Biking to Portland

 Day 1: 58 mi

Dad wasn't around to see us off, so we had to have some random guy take our picture before we set out.
The sentence to start off the day:

"I hope we make it to Hermiston" ~Mom

"We're slowly stripping!" ~ Kt

We found THE ONE grassy spot to sit and have a pre-lunch. ( The only one not trespassing, anyway. A little ways back, there was a house with a picnic table in their yard! Only, the sprinklers were going.)

I took a picture of my bike because I couldn't of me.
And we're off again!

The Walla Walla Valley

Somewhere after Touchet and slightly before 9 Mile on the
back roads.

I saw this cool underpass by 9 Mile and wanted to go
explore it. We decided that it seemed like a nice enough
 place for lunch. 

 It was pretty windy, but the shade was nice. We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on this funny kind of flat bread!

My mommy biking....and the Columbia River! After 9 Mile, we got off the back roads and traveled on the highway.  

We made it to Hermiston and went down Diagonal Rd, trying to reach the Walmart so that I could get sunglasses. We made it as far as the Circle K before calling my uncle. After stopping at Walmart, we went to his house and chatted, showered, and ate dinner. I was fine until after dinner, when all of a sudden the insides of my knees just felt overly fatigued. I couldn't stand very well or walk long. It was hard to find a comfortable position to sleep in. The next day, however, they were fine. :) Yay being young and fast recovery!

In the Book:

Musing of the day --Are there land gulls?
Quote -- "Oh! There's a road here!" ~Mom

"I like traveling with Kt 'cause she finds interesting side trips." ~Mom
"Ow my knees hurt all of a sudden.....can't walk..." ~Kt

 Day 2: 37.6 mi

We started off the day SO EARLY. I don't sleep well when I can't check on the time. We had the yummiest bacon at breakfast that my cousin had raised. Then they dropped us off at church and we left from there after Mass.
The sentence to start off the day (done about mid-day):

"My knee hurts :(" ~Kt

"No pain but fatigue - slow day" ~ Mom

We made it to Umatilla  unharmed! And I found 2 pennies. We crossed the bridge....on the other side was a young bald eagle! My attempts to take a picture failed because (I later realized) my camera was on it's macro settings. Directly off the bridge, we went through this fun tunnel.

Somewhere along the way, my knee twinged and suddenly
pushing with it hurt. So, a lot of this day was spent peddling
one-legged. It was hot, but there was a small nice cross-wind.

We stopped under this winery sign for shade. There was
some grass under it that felt nice to lay on. Tired, with
 no idea how far we had yet to go,

But we did finally make it! It was beautifully green.
And, since we biked in, the camp guy didn't charge
us! Mom made sure that the first thing she did was
blow up her air mattress. xD 

Our food was mostly of the reconstituted kind.

Our bikes made it

In the Book:


Musings of the day -- What do flies eat in the wild? Poop
                                    Did Lewis or Clark commit suicide?

"Our neighbor was a pilot who was building a plane & he rode a honda shadow. We saw a mink today! but it was dead on the side of the road. And a bald eagle and a hoot-hoot! <--That weren't dead" ~Mom
"Camping camaraderie  I like meeting random people-we weren't charged for our camp spot, got a bag of ice, and met our neighbors. :)" ~Kt

 Day 3: 51 mi

I decided that sunglasses weren't quite enough, so I made a visor out of duct tape and a stick. I colored the underside black with a sharpie.
The sentence to start off the day:

"Starts with accomplishment!
Kt gains item "duct tape roll"
Kt receives title "Visor Maker"
Kt gains item "visor" " ~Kt
"(Nice neighbors) on to Maryhill today!" ~Mom

So we started off! The farthest Mom had ever ridden
before was 100 miles, so we stopped and did a
happy dance. 

Forever were we stopping to put on sunscreen!

I took this pic because there was a special forklift
taking the cars off the train and putting them on
trucks!

We stopped in Roosevelt to eat lunch and I
discovered something delicious: a spam slice
on top of half a bagel!  

Mamma biker is strong!

It was a really hot day. At least mid 80s we agreed (Later we found out it was 94 in the Dalles!). There wasn't really any shade anywhere and mom was getting nauseous. We were also starting to get low on water. So, when we found this shade, we rested and waited for the sun to get lower and less hot.

Mom had to laugh. Here she was dirty, sweaty, and laying on
the side of the highway in bike gear....but she has
designer toes. ^_^ 

The sun was beginning to set and no ideas where to
camp; we were both too tired to make a decision. We
stopped at a farm house....but only a boy was home,
so we asked for water and moved on. 

 We hit the BIG hill next to the John Day Dam and knew we couldn't go farther. after going around in circles trying to find the best out of no good places to camp, a passing car with a boat told us of a boat launch next to the dam with a porta potty next to it. Sold. It was pretty, but we were too worn out to care. Barely ate dinner and fell into bed.

In the Book:

We survived.
Barely

 Day 4: 25 mi

The night was windy and we awoke unrested.
The sentence to start off the day:

The hill. 16 miles. HorseThief camp.
GO!

Halfway up.... 

We made it! 

See that tiny sliver of separated water NW of the
center? That's the boat launch we camped at. 

We can see a small Mt Hood.....getting closer! 

There were some very pretty pastoral scenes. 

This was the first day of a strong headwind and it sapped our energy--we had to pedal our bikes to go DOWNHILL. Also the farther along we got, the less shoulder we had. The semis and other traffic were a big stressor.  

BUT, we made it to Maryhill and had a chance to get out of the wind. We filled our water and enjoyed the museum. They had a cafe and we were delighted to eat fresh food. I had a delicious smoked salmon salad.

Mom with Sam Hill. They're buds. 

The traveling exhibit they had on the third floor was a fashion show put on just after WWII. The fashion industry wanted to help stimulate the economy, but fabrics to use were still hard to get. So, they had designers create mock-ups and staged these elaborate scenes to show off the fashion. Along the edge of the stage are little cards identifying the designer and detailing each outfit.

 

We'd remembered, from Crow Butte, that state parks have quarter showers! We got some change when we left Maryhill. After a VERY long time fighting against headwind and hill and no shoulder, we made it to HorseThief Lake. We'd ended up walking a lot.












After a quick shower together, we did laundry. The wind was blowing hard enough, we trusted it would all be dry by sundown. We also made sure to stake down our tent very well, and it still tried to blow away! In the shower/handicapped bathroom, there was one working plug in. So, we each took turns charging things in there to get out of the wind and cowering in the tent. Peeping out every so often to make sure our undies didn't blow away.

That night, I considered the maps by flashlight while mom fell asleep. I was trying to plot our next move and discovered that we couldn't cross at Hood River, as we'd originally planned. But the Dalles was about a 6 mile ride away. I could probably get Mom to do that. However, I still wanted to try and reach Portland, or at least Cascade Locks. About 12 miles beyond the Dalles, there was Memaloose park. I wondered if I could bully her into continuing to there. After the Dalles, campgrounds were more plentiful and perhaps I could bully her from one to the next to get enough miles each day. I fell asleep plotting miles versus days.

In the Book:

We made it to HorseThiefLake! 
So much wind.
The salmon salad @ Maryhill was wonderful
We can't cross @ Hood River!

 Day 5: 31.5 mi

I'd hoped that with the winds strengthening in the evening, they would disperse or at least calm a little in the morning. Nope. However, the day got off to a positive start. As we were walking our bikes up the hill out of the park, I noticed a guy taking pictures of us. Then he drove his car ahead, stopped, and took pictures from the front! Well, he was a photographer for the Seattle Times. They're doing articles about the state parks for the 100th year anniversary and he just happened to be there. Apparently people on the road make it look more interesting. So, we're supposed to look up the paper in a week or two to see if we made it in.
The sentence to start off the day:

With this wind, how far can we get? Dalles, 6 mi?

Horsethief Lake 

Gate to the Hood

 We finally made it to the bridge to the Dalles! It was a fairly narrow path, so we walked our bikes. I tried to get my camera out to take a picture of my mom on the bridge, but my bike tipped over. As far as we can tell, I caught it with my ankle on the spikey gears that hold the chain on. Two gashes were starting to bleed. Mom got out some gauze and I duct taped the whole thing up. We got across the bridge and had breakfast at McDonald's as we planned our next move.

Mom was pretty set on getting a car. The wind was just too strong and the riding wasn't much fun any more. But I had my goal of at least Memaloose and wanted to go on. So, she said she'd ride sag for me. We went back and forth on whether to see a doctor about my gash or not. In the end, it was too much trouble and we were wasting time. So, she rented a van and took off to do the paperwork. I took off by myself.

However,  just after the on ramp I got a flat. I texted Mom and she picked me up. My back tire was rusted on, so we had to take it to a bike shop. We were lucky that it happened to be open.

Then I was off again. She went to Safeway to get a book, gauze, and something not-water to drink. I met her down the road and everything was fine....then my chain came off. With that fixed, the law of three was satisfied and I hoped nothing else would go wrong. >.< 

The ride was beautiful, but that was hard to enjoy with how hard the wind was blowing. I was having to use my bad leg a lot, so my knee was hurting more and more as the day progressed. My goal was to reach Viento State Park. Then, the next day I could go the 15 miles to Cascade Locks or try the 40 to Troutdale. I never made it. I did, however, make it through Mosier (with the Curve of Death), east Hood River (capital of wind surfing), and up the hill to the Columbia Gorge Hotel exit. Just barely. Towards the end, the wind was blowing in gusts so strong, they'd knock me off my bike.

I gave up and allowed Mom to drive me the last 6 miles to Viento. I could have done it, but my knee was already aching and I was afraid that I'd hurt it more permanently. I'd also psyched myself out about the gashes on my ankle and how bad it could be might be. It worried me that it didn't hurt that badly and that the deeper gash wasn't bleeding. I waffled back and forth on going on to Portland or camping and seeing what tomorrow brought. Finally, we just drove to Ken and Fran's.

Once there, we took nice hot showers and relaxed. I had two fingers of bourbon and Fran was wonderful and made us dinner. Turned out the gashes, though deep, weren't too bad, but we were grateful for the lack of wind inside and fell into exhausted sleep. 

 Day 6: 10.3 mi

We spent a lazy morning. I missed saying Happy Birthday to my aunt, but we hung out with Tallyn before school and then Ken. Mom figured out how to drive most of the way home so that we wouldn't have to wait for a pick up. After having lunch out with Ken, we left. 

We drove past a car on fire!

After dropping off the van in Hermiston, we decided to bike towards Walla instead of waiting around for my dad to get off work. I was hoping to at least get the 15 miles I lacked so I could say I at least made it distance-wise to Cascade Locks. However, my dad got off work early and so met us at Sand Station.  It was nice to make it home so quickly. :)

213.4 total miles completed!