Hot, Flat and Sassy

Day 19 Continued

After leaving the pro mountain biker/nascar/shop owner Markee's we made our way through town to Jack's first relative - Liz and John. By the end of the day, the heat got to all of us...some more than others. As we merged onto the freeway, and crossed the bridge from Kennewick to Pasco, Lorenzo took an 'off-road' option to get to the bike path over the bridge. Ryland and Matt en trail witnessed the best part of the day as Lorenzo gracefully negotiated a sloped soft shoulder leading to a 10 foot tall fence blocking any possible entrance. Halfway there, Lorenzo biffs it and eats gravel...

Moving into the hottest part of the day, with one mile left every street had a name "Desert Way" "Desert Plateau Road" "Sahara Road", fitting for our final stretch. To our delight, we arrive to an air conditioned home with homemade salsa, pizza, and salad. For dessert, Tillamook ice cream, berries and cake. Thanks Liz and John! 

Day 20 - Pasco, WA to Waitsburg, WA

A flat days ride led us quickly to Waitsburg, WA, population doubling upon our arrival - an uneventful ride with an eventful ending. It all started at La Monarca where for the first time on the tour, Gabriel was out eaten. The veggie option for the day was known formally as the "Walla Walla" burrito. This 'two-hander' burrito, chocked full of sweet Walla Walla onions, was also the first burrito worth $7.50 (sorry Portland). After a burrito, we took care of some phone calls and warranty business. By the third call, Lorenzo woke from a post-burrito stupor and stumbled over to the counter where we saw him raise a finger and gesture "I'll have another". We all thought, "Oh, one to go, what a good idea!" He brought it back to the table in a brown to-go bag. Halfway through the fourth phone call Lorenzo sunk into number two. Matt looked on in horror as Lorenzo polished off four pounds of sweet Walla Walla. 

Next stop Post Office, to send Matt's defective light away. We were callously greeted by Ms. Sassy Jenkins, the resident postmaster for Waitsburg. "I'd like to send this light away" said Matt. On tour time, and five miles left to ride at 2:30 in the afternoon we were operating at speed: chill mode. Admittedly, we didn't know exactly what we were doing, and we had a bag full of questions for her. She looked at us incredulously and asked "How helpless are you?!" 5'4" and full of fire and brimstone, she playfully berated our ignorance for the following 15 minutes as we attempted to navigate the postal system and send a small package to Monterey. Matt went in for a follow up question emerging with a gifted bottle of hand sanitizer curtesy of the U.S. Postal Service and another insult to his intelligence.

After three hours of loitering in Waitsburg we were on the final stretch to our home for the night. It took about two blocks to be distracted by a sign "Brewery: Open Daily". We stop and sample upwards of 12 finely crafted ales from Laht Nebbur Brewing Company, translation "drink to life". We tell our tales of the road and what lies ahead, making friends with every person in the bar. Carefully we select our bombers and head to the mighty Touchet River to cool off for the day.

Day 21 - Waitsburg, WA to Clarkston, WA

An early morning roll-out to beat the heat led us to rolling hills of seven-layer dip. Beautifully manicured layers of gold, green and ginger brown had us thinking about one thing. Endless fields of wheat had us wondering how we crossed the Rockies into the midwest without leaving Washington. A bit before Pomeroy we ran into a friendly couple from Corvallis riding a custom tandem with a hand-built trailer in tow, including a cooler for beer and storage tubes for camping fuel and wine fuel.

We stopped for an early lunch in Pomeroy, finding ourselves at Donna's Cafe, unfortunately no Donna. The menu consisted mostly of meat, meat stuffed in meat, meat with a side of meat, or a meat topped with smaller meats. After studying the menu intently Gabriel asked his token question "I have a question. What on your menu is vegetarian?" Upon telling the chef that we are all vegetarian she responded "Well, you're in Pomeroy!" We were finally able to talk her into making a non-menu special, heated veggie sandwiches with a side of everything: fries, onion rings, zucchini fries and the Pomeroy special, JoJos (with Johnny Salt). Apple pie a la mode topped the tank.

The final stretch was a mellow climb bringing us a hair above 2000 feet, which seemed impossible with the amount of flat ground we rode on. We crested Alpowa Summit and descended like bats out of hell, hitting record speeds for the tour so far as we crushed our biggest gears nearly breaking 50mph. We are still experimenting with weight-to-aerodynamic speed maximization. Slithering down to the Snake River we started riding along the first section of 200 miles of continuous river.

In Clarkston we were greeted by a little ball of fire named Sue, home of Jack's second relative. 4'11" in stature but 6'7" at heart, she showed us to our room for the night...