Day 16 – June 28, 2015

Day 16 – June 28, 2015
Dayton WA to Pomeroy WA – 36.1 miles – Highs 106

Another early morning. Alarms woke us at 3am and we out of the hotel by 4:47am. As we left town on HW 12 we noticed the mileage sign on the highway said 35 miles to Pomeroy. Weird because Gregg counted the miles as just over 20 miles. Oh well, here we go on a ride that was a third longer than we anticipated. First thing, change the mental state, the ride will be longer and harder.

One very nice thing was the morning temps which were right about 75. Really nice riding. Since it is Sunday there were also fewer trucks, another good thing. The days started with some nice climbs and than a 4-5 mile descent. The country side was dotted with wheat farms and a few cattle ranches. We stopped at about 20 miles at a little farm that raised sheep, chicken, and homing pigeons. As we rested in the shade for a couple minutes the nice lady farmer came out with her cat Tom. She showed me Homer – the one winged homing pigeon who lost a wing as a chick, she thinks it was one of the farm cats. It was a welcome stop, some shade and a kind farmer with her menagerie.

It was 7:39am when we left that farm and the next 15 miles were really tough. The riding was routine, with a little headwind, but it was the heat. It seemed with every mile and every stroke of the peddle the thermometer went up. Water bottles were emptying very fast. We needed to stop more often. A good indicator of how you are doing is watching your heart rate. If it starts climbing even if you are not exerting yourself, your body is telling you something. Slow down. Find shade, stop, take a swig of water. I also suffer from burning feet. Once I reach about 20 miles, I really need to get off my bike every 5-10 miles to shake it out. Gregg thinks my shoes are on too tight but I loosened them just the other day. I think, since I am not clipped into the peddle, I push too hard, it stops the circulation to the bottom of my feet and they begin to burn. Maybe its also the heat. The heat is a good thing to blame for just about everything just now.

We slowly but surely made it to Pomeroy. Not much of a town. We had reserved a room in the Pioneer Motel a couple of days ago. Well, it is the only place in town. It is definitely one of those motels that you pass on the road and say, “I wonder who stays in that kind of motel”. Well, its not that bad for $43/night. Clean, not fancy, and it has an air conditioner.

Again we got to town too early to check in. So we had breakfast at Tonia’s drive in where we had lunch, now a beer, and in a moment, dinner. The only joint in town. Its a nice place. They have “swamp coolers” instead of AC, a good menu of the average diner fare, and nice wait staff. But after breakfast we had a few hours to kill so I suggested to Gregg we find the local park. The mercury had risen to about over 100, we found a large shade tree, pulled out our ground cloth and slept for about 1 hr. We were awoken by the sprinkler systems turning on. As nice as it may have been to be laying under a cool sprinkler on a hot day, we managed to pack up and leave just in time to avoid getting wet.

Got to the Pioneer Motel, turned on the AC and took another nap. We will have an early morning again tomorrow, and for at least another week.