The night before leaving Coulee City, the campground host said it would be 90 the next day so I decided to get out early. I woke up to a cool gray day (Monday), but packed up anyway, ate my peanut butter sandwich and took off. Within a mile it started to sprinkle, by mile ten it was real rain, time to stop and put on the rain coat.
The road kept rolling up and down, long rollers, not steep, just continuous. I was going so slow, my feet were soaked, I really should have stopped and put on my tights, but they were in the bottom of the bag. Would Wilbur, 30 miles from my start ever come? This is where I planned to stop for a real breakfast and finally realized that my negative thoughts were probably mostly due to running out of fuel --- plus riding in the rain sucks.
Yea! Finally the grain elevators of Wilbur were in site, like cows heading for the barn, my pace picked up. I stopped at Boyd's and polished off an omelet and potatoes, but now as what usually happens after eating, I get cold -- all that energy going to process food. I headed out to the bike, I'm shivering, my hands are shaking, but I now I'll be ok once I get moving. I do warm up, and happily after a few miles the rain stops, it's still cool, but I feel much better. After 30 more miles, I get to Davenport and check into this funky motel, I'm so glad I had this arranged before, but if I hadn't I would have checked into some motel, it took a long time to get really warm.
Today (Tuesday) I only had a short day to get to Spokane. I ride was pretty uneventful, I just wanted to get there, because the hotel I had picked also had a laundry and a hot tub, perfect for relaxing. Tomorrow is a rest day, I plan on soaking in the hot tub at least 2 more times, clean my bike, work on my route for the next few days, watch bad tv, drool and nap. My needs are few.
The Black Bear Hotel and Cowboy Cafe, what's not to like?
Black Bear could make a great GunSmoke episode.
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