Today I played road farmer.
Fun fact about the water around here. It seems to be naturally carbonated. Well at the fairgrounds at least.
We started the day at an absolutely FANTASTIC local cafe and bakery called the Cowpath. I mean how perfect for our journey. And the food there was absolutely spectacular. I was feeling particularly good so I headed out early and got to cruising.
this part of Washington is really well known for it's agricultural abilities. With the help of heavy irrigation farmers here are able to grow all sorts of crops including corn, potatoes, peas, canola, and wheat.
We meandered through a combination of gravel and pavement. It's interesting to me seeing how the gravel changes as you travel across the country. Both in rideability and color. Out there the gravel is dark and the dirt is light. Back at home the opposite seems to be true. The terrain was relatively flat at this point and I was feeling good just flying along.
Further to the east the irrigation seemed to fade and we were met with acres and acres of wheat. One thing I learned when we got to Ritzville is that this part of Washington is one of the major wheat producers in the world. The farmers seem to run their fields on a two year rotation. One year they have a crop and the nest year it lies bare. Some of the fields were left with stubble others were tilled to dirt where large dust devils swirled and twirled.
It's been hot out this way with temps in the upper 70s. I make sure to bring plenty of water. I'm glad that I'm running 3 liter bottles rather than a smaller sports bottle because I would have found myself in trouble multiple times. Between our start and stop there weren't many places to restock. It was quite something though to stare out over thousands and thousands of acres of wheat just a few weeks shy of harvest.
Alex had a bit of a setback on the way to town today. He broke a spoke on his rear wheel. He was able to get it stable and hopefully good enough to last to Spokane.
We rolled into the town of Ritzville and set up camp at the fairgrounds. I was confused at first because we were just at the county fairgrounds last night. How could this be. I guess this fairgrounds is run by some of the local communities for celebration of the wheat harvest.
This fairgrounds is also right along a fairly major BNSF rail route. Approx 40 trains roll through daily. This is a perfect gig for our campground host ( who happens to have family out in the Volga, SD area ) because he is a major train spotting nerd. I love this! He knows so much about these trains having spent almost the last 10 years recording all the engine numbers rolling by. He carried a voice recorder and binoculars with him at all times just in case he was away from his pen and paper. He keeps a spreadsheet of all the engines he's seen and estimates that he's seen over 1,500 unique engines roll through!
Supper was at the local interstate cafe called Jakes where a piece of pie was just what I needed. We headed back to the fairgrounds and pretty promptly went to bed.
'till next time
-Matt
Miles ridden today: 61.93
Total miles ridden: 458.67
Feet Climbed Today: 2,651
Total Feet Climbed: 21,836
ps. HOLY COW the water pressure at the fairground showers was something else. You could have darn near pressure washed yourself clean!
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