6/12 Through the Desert

We left our campsite on the Columbia and headed east on Ward St/26 twoards Othello.  The ride started out with a 600ft climb.  I felt great on the climb and charging up the hill fast.  There was a trooper near the top of the hill who had his speed gun out let us know our speed as we rode by.  I was happy that our rest day had left my legs feeling fresh because we had a long day ahead of us.  Knowing this we decided to ride team time trial style with each of us taking pulls on the front to get to Othello.  Another factor pulling us forward was the United State's first World Cup game against Mexico.  We rode the 40 miles to Othello pretty quickly in ~2 hours.  On the way I remember we started to play the game of guessing how far a point in the distance was.  As we entered Othello we saw a KFC on the side of town.  We had all been infiltrated by the marketing of the double down and some of us decided to get one.  We took advantage of the KFC soda fountain ordered our overpriced doubledowns and rode on through the town of Othello looking for a place to watch the game.  We had talked about watching it at Walmart but Carrie and Ashley were ahead of us and informed us that Wal-Marts TVs only played the special Wal-Mart channel and was not showing the game.  Luckily we had found a taqueria in town which was playing the game.  Score!  Furthermore the food at the Taqueria was cheap and delicious. Double score!  We eagerly watched the game in the cool Taqueria while the sun blazed outside.  After the game we stopped at a grocery to get supplies.  We headed out of Othello half knowing that we would be away from civilization for a while. We used the Iphone to steer us to our destination, Pallouse Falls State Park.  Along the way we rode on a gravel called Suko.  It was an engaging and slightly dangerous experience blasting downhill on unstable gravel.  We didn't pedal much but concentrated on steering the bike through the soft material. Fun stuff.  We rode over the hilly 261 and entered the beautiful Palouse Falls State park as night was falling.   Carrie and Ashley arrived soon after and we all enjoyed a wonderful deserved meal.

On the way to Othello

Out in the Plains on the 26

Our Campsite at Palouse Falls