Waking up Monday morning in the Woods with the river running behind us is as good as life gets. Just listening to the water while having my coffee is something I could do every morning. Short-lived as it was, it was nice.
Once again, we packed up camp and hit the road. Yozef had contacted a host, Laurie, from the Bunk-a-Biker network who welcomed us for the night near the Dalles in Oregon, but on the Washington side of the Columbia River. We would be continuing up the Lewis & Clark Highway (highway 14) all the way there and we knew to expect high temps again. I gotta say, these hit rides are getting old! LOL
But we did it. Again. But, who knew that there would be an 87 mile stretch through the canyons that would have nothing, absolutely nothing! We were able to stop twice for much needed water breaks, once under a bridge and another stop we borrowed some shade from a winery. It was a full day of riding before reaching civilization!
We made it to the area about where our host was and decided to cross the river into The Dalles for a bit to eat. By then, we had been riding a hot headwind for a couple of hours so a nice air conditioned food establishment was looking good to us. We also had a beautiful sight of Mount Hood on the way in which kind of made us forget the heat momentarily.
We grabbed a sandwich at a little place called Big Jim's Burgers which was a fantastic little place. Even on an off-hour the place was packed and we've been told it stays that way all day, every day.
After a sandwich, we gassed up, watered up and made our way back across the river to meet our BaB host. She turned out to be amazing! She's in the middle of an orchard of cherries, apples, peaches and nectarines. So quiet and peaceful. She piled us into her air-conditioned truck and took us on a tour if a nearby drive-thru zoo to see zebras, camels and deer. That was cool to see.
We were able to get a hot shower, swap stories and get a good night sleep before heading to the coast. Laurie even made us little snack bags with water to take with us. We said our goodbyes, gave hugs with the offer to Laurie to come see us in Wisconsin. Then, off through the canyons to get to a cooler part of the country. Some hosts stay with you, Laurie will be with us a long time I'm sure.