We got on the road just before 6 this morning. Our first “lucky” was noticing that we had some light clouds. The clouds ended up helping suppress the temperatures while we rode, even though it is supposed to clear off and get to 106 this afternoon. That is ok, because we are inside with air conditioning for the rest of the day. Take that, weather gods!
The whole route was fairly flat, but a couple miles before we hit the Columbia we started encountering some heavy headwinds. That slowed us right down, and we were not looking forward to crawling the last 30 miles. Fortunately the winds died down a few miles after we joined the Columbia. Lucky again!

At last, the Columbia River!

There was not much by way of services the whole route. There was a small town with a gas station/convenience store about 14 miles out of Walla Walla, and then that was it until Umatilla. Our breaks were taken at wide spots in the road.

Taking a stretch break.

Roll on, Columbia, roll on

While cruising along the Columbia we started seeing signs of a grass and sagebrush fire along the sides of the road. This continued for maybe five miles, and in some places covered whole hillsides above us.

Burned hillside

At one point we came to some road construction where traffic had to alternate through a short section. While waiting for our turn we had a chance to ask the flagger when the fire had been. He said yesterday and the day before! He added that the highway had been closed while they were fighting the fire. We deemed ourselves VERY lucky that we had taken the day off in Walla Walla, because if we had ridden this way yesterday we would probably have been turned back.
We rolled into Umatilla, or actually McNary right before Umatilla, right about 11. We managed to find a bar with food just a block away, and for dinner we will likely check out the Mexican restaurant attached to the hotel.

Umatilla

Beer in Umatilla, even better

There is also a washer and dryer available, so for once we are not having to hand wash our riding clothes in the sink. Small victories.

There’s even a church next to the hotel, and what a charming church it is.

We did some map review trying to figure out the best routes for the next few days. We prefer the less trafficked roads on the Washington side, but more of the lodging options are on the Oregon side. We know we are going to have to camp near Roosevelt tomorrow night, but were thinking that the following night we would need to cross over to The Dalles to find a motel. That would add some miles to our ride. Fortunately, while zooming in on google maps I finally spotted a small old hotel in Lyle on the Washington side that I had never noticed before, so we called and booked it. That will allow us to stay on the WA side, and leave us with just about a 10 mile ride the day after to White Salmon/Hood River where we plan to check out the microbrews and take the rest of the day off before our final push to Portland. Finding the Lyle Hotel was definitely our last “lucky” of the day.