Dave rides his bike to school

Above: My last view of the Columbia River before it heads north.

Above: Farmland west of Walla Walla, WA. A farmer told me that these are alfalfa fields. It smells like perfume.

Friday, 6/16 7pm
Location: Walla Walla, WA
Coordinates: couldn’t get a reading

Yesterday’s mileage: about 56
Today: Rest day in Walla Walla
Tomorrow’s destination: Dayton, WA

I rode into Walla Walla, Washington, after a fairly uneventful day’s journey. My plan was to check in to a cheap motel that offers a computer for guests to use, so that I could check email and update my blog. However, after 4 unsuccessful attempts to find such a motel, I gave up and checked into the cheapest motel I could find. Everyone said, “Oh, don’t worry, the library is open until 9pm.” Perfect! Well, except that the library really closes at 5pm. Doh! The café with Internet access was also closed, so I gracefully conceded defeat on that quest and decided to just explore the town instead.

As it turns out, Walla Walla is a groovy little town. There are vineyards/cellars/wine bars all over the place, there’s a fun ice cream/candy store right on Main St., several coffee shops and bakeries, and there are a few decent-looking restaraunts within a few blocks of one another.

Anyhow, after seeing the 5th wine merchant or so, it occurred to me that maybe I was in the middle of a wine region. So, as I was walking back to the motel after dinner, I decided to poke my head into a wine bar that had a bunch of people sitting outside on a patio, sippin’ wine and kickin’ back to some funky tunes.

You wouldn’t believe the characters I met there. Before long, I was talking with everyone at the bar! One guy owns and runs a 600-acre farm nearby, one guy works at a concrete plant and also operates www.wallawalla.com (if that’s not an unusual combination, I don’t know what is), one guy publishes a wine review magazine, one guy owns a vineyard, one guy was the cook at the bar, and so on.

I started telling some stories (stop snickering, Mike) and they started telling some stories, and pretty soon the guy who runs the wine review publication hands me a bottle of wine and says, “Take this bottle of wine, drink it on your trip, email me your review of the wine, and then I’ll publish your review and sponsor you on your trip.” Knowing a good deal when I hear one, I snatched the wine and his offer of sponsorship. Granted, the offer was coming from a guy at a bar who had had a few glasses of wine, so who knows what’ll come of it. It was pretty cool nonetheless.

I started chatting with this one guy from Montana about which route to take from Missoula to North Dakota, and he planted a gem of an idea in my head: travel by canoe! Apparently you can rent canoes in Great Falls, Montana, and float them down river eastward, and leave your canoe there when you get out of the river. The rental company takes care of the rest. It might be interesting to transport a steel bicycle in a canoe, but hey, is drowning any worse than getting run over by a big rig on the highway? Er, scratch that. I mean, “but hey, I’m sure it’s perfectly safe”.

Everyone in the bar had an interesting history. The bartender, for example, grew up in Alaska in a house that she helped to build, and her family didn’t have electricity until she was 10. They lived off the land, and she was homeschooled until high school. Then, she managed to get a music scholarship to a historically black college in Alabama. In the school’s history, she was the 17th white person to graduate. You know, that’s the kind of thing I just don’t hear about in my normal everyday life.

I also found out that there is a big classic car festival happening this weekend in Dayton, WA, which is the next town that I’ll pass through. So, I think I’ll probably plan my day tomorrow around arriving in town for the celebration.

When it was all said and done, I stayed at the bar until closing time. Oh, and by the way, I cracked open the bottle of wine and drank it at the bar with my fellow patrons, who kindly offered me bits of literary genius for my wine review (like this gem: “At the wine’s foundation is the acidic soil of Washington’s Paloose region.”). Hey, I told the wine guy that I have no idea what I’m talking about, so I had to get some help!

By the time I walked back to the motel, I hadn’t done my laundry, written my day’s entry, nor updated my blog. I also didn’t plan out where I’ll be for the 4th of July, which I had wanted to do by yesterday. In practical terms, I didn’t accomplish anything yesterday. On the other hand, I heard some incredible stories from the people of Walla Walla, Washington, and I created some new ones of my own in the process. And, after all, isn’t that what a cross-country bicycle trip is all about?
Musings:
– Every day, I get passed by a half a dozen Walmart big rigs, regardless of where I am, or what highways I’m riding down. Every once in a while, I get passed by a Safeway truck or a Sysco truck, but by and large, Walmart trucks are the single most common truck that I see. They’re everywhere. As a result, I think it’s time to rename our nation’s highways to more accurately reflect how our highways are used: instead of Interstate highways, they should be called “Interwalmart” highways. From what I can tell, highways mainly serve to transport goods between Walmarts and people to/from Walmarts. And in between Walmarts, you basically have gas stations and mini-marts that allow people and vehicles to fill up during their journeys to/from Walmarts.
– My friend Rob Lee gave me a great tip recently on how to amuse myself while riding. He said that as cars and trucks drive past, you should preface the name of the vehicle with “anal”. Well, it may be a 3rd grade potty game, but damn if I didn’t giggle for 20 miles as I played. Some examples:
Anal Explorer
Anal Probe
Anal Ram
Anal Wrangler
Anal Expedition
Anal Excursion

Well, you get the idea. The Europeans (and some of the Japanese companies) must have been learned about this game years ago, because they cleverly named their cars giggle-free names. Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, Saab, Lexus, Infinity, etc, all use stupid numbers to name their cars (eg, 325i, SL 500, A4, LS400, etc.). Oh well, I’ve still got the American SUV’s to provide miles of amusement!

 Above: Who needs gas anyway?

 

Above: Here’s the view from my tent as the sun was setting in Umatilla, OR.

 

 

Above: Here’s how we do sunsets in AMERICA, darn it!

Wednesday, 6/14 7pm
Location: Umatilla, OR
Coordinates:
45.9242 N
119.3280 W

Today’s mileage: about 90 
Tomorrow’s destination: Walla Walla, WA

Today I experienced the fastest cycling conditions that I’ve ever seen.  The roads were smooth, the terrain was pretty flat, and I had a 30mph tailwind all day long.  Riding with a 30mph tailwind is one of the most satisfying sensations you can experience on a bicycle.  You can imagine what the other most satisfying sensations on a bicycle are.  Actually, if you do know what those are, please let me know because I’m pretty much just happy when my arse doesn’t hurt. 

The only downside was that today was the first day that I would consider hot.  It wasn’t Houston hot, but it was hot enough to make you wish your bike came with AC.

The scenery was pretty bleak (it’s dry and rocky here…  No more trees or waterfalls), so there wasn’t much to look at except my bike computer, which read 25mph for much of the day.  That alone was exciting for me.  In fact, I was making such good time that I decided to ride past my original destination and cruise all the way to Umatilla, which is about 25 miles farther than I had planned to go. Ending the day 25 miles ahead of where I expected to be… now THAT’S a satisfying sensation on a bike! 

Musings:
– If you’ve ever wondered what I do to entertain myself while I’m riding my bike all day, here are a few random incidents that provided a break from the non-stop thrill of riding for 6-8 hours a day:
1) Yesterday, I was riding through a residential area in a small town, and a Chevy Tahoe drove past me.  As it got about 50 yards in front of me, it suddenly started making some terrible hissing noises.  It looked like it was dragging a white plastic grocery bag.  After a few seconds, the engine cut out, and the truck pulled to the side of the road.  WARNING, the following will be unpleasant for animal lovers…
Moments later, I reached what I thought had been the grocery bag.  To my surprise, it turned out to be a little white kitten (don’t ask me how a kitten looked like a grocery bag…  on the other hand, who expects a car to be dragging a kitten underneath).  Anyway, the kitten had somehow dropped from underneath the truck and basically bounced to the side of the road.  It certainly appeared to have taken a quick trip to kitty heaven.  I applied my brakes and stopped at the car.  The lady driving the Tahoe had lifted the hood, and there was another cat hiding in the engine bay!  She didn’t know what to do, because: the cat was still alive, it was clearly terrified, and she didn’t want to get attacked.  Well, about a minute later, someone she knew drove up and the two women drove off to get some help.  I didn’t stick around to find out what happened, but as you can imagine, the woman was quite shaken up.
2) As I was riding along today in the middle of nowhere, a military fighter plane came screaming over me and then disappeared as quickly as it appeared.  It reminded me of Fleet Week in San Francisco, because it did some sort of cool low-altitude “hey, look at me, I’m a badass in a fighter plane” maneuver and then vanished behind a cloud.  Or maybe it just flipped on the stealth switch and became invisible.  Or maybe I imagined the whole thing.  You’ll have to decide.
3) A train chugged past me, and I got the conductor to honk the horn.
4) I stopped at a mini mart, and it had one of those silly machines where you pay a quarter to weigh yourself.  That’s got to be the dumbest vending machine ever invented.  On the other hand, I paid a quarter to weigh myself, so perhaps I’M the dumbest person ever invented.  In any case, it had a height and weight chart, which divided people into 3 categories: small build, medium build, and large build.  I guess “large build” is stupid vending maching lingo for “fat”.  The tallest the chart went was 6’4”, which is how tall I am.  The range for “large build”?  195 lbs. – 211 lbs.  I weighed in at 212 lbs.  Huh?  I’m off the charts heavy?  If I built those stupid vending machines, I’d team up with Jenny Craig and post ads whenever the person fell into the fat category…  Business School, here I come!
 

  Above: This is a bike trail??   Above: A train snakes up the gorge.    Above: East of Hood River, OR.  They say that for every mile East that you go, the annual ... [Continue reading this entry]

  Above: Waterfall in the Columbia River Gorge.  Christophe is going to kill me for not using my tripod;  if you zoom in, you can tell that it's a little blurry...    Above: another waterfall in the gorge...  [Continue reading this entry]

  Above: Best Billboard EVER!  Roger and Bryan: I thought of you guys instantly when I saw this billboard.  I walked by this billboard a few times, and I laughed every time.     Above: The ... [Continue reading this entry]

 Above: 12 miles to Portland.  Hmm, isn't that thingy supposed to be ON my bike?      Above: The Little Nestucca River.    Above: My last glimpse of the Pacific Ocean for a long ... [Continue reading this entry]

Above: 06/06/06.  I think this is Cape Perpetua, just south of Yachats, OR.    Above: 06/06/06.  This is my attempt at taking an action shot of Belinda riding her bike while I was riding my ... [Continue reading this entry]

In honor of www.hotornot.com (which Landin is probably visiting at this very moment), I have compiled a selection of photos that will test your ability to distinguish forests that have been clear cut with those that have not.  So, let ... [Continue reading this entry]

  Above: The Bandon Harbor Harbor at about 9pm on Sunday.  Above: A pier in the Bandon Harbor.    Monday, 6/5 9am Location: Bandon, OR Coordinates: 43.1195 N 124.4114 W Yesterday's mileage: about 60 Today's destination: Reedsport, OR As has happened several times now, it ... [Continue reading this entry]

Above: According to the locals, this marks the beginning of the 50 most beautiful miles of coastline in the world.  You be the judge...   (Note: I didn't get many good pictures today because of the cloudy ... [Continue reading this entry]