Day 5 – Maryhill, WA to Umatilla, OR – 89 miles

WIND!

MORE WIND !!

THEN IT JUST GOT RIDICULOUS….

Today, we’re going to write about wind. Not the “I ate too many beans” wind, but rather, the atmospheric kind.

We’re talking crosswinds and tailwinds. We started out in very windy conditions, which felt like a tailwind from the west. This propelled us at a far faster rate than we expected to achieve today – Yay!!!

BUT THEN

there were gusts from the north that made it hard to keep our bikes stable, which caused us to slow down dramatically, fortunately for only about the quarter of the ride. Add to that the truckers whizzing by with their aggressive vortices and needless to say we looked like a couple of teenagers after consuming a bottle of Jack Daniels.

Scenery? Who knew Oregon had so much agriculture. TONS of potatoes. (I thought Idaho had a corner on that market). Thus all the trucks whizzing by with produce, processed foods and – potatoes. French fries, baking potatoes, hash browns, curly potatoes, potato chips, potato salad, mashed potatoes, you get the idea.

Aside from an abundance of potatoes, there was an uncanny LACK of travelers services. We made 2 stops, using both to cool off and refuel. At the first one, in Roosevelt, we signed our first bike book at the mini- mart and met a lovely native American couple who were very interested in our ride. She was from the Yakima tribe, he was from the Nez Perce. Our second stop was delicious but disturbing – nearly every customer who came in bought a 6-pack of beer. At 2:00pm. We reckoned the morning shift at the local processing plant had just let off. Time for us to go before the drivers had consumed their fill!

By the time we reached Umatilla, OR (apologies to any of you from here, but Umatilla is NOT a must-see) the wind was kicking around at about 30-35mph. Time to head to the hotel and take a shower.

Ah, no shower curtain. Bummer.