Traveling at Mach 0.012

Thursday July 3

Start: Waitsburg, WA
End: Umatilla, OR
Day total miles: 76
Journey total miles: 3421

Towns passed through:
Waitsburg, WA
Walla Walla, WA
College Place, WA
Lowden, WA
Touchet, WA
McNary, OR
Umatilla, OR

Last state:

This was a tough ride. The winds picked up and pushed me back the entire journey. The variation in scenery made up for the hard riding conditions.

Started out of Waitsburg toward Walla Walla and was impressed by the huge wheat and pea fields.

That is wheat on the left and peas on the right. Not sure about why they are letting the peas dry out, maybe seed? Then on to Walla Walla. The town was ok, if you see one medium sized town, you have seen many. Car dealers, shops, different neighborhoods. Not really much that I could see as unique along the route I took. Then riding out of town, the smell of onions permeated. There was a large field on the left being harvested, by hand. That sure was a lot of onions. I think Walla Walla onions are the Vidalia of the west (am sure that could get someone talking). Then passed a few wineries, must be getting into wine country. This one was impressive from the outside:

Kept riding along, until my allergies kicked in big time. What was that sweet flowery smell? Looked over and there was this huge field of purple flowers.

Yes, as far as I could see there was a field of lavender. I have certainly seen the variety of US agriculture.

Just when I thought the wind was annoying enough, I approached water and steep canyon like walls. The Columbia River Gorge was near and the physical features of the gorge and wind helped to make the gusts that much more annoying. The garmin said i was going down hill, but the pedaling was not agreeing. Settled in for a long slow journey to Umatilla. In the heat and wind. I guess the gorge and beauty of the surroundings helped, but it was a toss-up.

Ended in Umatilla, an old and now defunct army depot for storing chemical weapons. Lucky them. The depot has been closed down and all of the stored chemicals incinerated. Long day that ended in a dreary spot.