June 3 & 4

June 3 (85 miles from Umatilla, OR, to Dayton, WA)

After the last posting in Walla Walla, WA, we finished the ride around 4:30 in Dayton. The ride was pretty through the grain fields and round hills of Eastern Washington. We left the Columbia River along with the desert before Walla Walla and the new scenery was nice. We stayed at the Dayton Motel, which was possibly built in the early 20th Century and redecorated in the 1970s. I'm guessing this based on the olive green shag carpet and a well-used recliner that may have been Archie Bunker's. Downtown Dayton was very nice, though. It has a wonderful small town feel and the beautiful Columbia County courthouse sits proudly in the center, guarded by two old cannons. For dinner we ate at a great restaurant called the Weinhard Cafe that had a excellent menu and some excellent blackberry cobbler with a dallop of vanilla ice cream for dessert.

June 4 (67 miles from Dayton to Clarkson, WA)

Another pretty ride today through the grain fields up until ~10 miles outside of Clarkston, where we re-entered the high desert along the Snake River. Although we had some climbing earlier, the ride ended with a magnificent 20-mile downhill/flat section. Our departure from Dayton was around 6:15a to avoid the afternoon heat, which was a good move except that we had to eat power bars and some fruit purchased the night before for breakfast. We stopped in Pomeroy (9 miles before the last of the climbs) for brunch around 10:30a, which had some great pancakes for me and an great-looking omlette + hashbrowns for Larry. There were a couple of guys from Iowa in the restaurant, as well, and chatted with them for a while. They were delivering a trailer from Iowa to somewhere in Western Washington that one of the guys had sold and simply decided to deliver himself. Did I mention that they were riding motorcycles for the trip, which they estimated would last 8 or 9 days? They were very nice and had lots of funny stuff to say. They appeared to be regular motorcycling buddies, as one of them commented that "our wives kick us out once a week so we just go riding". Better than a chore list, I guess.

We arrived here in Clarkston around 2:30p after a headwind and some bad roads made the last 5 miles tough (despite the downhill and flats). Clarkston is adjacent to Lewiston, ID, and Lewiston has a couple of bike shops so we made a quick stop at one of them to get some supplies. Larry's tire wall suffered a gash this morning so he needed a new one, despite the fact that they had kevlar reinforcement. He purchased an armadillo and I also got a spare tire (armadillo, too). Tonight we plan to eat next door at the Italian restaurant recommended by Dr. Haar, and possibly grab dessert at the Baskin Robbins (also next door, and also recommended by Dr. Haar). Tomorrow there will be a steep climb to start the day but this will be followed by some good downhills to Kamiah (pronounced Kam-ee-eye), where Pam has sent more sticky notes and flags for the BOB trailers with the Ride for Jim logo! We're making a rest day of Kamiah, too, which will be well-deserved.