Day Two – Amber Waves of Grain

As anticipated, today’s ride was fabulous. Gentle curves, great pavement and beautiful scenery, especially in the morning.

We experienced a 52 degree temperature difference: 52 to 104 between Burns and Wenatchee. We stopped five times to refresh our cooling vests.

Tom plotted out routes that took us onto small farm roads versus highways. Not only did we avoid slow traffic and big rigs, the temperature was a few degrees less which was remarkably noticeable. It was a view of central Washington we would not have seen from the freeways.

Tradition required that we stopped for lunch at the Thicket, a place that Tom stopped each time he visited his friends, Chris and Christina, in Lostine Oregon. It may be tradition, but it wasn’t good this time. It was decided that Cathy would determine the meals for the rest of the trip.

As we drove through miles of grain fields, we were reminded of the line in America the Beautiful. There were places where these fields seemed to go on forever.

We knew we were in Washington state when we started to see apple orchards and vineyards. The smell of fermenting grapes made us think of wine and we decided to try the local wine tonight. And we did!

We’re hoping for cooler weather tomorrow and looking forward to seeing the Pacific.

Cathy’s Barn-Pic-of-the-Day!