Omak, Washington

main point: Washington state looks weird. Seriously WEIRD. Well, not so much weird as just not at all what you'd expect it to look like. We were all planning on Pacific Northwest rainforest with thick trees and lush green vines hanging everywhere, maybe a coupla redwoods, moss, who knows. Nope. Honestly, it looks as if Iowa's rolling seas of soybeans had a love-child with the wheat fields and disorientingly dark interruptions of South Dakota. Add in hay allergies (itch itch) from biking through the giant fields of bleached, no longer golden, more like a whale's bones sitting out in the sun too long, dry, brittle, whitish WHEAT, and you have got not at all what we were planning on. Oh, and Washington's been having a heat wave, and we are finally out of elevation, so it is hot again. Hot, dry, itchy, lost, but we hit a serious Cascades mountain pass tomorrow, and I am excited for that. Going to ride sweep with Chris and Chas so we can sleep in (sweep naps are the best) and take our sweet, sweet, heckuvalotta time going up it. A lot of people have been plagued with storms of flat tires recently - Sam and Mary both had five today? - so we're thinking it will be one of the more drawn-out sweep days we will have.

But catching up from before. The morning from Coeur d'Alene, ID to Spokane, WA. It was only a 38 mile ride and almost all on bikepaths...should have been short, right? Cut to the chase: we arrived at 2:45 pm when the deadline for getting your laundry in was 3...but most people got there around the same time! Brittany and Kaitlin organized a HUGE 25-item scavenger hunt for us all, so we didn't get out of Coeur d'Alene until 10 am, since we were so competitive about getting items. We were also in teams of 6 that we had to remain in all day - big groups are always slow. Maybe our best achievement, or at least most fun one, was getting some strangers, three young ladies in front of a coffeeshop, to do our route's cheer with us, on video. FUN. Afterwards, we of course owed an explanation to the middle-aged couple sitting next to us...after we explained and gave them Bike and Build business cards, the woman asked where to donate, but then here husband interjected and gave us $50 for purposes that I won't specify, but will say that the money was well enjoyed.
Other interesting detours included stopping for KFC at 10:30 am and watching Brian and Chas both eat friedchicken-cheese-friedchicken sandwiches, and an AMAZING swimming break in the river that runs into Spokane. I was never less regretted riding 13 miles in soaked chammys. Also, the Washington stateline sign was on the interstate, I-90, that the bikepath ran along, but we obviously had no way of getting onto the interstate safely, let along onto the median between the two directoins where the sign was. We were sooooo determined to get a stateline picture though. So we rode back and forth on the bike path under the bridge of the interstate figuring out where the sign and median were, and then climbed two walls that were well over 45 degrees steep of concrete to get to the median. Thank goodness for mountain-biking cleated shoes! Such a well-earned state sign. Nothing interesting in Spokane except for Laundry Day. Oh wait just kidding I got interviewed for local news about Bike-and-Build, along with the Anthonys, Spencer, and Chas. I think Anthony D and I are tied for press comments/sound bites at this point. Wait JK i think I'm one ahead of him. We'll count at the end.

Ok I'm tired I'll update the washington days later. Night