April 27, 2000 Thursday

We got up at 7:00 AM, dressed, and walked to a restaurant where we ate breakfast. After breakfast we finished loading the bicycle and headed for the interstate. We had a tail wind and went up the first small hill at 15 miles per hour. The interstate was not a lot of fun. Starting at Boardman, the State of Oregon installed one rumble strip that was about ten strips wide and four feet long, starting 18 inches from the edge of the highway going toward the right edge of the paved road shoulder. These rumble strips were spaced every 10 or 15 feet. The Oregon State Highway department did not think that this was a sufficient rumble strip so they added a second rumble strip in the 18 inches between the highway and the start of the first rumble strip. The new rumble strip was a continuous 18 inches wide set of strips. With two rumble strips, the only place for a bike to ride was the far right 3-foot edge of the paved highway shoulder. The rest of the highway shoulder was reserved for rumble strips.

We left the interstate on Highway 730, 3 miles east of Boardman. We continued to have a tail wind and we were traveling at 15 to 20 miles per hour most of the way from Boardman, to Umatilla. At Umatilla, we stopped and bought a sandwich and a muffin. It was too early to eat and there would be no place to stop until we reached Kennewick, WA. We talked to a couple from Montana for several minutes. They were interested in our bicycle. They talked and talked and talked because they were waiting to meet some friends from Spokane, WA who had not yet arrived. We finally made an excuse and started riding again. We got onto Interstate 82 headed north, crossed the Columbia River, and entered the state of Washington, and began climbing the hill past the truck scales. We continued to have a tail wind, although it was now coming more from the left side than it was from behind. We finished climbing the hill and started down a very small hill and ran right into a HEAD wind. So much for fast travel.

I guess the head wind would not have been so bad by itself except my altimeter kept telling me that although the road looked level, we were going up a very long but gentle hill. We left the interstate at Coffin Road and took shelter from the wind while we ate our sandwich and muffin sitting on the side of the pavement. From Coffin Road to the top of the horse heaven hill is a rather steep climb of about 700 feet in elevation. We started up this climb on a frontage road that parallels the interstate. However, the hills go higher and lower than the interstate as you climb to the top of the horse heaven hills. Do not forget, we also had that head wind.

We finally reached the top of the horse heaven hills after traveling at 4.5 to 6 miles per hour on the entire climb. As soon as we crossed the top we had an eight percent downgrade and almost not head wind. We started down and were going in excess of 30 miles per hour within a very short distance. From the top of the horse heaven hills until we reached the streets of Kennewick, we traveled in excess of 20 miles per hour most of the way. We wound our way through Kennewick, until we reached the bike path across the Blue Bridge. We crossed the Columbia River for the second time this day. We then got on the bike path that runs along the Columbia River and headed west for our destination. We still did not have any head wind and we completed the first part of our ride at 2:30 PM. We were tired but very happy.

We now must stay in Tri-Cities, while we get some stuff done, and attend a wedding. Then we will head out on the rest of our adventure.