15 August 2006 - General Notes

Left Umatilla and shipped the computer home along with some other stuff. Weight is killing me. Meriwether Lewis carried a traveller's desk. What a Victorian era dope he was in some ways.

Rode the 57 miles to Walla Walla, Washington in just under 5 hours. Sweet!!

Ate lunch at the train depot in Walla Walla. Walla Walla to Dixie was also nice but I felt like I was in gigantic bowl of wheat. And I knew there would come a point where i had to climb out and over the lip of the bowl. The climb began just after Dixie. Beware the seeming crest of a hill that has the beginnings of a climbing lane at the top. It was a long sustained climb but nothing that made me want to go home.

From the Columbia to Walla Walla there was lots of corn and wheat long the road. I now know where it came from. I literally passed thousands of ears of corn toaday. Wheat grains are as numerous as the bits of gravel along the shoulder. The woman at the convenience store in Dixie said that the harvest would be over by Friday. I don't even know what day of the week it is. She also said that peas and garbanzos are good crops around here. She said the Jolly Green Giant lives in Dayton (tomorrow's route) and that I'll have to stop and see it. I wonder if anyone has ever studied the degree of waste that results from our industrialized methods of farming. I see a lot of waste along the road sides.

I stopped at Lewis and Clark Trail State Park. One of the saddest state parks I have ever experienced but along a really beautiful little stream (the Touchet River - see photo). Only two other groups here. Nice sleep.