He looked closely and then picked it up. “It’s corn from a grain truck”. We both started laughing hysterically! Yep! I’m blonde and from southern California. We are both still laughing! And guess what? We saw lots more ‘teeth’ along the way!
At mile 32, we entered Paterson, Washington and were ready for second breakfast. There were two places so we chose the one where all the cars were @FarmGroundsCoffee. What a find! Hands down, it was the best cup of coffee we’ve ever had. Breakfast was delicious and the staff over-the-top!
Bree helped and asked about our tour. We even got a photo by the sign!
With full bellies, we were off, stopping now and again for photos.
We were still traveling along Highway 14. There were fields and fields and an occasion, a vineyard. At mile 177, there was a really sweet smell, like jasmine and at mile 179, it smelled like onions. Yet another memory surfaces-growing up, the field across the street was planted yearly-one year sweet potatoes, then the next year onions. It’s fascinating how scents evoke memories.
We are now in AgriNorthwest territory and we had the opportunity to meet Riley who works for them. What a great guy. We learned the fields next to us were growing corn and potatoes. It seemed we traveled miles and miles until we stopped seeing their signs. And then we saw HIM. A graceful, curving flight over the field until nearly out of site and then back. We believe it was a Swainson’s Hawk.
Miles and miles. Music helps on those long stretches when the scenery doesn’t change much. We loaded about 800 songs on a MP3 player that pairs with a JBL Clip 4 and set it to ‘shuffle’. Wow! Alan Jackson, Night Noise, Rod Stewart, Bocelli: an eclectic mix of music with rhythms that set a cadence. It reminded me how important music is to me and how it still helps me get through times in my life.
We are now at about mile 50 when we turned right for some much needed descent. Up until then, it was a steady 2-3% climb. Not particularly difficult but rather something that slowly wears you down. A grind. And the sky shed some drops upon us. Not rain. Just a little love from the clouds. Oh, how sweet is the smell of hot asphalt when it gets wet. With speeds up to 30 mph, finally, the miles were ticking off. And the tail wind! Yes! And then the next right turn…side wind. The gusts reminded me of Indian Canyon Road when I was blown sideways off the road during a Tour de Palm Springs event. FOCUS. Riding a bike that is loaded helps because of the weight but the frame bag and panniers are not aero so there more surface for the wind to catch. FOCUS. I try to curl into the smallest mass possible pushing as much of my weight down and centered. We travel through cuts in the terrain and I brace as we return to the open space. I am reminded of Cheri Grunfield, who is an Ironman icon, when she spoke during one of club meetings. She told us about the bike portion and coming out from the wind protected bluff and the force of the winds. I was determined not to let it stop me or sideswipe me. Not today. Sometimes it’s easy to fall into complacency…to let your guard down when things are predictable… business as usual. That’s when we are most vulnerable. Not today. I have 4,600ish more miles to ride. I’m not going down.
Eventually, we could see Kennewick off in the distance. Our next turn was left sending us east with the winds forcefully at our backs.
We headed to the local Trek store and met Jenn, Jason and Scotty. So fun. They knew about our local store Palm Desert Cyclery. I shared how Tyler helped with packing especially using a water bladder in my frame bag. I am still in awe of the wonderful people in this world. There is so much good.
A bit more wind until we get to the hotel and we’re grateful to be home for the night. A quick trip to Walmart for dinner fixin’s and back for a shower. Oh so good!