Gratitude is a relative thing. Today I was grateful that for an hour or so it didn't rain quite so hard. Sometimes small blessings in the midst of tough times can be the most rewarding. Such was today. The rain let up enough around lunch time to allow us to open up our packs long enough to grab some 5 day old bagels and granola bars without soaking everything. That may not sound like much but we sure all appreciated it. We got out @6AM. It rained all day, a cold rain. The temp never rose above 45 degrees. Ironically, the only way to keep warm was to push hard going up the hills. Downhills were painful since the rain pelts you in the face and you have to look down for any relief, which you can only do momentarily. We had very sparse towns today, with only one possible place for lunch. However, when we got there it had no services---not ANYTHING. We ate "lunch" straddling our bikes standing up. Late in the day we made it to the end of the Columbia River close to where it meets the ocean. There is a bridge there connecting Washington with Oregon. It was blowing so hard it was difficult to walk. As we started across the bridge, it blew harder since we were out across the water unprotected, and up in the air quite high. The bridge was 4 and one half miles long! It took 40 minutes to cross and was so cold, all the time with cars whizzing past. The worst part was a second bridge we also crossed. By then we had all had it. We are now in Oregon, where Mike and I started Cross Country 1, and where we started the first west coast trip. Bye.
No comments:
Post a Comment