This day.... we expected to be home in the early afternoon. We made it home just before dark. Where did we go off track?
"Clunk, clunk, clunk." "What's that sound?" "Let's stop at Les Schwab to get it checked out." 4 hours and many hundreds of dollars later, we were back on the road. ..
The day actually began at midnight, when I felt drops of water on my face. Chuckling to myself (because I had asked Jay about the weather, and he'd said it was fine earlier and didn't think we needed to check it again.) I woke him up, we put the rain flap on, and then it RAINED. What a great tent we have. Big Agnes is the bomb.
We woke up early to get back to Pullman before the rush of traffic on 27. The cold and wet was so worth it, after we flew down the hill and began the palouse rollers: a pair of deer sprang across the road and into the wheat, looking like rabbits jumping through grass Just delightful.
I was really dragging and not feeling strong. Looking back now, after being sick for a week, I know I was getting the cold that Jay had been getting over. Thankfully, the road was gentle rollers the whole way, and traffic wasn't bad. The hills, cleaned of dust from the night's rain, were sparking in the sun. When we arrived in Pullman, we discovered the trail that looped through town and around the big hill we had struggled up and over several times! Yay. I was not looking forward to that hill again. I lost Jay when we navigated around construction, but thanks to the map that our campground neighbor had given us, I successfully figured out where the campground was. Hungry and thirsty, we loaded up and headed to a coffee shop I found nearby Yum!!!! Nice hippie flavored coffee spot with great baked goods. We both got these biscuits with cheese and veggies in them. Delights of flaky goodness that washed down wonderfully with coffee.
On the road through bend, the construction caused a lot of headaches for anyone and everyone, especially those trying to direct traffic. We unfortunately had to cross 95, the big road going through Pullman. The sign holding people were apparently under strict orders to NOT stop any through traffic, under any circumstances. We watched the pair in front of us yell at each other and generally communicate ineffectively, keeping vehicles at the cross streets stopped. We waited, and waited, and waited. Even when through traffic was backed up, they would let semis and trucks move forward and sit IN the intersection, instead of stopping them before so cross traffic could jump across. Eventually we made it through, and passed by WaWaWai Rd, where our adventure began just 5 days ago. :)
As we re-travelled our journey, we enjoyed listening to our favorite news shows (Democracy Now and The Young Turks). It was in Tri Cities area when the weird clunking sound came from the driver's side front tire. I appreciated how the tire person showed us what was wrong (the wheel hub was worn out, and the tire wobbled back and forth despite the lug nuts being securely bolted!) and we learned it would be over 3 hours to get it fixed.
No problem, we unloaded our bikes, grabbed things we wanted to do, and navigated to a park. The short trip through a town clearly not designed for, nor used to, bikes was a bit rough. Moments after we left Les Schwab, I almost crashed when my tired hit a piece of rebar laying parallel with the road. Earlier we had watched a truck hauling rebar pass, with the rebar slowly sliding off the back end. We had wondered if any would fall off, and now we knew the answer was yes! I skimmed along it like I was skating, and somehow managed to stay upright! At the park, we found a shady tree and lay on a blanket I had brought (Jay: Aren't you smart to think of that!). We played cribbage, drank a ton of water, and I worked on my bike journal while Jay napped. 3 hours later we picked up the van and continued on our way. I got my wish, and we stopped at Cousins for dinner in the Dalles. We split one of their fish and chips (easily one of the best I've had) and grabbed a cinnamon roll for the road. their cinnamon rolls have tons of layers of dough and cinnamon stuff, which is what makes them so so good.
As soon as we got home, we started planning for the next ride: a trip to the coast!!!!
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