Finished: Omak, WA
Total milage: 49
Climbed 3235 feet
Descended 4081 feet (Bummer – we’ve still got a lot of climbing to do!)
Burned (approximately) 2269 calories (this is according to the Garmin somebody on the trip uses)
Pretty tired today, and I just didn’t sleep well last night. Didn’t imagine sleep issues would make as big a difference in my stamina as they did, so I’ll just write briefly tonight. Tomorrow we’re biking 69 miles with a fair amount of climbing.
Today we saw the terrain change pretty dramatically. Though we’re out of a lot of the Cascades with snow-capped peaks, we’re still in the Cascades that are more rolling, and trees are getting more sparse in places, with grassy rounded knolls and an arid climate. I stopped to take a picture, and you’ll see that the road bends to the left in the distance. Well, just around that bend –poof!—we looked down on a very green river valley. Saw cherry orchards, farms, and even a rodeo fairground where Western style horse relay teams were competing.
We all detoured to a town called Twisp, because we'd heard there were great cinnamon rolls at a bakery called Cinnamon Twisp. The rumors were correct! Here are a bunch of people and bikes there.
At one point today, I was slogging up a long hill, singing to myself, “I’m an old cow hand on the Rio Grande..” and glancing down at my bike computer. I was to the right of the white line, on the shoulder of the road. All of a sudden I looked up to see this idiot in a pick-up truck barreling fast down the hill, passing a car on the two-lane road, so he was only about six inches to a foot on my left. He could have picked me right off!! I found myself thinking, “Wow! That could have been the end of me, and my last words would have been, ‘I’m an old cow hand on the Rio Grande.’” Right then and there I vowed to think more important thoughts and sing better songs.
Tonight was Mexican night for dinner. Here’s how the kitchen looked at breakfast, looking down from my last night’s room.
And here’s how the chairs are arranged for dinner each night, wherever we happen to be.
That's it for now. Drive and bike and walk safely out there!
Lynn
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