Happy Happy in Walla Walla

Day 7: Plymouth to Walla Walla, WA: 59 miles

This was a day of mostly flat terrain, but with a rare easterly headwind. David "The Machine" Maddox pulled me the first 30 miles. It was not hard pedaling, but the headwind made it feel like a 30-mile uphill! I would probably still be trying to get to Walla Walla if it weren't for David!

We headed up the Columbia after an inauspicious start at Umatilla. Our new motto is "If you have a choice between hunger and a truck stop, choose hunger." We were burping greasy breakfast food the first 30 miles!

This part of Washington is more desert-like and just gorgeous. We pedaled beside the river for the most part until we got through Wallula Gap. We had beautiful views of some pretty dramatic terrain. There was quite a bit of truck traffic on this road, but they mostly gave us wide berth. It is interesting, though, that the only time you meet traffic is that 20-foot stretch where there is no shoulder, there's a cliff on one side, and the river on the other. Murphy's Law exhibited time and time again...

At one point, we surprised 4 white pelicans on a little pond. They took off and escorted us for about 5 minutes--not bothered at all by the wind! They are like most of the other wildlife. Things like tractor trailer trucks, cars, and trains don't even cause them to look up. But let two people on bicycles ride by slowly, and they get pretty interested! We have had a lot of unusual interest from the animals, and it made me wonder how often this happens to us as humans...we can go through many of our routines in almost a trance--not noticing until something different happens. Maybe we need that variety to feel alive??? Just a thought on our 10-week meditative journey...

Hamburger butt resurged after about 45 miles on this day, but we still had 15 left to get to Walla Walla! It was slow going--I am trying not to stop except for every 5-10 miles. We got sunburned and parched, and ran out of water about 2 miles before our destination. At one point I yelled to David "Walla Walla better be worth it worth it!"

It was! What a fantastic town! Wide streets (supposedly based on the old stagecoach days), nice people, and fun shops! We found some shorts for David, a book for me, and all the other supplies we needed. We tasted some fabulous Washington wines and had a great dinner (LOTS of veggies!) at Grapefields Restaurant. It just doesn't get much better than that!

Our route from here is up through the Palouse Plateau and on to Spokane. We hope to be there by Friday! Our LONG trip through Washington state will come to an end about two days later.