Today marks the end of our third week of riding. Incidentally, we also crossed three Washington rivers: Snake, Columbia and Yakima. We wandered a bit today as we left Walla Walla. The road we hoped to use ended in a huge pile of dirt due to road work on an interchange. We made our own detour passed the state pen and wandered an extra 10 - 15 miles through the hills of southeastern Washington. Forty-five miles later we finally broke free from the monotony of field after field of stubble and summer fallow (for you non-farmers that is a field of dirt). Our first sign of moving into new scenery was the sweet smell of grapes ripening on the vine, one of bicycle riding's greatest rewards. We also saw potato harvesting, truck loads of onions, and apple orchards. We crossed the Snake river just before it joined the Columbia as we entered Pasco and followed the Sacajawea bike trail along the Columbia for over 16 miles through the Tricities. Today's picture is of the team riding on the trail along the river. We ended the adventure today by making our way to Benton City about 10 miles west of Richland. We've got to do a little better adding our mileage. We thought we were riding 60-70 miles today but our final total was 93 miles. Speaking of counting . . . as promised our BPC from our day off in Walla Walla was only 1. Terry bought a bottle of Waterbrook "Petit Verdot" on Main Street. Tomorrow we ride to Yakima . . . the adventure continues for four more days.
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