Day 6 - Kennewick, WA to Dayton, WA - 68 miles - 1982 ft of elevation gain

Each day I put in the invisible $.25 into the “machine” and it turns on my legs and they just seem to do their thing throughout the day, regardless of what upper body wants to do or the head is thinking. I don’t really know how it works, but as long as it keeps me rolling down the road, I’m not really concerned about getting the head involved in finding the “how!” I get on the bike and the legs just pedal like they were designed for the task.

I’ve been asked about being the only female on the team and how exactly that is working. Well, there are a few ways it works:

• I shave my legs! This really does nothing for speed or aerodynamics, but more serves as a distinguishing feature. So for starters, it’s important to be different than the hairy legs on the trip.

• The real key is drafting! I sit on the back tire of the bike in front of me and take advantage of the pull and reduced power output. Except for the hills, I do a lot of drafting!

• When it comes to the hills, I tend to do my thing. Some of these boys are excellent hill climbers, so it’s just not worth trying to compete. And we are 6 days in, I know that we have many more days of riding ahead.
  

• Lastly, I eat like I’m a teenage boy! Seriously need a lot of calories to keep the legs moving! We can eat all of the time!

We rolled out of Kennewick by hitting the trail along the Columbia River. This took us over 2 bridges, one of which had my spidey senses going off because of the height over the water. Both bridges had separate pedestrian crossings, which really should be added to all bridges because it keeps the road debris off of the bike path. We meandered on the bike path for about 9 miles and then we headed west through fruit fields. I was so tempted to ask for a stop at the pick your own blueberry patch, but we kept rolling. There were also grape vine fields, hops, corn, and cherries (all requiring irrigation).

After the rest stop at 23 miles, the terrain started to change to rolling hills. The land was still farmed, but now it was wheat. These were large farm operations with massive equipment. The wind was for us and we just kept cruising along. I love how different each day has been in regards to the terrain.

I also loved today, because we got away from lots of traffic and could actually have some conversations on the bike. I talked to several of the guys about bicycles, cars, careers, school, and our “feelings” about the trip, you know typical teenage boy conversations. These are the great things about riding in a group, it helps the miles just tick by.

We took a lunch stop at mile 61 in a park. We’ve been doing sandwiches and fruit for lunches. As we were sitting there, the weather started to change. When Al checked his phone, there was a huge storm rolling through. So we quickly got our rain jackets on and started pedaling like our lives depended on it. We had 8 miles to the hotel and the rain started dripping, then pouring! Thankfully the storm wind was blowing us towards our hotel, I think we were going 20mph with the pouring rain! No pictures because of the rain and by the time we got to the hotel, I was soaked and wanted to get to the hot shower.

We’ve had rain 5 out of 6 days, but who’s counting! It’s all part of the adventure and memories! No field trips scheduled for tonight, just dinner and sleep. Tomorrow is our 7th day of riding, and then it’s break day!