Date: Saturday, August 21, 2010
Start: 0900 (0630 wake-up)
Finish: 1800
Travel Time: 9 hrs
Distance: 394 miles
Total Distance Covered: 1398 miles
It was our third straight pre-0700 wake-up. Even though we're behind in the sleep department, we woke-up feeling good knowing that our miles would be a lot less than the previous two days. The change in plans did us both some good for the body and mind. We started off with some tea and quiche at Strictly Organic Coffee. It was too bad our time in Bend was short because it seems like a haven for anyone that loves the outdoors.
We fueled up and hit the road. Again, Rt 97 gave us some great new vistas. Vast green fields and gently rolling hills as far as the eye can see. We even got to sneak a peak at Mt. Hood and Adams off in the distance. At one point it hazed up pretty good and we were riding through remnants of a nice-sized fire. As we approached the Washington border, it got extra exciting as we encountered the heaviest winds of the trip. Gusts had to be over 40 mph and both of us were getting blown around. All of the wind farms off in the distance were an indication these conditions weren't uncommon to this area. We enjoyed a nice gradual decent into Biggs. We noticed a pretty pimped KLR in the parking lot and ended up chatting with it's owner Jim for a bit. He was an avid adventure motorcyclist and told us about some great riding in British Columbia.
We paralleled the Columbia River to Umatilla where we filled up with some grub. We got some strange looks from some of the older lady folk in the joint. Maybe it was due to how fast we downed our hot doggies...or the fact that we looked like two giant storm trooper ninja trooper avengers. We crossed the Columbia and soon after were in Spokane. It felt great to roll into our destination with some daylight to spare. We explored town in search of a place to stay and decided on another cheap motel and then rolled down to a sports bar for some din-din. The bartender Jared hooked us up with the adjacent hotel computer and we transferred all of the GPS data to my device. This was key becuz tomorrow we were on the trail. We busted out Facetime with some friends back home and made it back to the room.
Both of us were pretty anxious. The trip was crazy so far, but the real adventure would begin when we hit Roosville, MT tomorrow. Heading into the unknown is a feeling like no other.
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