Wednesday June 17th: too much sun already?

Mileage: 83.8, Yakima to Kennewick

Well, as much as we hated to leave that nice soft grass, we left Yakima and quickly got into a game of Guess That Crop. The answer is hops -- apparently there's a festival around here! I've only ever seen hops in, as Ethan pointed out a breakfast the next day, their "liquid form".

Our first Pit was a minor miracle -- a very nice someone had donated the use of their driveway, and yard (which had many trees and a pond) for our use. Check out just how cool it was. This was another wonderful morning -- we were taking breaks just because it was so nice! Patty and Audrey are next to Ro here.

Unfortunately, that changed -- after lunch at Pit 2 (this was one of the days which we had bought lunch for, when there's *nothing* around that can support 730 riders, all hungry!) -- we got over a hill to find wide, open areas with a totally evil headwind (as compared to the annoying one in Yakima canyon). This was a headwind with a sense of humor, so it kept trying to push you into traffic, as well, with strong cross-drafts. waaaah. This was the first day that I actually started thinking I wanted to be sagged for something I had a choice about (unlike day 1). However, Ro and I made it through -- stopping for a hug and a break every 3 miles. 5 miles was too much to do without stopping for me.

Well, we did make it to Pit3 at about 4:20pm (they close at 5pm) because the last 5 miles or so actually had a bit of a change in the terrain and wind patterns -- one time I've looked forward to hills. They kicked us out at 10 minutes til 5, but we'd had a chance to stuff our faces with cliff bars and bananas and bagels (we needed it), and more water of course. Only about 4 miles later we got into the town of Horn River, or possibly the very tip of Kennewick. 11 miles after that, we got into Columbia River Park, a comparative haven of wonderfulness, which stretchs for 3 miles along the Columbia River. This is our rest day camp as well -- Thursday I'm only planning on adjusting the seat on my bike, writing up these pages (day-2 to day3), and reading. Oh, and laundry. Our stuff will finally have a chance to dry...

These are our first attempts at sunset pictures w/ the digital camera...we'll get better, but still these are cool.

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