Day 6

a tough day.  it started out okay, but quickly became like yesterday.

so it was time to pull the trump card, time to take a break.  i've planned on taking breaks along the way, whether forced by rain, bike repairs, or whatever.  today is a whatever.  so after 60 mi., we checked into a nice hotel, the marcus whitman, in downtown walla walla.  heart of washington wine country.  we'll sleep a little late tomorrow, have a nice breakfast, and only ride to lewis and clark state park 20 mi. down the road.  hopefully, that will rest us up for the final 4-5 days to missoula.

of course, first we had to have a little excitement.  like riding the I-82 bridge over the columbia back to the south side, oregon.  which was fine while there was a shoulder, but the shoulder ended when the bridge started.  i looked up at jim, who was leading, and he was in the vehicular lane.  4-lane bridge, by the way, so if anyone was in the adjacent lane, the vehicle wouldn't be able to miss us.  fortunately it was early, only 6:30, fortunately the bridge is not too long, and fortunately we didn't have two vehicles side by side.  it didn't make me feel any better that partway across the bridge i could see  that there was a bike/pedestrian path on the other side.  a little too late to get there.  we survived that one, but another life lesson learned.  i will never do that again, i hope.

we said goodbye to oregon as the river turned north into a canyon.  on the other end of the canyon, we turned east, away from the columbia and headed up the walla walla valley.  us rte 12 will take us all the way to missoula.  and minneapolis, if we'd like.   unlike yesterday, we did find a moment of shade.  jim promptly fell asleep.  back on bikes and after a long climb, we topped a rise and saw the foothills of the rockies for the first time in the distance.  another 20 mi without shade put us in walla walla, still a couple of days away from the forests.