We were both slow to wake this morning. We weren’t happy about leaving Canada and going into the heat. We also discussed spending one down day relaxing in the middle of multi-day rides, especially those with high mileage days. This is fun, but somewhat grueling and we are getting older.
We would have liked to have spent more time in Nelson. It is a really cute town and we’ll be back. We gassed up and headed toward the border. On the way, we stopped in Salmo for our last Canadian brekee – ham and cheese paninis.
We got to the border about an hour after breakfast and made it through fairly easy, however we had to open all our bags, take our helmets off and dismount. We were asked a series of questions and must have passed the test because the agent gave us back our passports and sent us on our way.
Once in the US, we jumped on the Palouse Scenic Byway in Washington State. This is a beautiful road that winds through a series of small lakes and rolling grain fields of multiple shades of yellow. There are many seed and grain companies in this region.
We followed the Pend Oreille River for miles. The Pend Oreille literally translates to “hangs from ears” which was a trait of the regions’s Kalispell peoples’ earrings.
It started to get uncomfortably hot winding our way through the fields so we stopped for a Gatorade and a stretch and continued on. The heat just got worse so we stopped in Palouse at their community park which was full of trees and shade.
We dropped down into Lewiston and were so grateful to get to the Hells Canyon Grand Hotel… which turned out to be a Grand Hell Hole! Pretty much everything went wrong here.
It was so hot outside and we were so frustrated that we decided to just have dinner here in the hotel. We were hangry at this point. After waiting ten minutes for the waitress to even bring us menus, we decided to walk to a restaurant. We found an excellent Mexican restaurant right around the corner from our hotel. Lewiston’s redemption. El Sombrero had great service and delicious food.
Tomorrow we head into more heat and stay in eastern Oregon. There were multiple barns today and it was hard to choose one but here is today’s pic!
Monkeybutt Chronicles 