Umatilla, OR
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!
Tags: Travel
daviddmcmillan