Day 4

The fourth day was a total opposite of the first day.  Maybe it was I knew we had a rest day coming.  We started around 7 am and I felt tired and sluggish for the first 30 miles.  We passed through Harrington early and by the the time we got to Davenport I was feeling stronger.  I think I got a little dehydrated yesterday although I drank about 7 liters of water.

In Davenport we met up with another cross-country riding group.  There were 3 groups leaving Seattle about the same time.  I think we'll pass them all because we have a little more aggresive schedule than the rest.  This group was going farther than us and would end up in Vermont.

After Davenport we caught a little tailwind and flew up a 9 mile incline at 18 mph.  I'd really been tanking the fluids and I was starting to recover.  When we got to Reardon we had a quick lunch of leftover from last night's dinner.  The final leg to Spokane was fast except I slowed to help another rider with a slow tire leak.  He didn't wanted to change tubes and I pumped him up 3 times over the last 10 miles.  We got to Spokane just in time to help unload the truck again.  I'm sensing a pattern here.

We're staying in a brand new dorm at Gonzaga University.  These dorms are a lot nicer than anything I had in college.  They hold a number of youth athletic summer camps here and we had dinner in a cafeteria with many volleyball, track, and soccer kids.  Mmmm! can you say cheese pizza!

Today's ride was 77 miles and I averaged 14.5 mph.  It's hard to believe that we're 10 percent done with the ride and we haven't left Washington yet.  Tomorrow is a rest day and my son Casey is coming to visit.  I'm really looking forward to seeing him.