"You don't by chance live anywhere near Spokane, do you?" - Day 3

Day 3 went well. The terrain from Moses Lake to Spokane was rolling with a moderate tailwind most of the way. This morning I remembered that Kate Quick, a friend from high school, lives in eastern Washington and I texted her to find out where. The expected chafing has been getting worse over the past few days, so I desperately wanted to get some Vaseline. We also picked up bananas and Gatorade powder.

Travis struggled a little today, making me feel better about lagging behind him during the previous two days. We stopped for lunch at Jake's diner in Ritzville, where I turned on my phone to see that Kate lives in Spokane and was more than willing to host two stinky and exhausted cyclists. So we have a dry place to stay tonight, a shower, laundry facilities and a place to boil some more potatoes!

We lost two items to the road today, Travis' rearview mirror and my tail light. Travis wanted to replace the mirror and also adjust the fit of his bike by getting a new stem, so we picked those items up at a bike shop in Spokane before heading to Kate's. Kate took us to REI where I picked up a bike pump so we wouldn't have to rely on expensive CO2 cartridges. I also invested in some rain pants, thinking that might be the best insurance against it actually raining on us. We dined on delicious sandwiches at Huckleberry's Natural Food Shop, before heading back to Kate's to check e-mail, do laundry, drink a few beers and boil some potatoes.

Time	Trip	Odometer	Average	Max
7:33:05	110.3	314	14.6	34.9

"We're never eating at Taco Bell again." - Day 2

Wow. Day 2 started off chilly in our camp, so we were anxious to get off of the summit of the pass. With our bellies full of cream of wheat, we broke camp, filled our water bottles at a convenience store and left. Though I woke up at 5:20, we weren't on the road until 7:30. The uphill from yesterday paid off, and we enjoyed a lot of bundled up and chilly downhill at first. We got nice tailwinds and made it to Ellensburg around 10:45.

I had a craving for Taco Bell and indulged heavily. I immediately regretted it as we climbed out of Ellensburg, where we were met with a long climb on what we later found out was called Whiskey Dick mountain. On the other side we had a nice long downhill, where Travis got the first flat tire of the trip going 40 mph.

Travis flats on Whiskey Dick

After a two-mile climb out of a riverbed, the road flattened out again. Having learned our lesson with Taco Bell, we stopped at Subway in George, WA. Thinking that we'd probably end up stopping at Subway a lot, I got a Subway Card so I could rack up points and get some free sandwiches. As we were eating, we met a man who had done some centuries, 200 mile rides, as well as an Ironman. He warned us of the various passes in the upcoming rockies and informed us that it would be flat for the thirty miles to Moses Lake, our goal for the day.

 

Even with decent tailwinds, it took us two hours to make it since we were pretty tired. We pulled in around 6 pm, looking for free camping. After asking at an RV park, we eventually found some at the First Presbyterian Church. As I finished the leftover Taco Bell and Subway for dinner, I fell asleep for almost two hours, without unpacking my sleeping bag. I woke up feeling a little rested, finished getting ready for bed and finally went to sleep around 9:45.

On the whole it was a pretty tiring day, but we made up for yesterday's short ride and brought our average up to our goal of 100 miles/day. Hopefully we can keep it up tomorrow as we ride to Spokane, where there should be a bike shop and laundromat.

 

Travis packs up the tent at the church

Time	Trip	Odometer	Average	Max
8:00:14	128.8	204	16.0	41.3