Wed 6-27

We had a great breakfast put on by the restaurant where we where camping. I've had my first complaint that I snore too loudly. Ripstop nylon doesn't block too much sound, which they reminded us of when making cell phone calls and complaining about anything or anyone back home.

We left Vantage and got onto I-90 to cross the Columbia river. The view were great and we went right into a 1.8 mile long climb. At the top of the bluff their are 12 gigantic iron horse statues. They're huge. We did not spend the time or energy to go all the way up to see them.

I started riding with a group, Iron Mike, Liz, Ben and Sean. Liz Ben and Sean's age don't even add up to Mikes, and you all know how old I am. But it is a really good group and we are very evenly matched. I have been teaching them the basics of riding single file to make it easier. Showing them how to peel off the front and the proper etiquette when riding a line. We went through a lot of farm fields. Most are marked; Potatoes, Carrot Seed Corn Alfalfa, etc etc. the terrain is a lot of rolling hills, and unless the land is cultivated it is all scrub land with lots of sagebrush, just what you think of when you imagine the old west. Temps according to Mikes bike computer hit 97.8 degrees, but it didn't seem hot. Must be a dry heat. Taught the group the "look". They caught on real quick. As we were coming into Odessa to camp at the school I looked back to see where they were, and both boys thought I was giving them the look and they sprinted past me in nothing flat. Dang!

After setting up the tent, we went into town and had a few beers. (Doing my best to help the local economy) Seems like a lot of the small towns are having a tough go of it. Had dinner at the school and with out much else to do went for another round. This time we took Dave the mechanic to treat him, we want to be on good terms with him.

Back at camp, I completed my handwritten journal and told Ben and Sean about sprinting for speed limit signs and county line signs. We'll see how that goes. I may want to bite my tongue with this type of thing.

One thing you do when your in a line is the last guy keeps an eye out for traffic. When a car is coming you yell "car back" to let the others in front know so they can pull over to the side if need be. We (Based on Sully's suggestion) started calling out "Car back in 10" and then counting down to see if the car passes us in 10 seconds. We are getting pretty good.

Gotta go the library is closing

Happy Trails

Scheduled miles: 81.0
Actual miles: 82.6