Spokane today?

Yesterday was a great day to ride. 55 deg when I left Wilber. I'd like to say that they had replaced all of that damn wheat overnight with vineyards, carnation plantations, or simply grass. But, NO. There is only wheat or bare ground all the way to the horizon. If you have gluten issues don't ride a bicycle through this part of WA. It must be like being lactose intolerant and driving through the dairy country of Wisconsin.
Several people have told me: "We out produced the Russians this year." I was born in the Cold War era that had a subset of the Space Race. But I didn't know we were in a gluten race with them. In a way they have kind of won some of the conquest ("we will not conquer you we will bury you." or something like that from Nikita Krushchev) in that we got many of our more pernicious weeds from them, ironically in wheat shipments when they were winning the gluten race during the dust bowl ere.
In Creston I stopped at Big Bobs Mercantile where I was asked if I needed any fishing supplies! There was one room full of fishing gear. I looked out the window at wheat. The only thing that broke the horizon was a grain silo where they were delivering wheat almost around the clock. Fishing? Dust trout? Wheat bass?
Just a few miles east of Creston the road finally made a large curve towards the SE where there were Ponderosa Pines, willows around small wetlands, native grasses (not wheatgrass), and a coyote pup sniffing at a road marker, maybe thinking about marking his/her territory. "Not a good idea to mark your sign on a busy road," I advised it. And a breeze with the scent of something besides wheat.

My tour is: Killing My Legs to give My Ass a Ride. My legs are tuning up quite well. My rear end is suffering. So I had a small roll of Duct tape and some foam padding for my computer and I made a seat pad.

It worked for a while but. . . . .so I stopped in Davenport so I could plan the rest of my trip. I needed a wifi spot but according to the person at the bank: "there aren't any wifi spots in town." I found the Black Bear Motel owned by Kimberly and Mark Elwood. Great people. They invited me to supper. We had a great discussion about political issues. They are very knowledgeable. Both are active citizens, something our country is painfully missing. They will ask you your political views but I think that regardless of your views they welcome you to their business. However,I can't say they will invite you to supper.

Plans: I'm riding into Spokane and as far north on Hwy 2 as I can by Saturday noon. I will be leaving my bicycle and possibly my trailer at the Bicycle Butler in Spokane. They have graciously agreed to tune up my bicycle and store my equipment. How great is this!

I'm off. More wheat today? Probably. I'm starting to seriously dislike bread or any thing derived from wheat.