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traviswsoul · 7 years

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Day 30 Pasco to Winddust Park 42 miles

This morning Dilan made crepes, we had a delicious breakfast. His kids Ivy, 10, and Axel, 4, are beautiful toe head babies full of positive energy, poster children for good parenting. They definitaly score one in the get married and have a family column for me. Dilan's and his wife Jen's shop is called Greenies because they started it out as a shop for all the things a "green" minded consumer might have trouble finding. Over the years those products have become more widely available, a good thing in general but it also innevitable reduced the demand for those things in their shop. Now they are a fully operating bike shop as well as a renter of kanoes, SUPs, and bike. Richland is one of the Tri-Cities of eastern Washington along with Kiliwak and Pasco. Three rivers run through the cities and the city has done an excellent job creating public outdoor spaces and multi use paths along the water. I'm really impressed with this town and even more so with the beautiful life Jen and Dilan have created, they are both super fit and good looking by the way. He's 40 and I would have guessed he was my age, she is beautiful and also clearly healthy and active enough to look younger than her years. That night after Dilan left the shop he went with three other guys for a quick 20 mile sprint around the city along the rivers like they do each tuesday night. I joined him afterward for Taco Tuesday $1 Taco Special at the food truck down the road. Chasing a beautiful sunset we rode through town and out through farms and into Pasco where they live, I felt right at home and enjoyed talking about Harry Potter with Ivy, she's also a super fan and had the hard back illustrated text book size versions of the books! They were incredible! I love when I can talk with kids about Harry Potter and not have to downplay my own personal childlike excitment about the phenominon. I didn't even have to set up my tent because they had a trampoline! After visiting a while with the grown ups I called it a night climbing in to my sleeping bag and resisting the urge to have a good jump and bounce session before bed. I absolutely love sleeping on trampolines! Especially when you wake up because you get to just roll around and are immediately doing wake up stretches and starting a morning off right. There nothing like doing Downward Facing Dog in the middle of a trampoline, if you haven't, I insist you try it! Dilan made crepes, it was the best breakfast I've had my whole trip! One I filled with goat cheese, pistachio and peaches, another with almond butter, banana and nutella, and the last with cottage cheese and blueberries. I got a late start and rode through a couple hours of over a hundred degrees but I'd do it all over again for that good night sleep, amazing breakfast, better company and just being in such a warm home. Remember Greenies bike shop in the tri cities if you're ever in east Washington, I know I'll be back, I want to kayak that river! The riding was moderately difficult today, boring and extremely hot. I have started another of Dan Carlin's Hard Core History Pod Casts called the Blueprint for Armageddon. It's about the things that led to world was 1 starting with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the thrown of austro hungary, which im probably remembering in correctly but I know he was killed Serbians who could have had no idea of ultimate ramifications of their actions. And the guy that killed him did so after the mission to do so had already failed until later in that day the vehicle carrying the prince happened to stop on the street, by coincidence, right in front of the assassin who pulled out his gun and shot both he and his wife. Dan described it as if Kennedy was not killed when fired upon in his car in Dallas but instead stayed in the car driving around for a while and stopped in front of a cafe that the shooter from the grassy knoll was walking out of, armed and succeeded at his freak second chance. The chances of this happening and it's role in world history couldn't be written any better if it was made up. I'm loving learning about this old history in way Hard Core History podcast does, it's hours and hours long. I think this series I've just started is 6 episodes each over two hours, perfect for a trip like this because it's hard to consume it all if you have real life interrupting your lessons all the time. As I cam around one turn I saw another bike packer stopped in the shade packing something up, I asked if he was ok and then wished him well and rode on. Then I realized he was coming my direction when he came up behind me and we exchanged encouragements, then when he was pulled over again on a hill I passed him commenting on how hot it was and he confirmed that I had enough water and reminded me to stay hydrated! Eventually after a while of this I saw his bike was outside the only building we had seen for 25 miles, it was the top of a hill we'd just climbed so I also pulled over to check on power for something I think. After a minute or two a women stuck her head outside the little school house and asked me if I needed more water as well? I decided to take the obvious lead and went inside, she guided me down stairs and on past the kids cubbies with finger paint hung all above I met Oliver Heyndrickx in the little boys room filling up his water. He was from Belgium and admitted he had just graduated and was out traveling to run away from responsibilities mounting at home so he was trying to cycle to as many national forests as he could in the next few months. We made our way up to the landing by the entrance where I felt a cold stream of air conditioning blowing against my legs. From one of the lower steps of the next flight of stairs was amazingly cold air blowing from a vent, it felt life giving. I immediately stuck my head down to it and got comfortable, so did he, we were both so hot, it must have been 105 outside and I know I was thirty miles in, he was more. So we sat and chatted, immediate friends, kindred spirits feel, it was we laughed about how neither of us were really sure how to do what we had set out to do. I walked him through how to change a tire, which he has never done in his life. He was confident, adventures, bearded, and excited, I wish we could have traveled more together. Nine miles past the school house though I turned right onto Burt Canyon Road and finally was rewarded for all the climbing we'd been doing with a few miles of down hill. I was headed down to the Snake River, normally when you get to bomb down you get to cool off but today, even over thirty miles per hour, the air was so hot it didn't feel nice at all. It felt like when you open the over and get wave of heat hitting you, I couldn't believe it. Once the river came into sight however and jumping in became a very real possibility I was stoked! I hit the river and turned left watching the giant river boat filling facility come closer and closer. It appeared that semis go through, unload their loads, and then it is piped up into a silo that has a ramp and filling down tube hanging out over the river, where I suppose boats fill up and transport down the river. This type of operation seems perfect out here, today I rode through the biggest farm plots I have ever seen, some fields rolled on so far they became hills and disappeared behind their horizons. I passed a tiny linger hanger and run way and watched airplanes take over and return over and over making passes dusting the fields with chemicals, one little yellow plain I saw flying over me and returning to reload three times while I was on that stretch. Wheat fields are actually rather beautiful, the wind blows them in all directions and motion and shades of gold is constantly changing direction. I also believe I saw, carrots, onions, and potatoes, root vegitables that I'm not so good at identifying. I am certain that I passed a garlic field, it smelled amazing, a few million heads of garlic filling the air with that aroma that we know so well from it filling our kitchens at the onset something delicious being made, it was unmistakable. It was cool to see the river still being used to transport those harvests, I saw a few massive vessels moving up river while I've been here now but have not gotten to witness a filling, I can see that giants solo and ramp from where I'm camping. I'm right on the river across is a train track and then a cliff that jets up, the move has been getting brighter and higher from the back of that cliff all night. When I left this morning I had I had parts all over and out of place so when I arrived here, after immediately walking straight down the boat dock into the river with all my clothes on, shoes included, I laid out my yoga mat and unpacked everything. I then repacked it all back into exactly the right places, taking inventory, organizing and consolidating. There was a break for another swim some time during my OCD exercise as well and once I was finished I did yoga on the newly cleared mat. Today my on board power system failed for the first time. earlier in the day one of the wires had broken off the metal piece that connects it to the hub. I managed to stop in front of an auto shop and soon a interested guy asked if I needed help, we struck up a conversation and he realized he had a replacement for the part I needed so we got it fixed. However, soon after both the wire had broken of the metal piece we replaced and the other wire was severed. I was baffled but managed to take my time, borrow some duck tape and pliers and get it rigged up better than before. Now the sun has gone down and I need to eat a lot more still before bed. xoxoxo3:46

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