Monday, June 01, 2009

We’re up early Saturday morning and blast east on State Route 14 (the Lewis & Clark highway), following the north banks of the Columbia. This is the twisty cousin of Interstate 84 which follows the south banks. Along the Columbia Gorge, it’s often windy and today is no exception. There are plenty of wind surfers on the river and at times we ride leaning in to strong crosswinds.

At Lyle, we turn left on 141 to follow the Klickitat River. This is one of the prettiest parts of our ride. We wind up a twisty canyon through little towns that time forgot: Klickitat; Wahkiacus; Blockhouse; and into Goldendale. This is beautiful country: Rolling hills; Newly planted fields; Lots of hawks and eagles in the air.

We stop for lunch on the lawn of the Klickitat County Courthouse in Goldendale. Last time I was here on a motorcycle, it was a 102 degree August day and all I could think about was getting cool. Today it is cool and comfortable.

And it’s here that the second amazing coincidence of our journey occurs …

As we’re eating under the shade of a tree, a bicycle racing friend of Nicks rides by with his wife on their bikes. Nick calls out, they stop, chat, … and move on. It’s been years since they’ve seen each other and they’d lost track of each other.

As we return to our journey, we climb across a high plateau. It’s lovely country passing through Cleveland, Bickleton, and Mabton. The bikes are performing well. Our speeds are up. Our cornering skills are improving with each turn. This is fun … the fun we came here to enjoy. And it’s getting hot as we turn onto SR 22 toward Prosser (Birthplace of Washington’s Wine Industry).

Trivia fans, Prosser was home to Harold McCluskey, the Atomic Man. He was known to have survived the largest radioactive exposure ever recorded, during an “industrial accident” at the nearby Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant in 1976. Watch for this on Double Jeopardy sometime soon.

At Prosser we pick up I-82, transition to I-182, and finally leave the interstate at Burbank on SR 124. 124 isn’t great but it’s a lot better than the I’s and it leads us to a right turn onto Touchet N Road. As we approach Touchet, we find ourselves riding some magnificent sweeping corners. There is nothing about this road that limits our speeds except for our fear of speed-tax-collectors, so we let the bikes out and enjoy the physics of the ride.
From Touchet, it’s a short hop to Walla Walla, our destination for the night. Walla Walla is the center of the local wine industry, and famous for its Walla Walla Sweet Onions.

We wander around Walla Walla on foot for awhile, find a place to replace our electrolytes. The pictures below will give you an idea of the place.

Today is Nick’s birthday, so we celebrate with a nice dinner at Saffron. This was our one departure from our diner food regimen. The food was terrific.

Walking back to the Budget Inn, we found this banner celebrating the Walla Walla Friends of the NRA Dinner and Auction which occurred the day before. Kind of says it all about Walla Walla.

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Motorcycles
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