"Where you headed"

      I am headed for Virginia!  As I was cruising by Halfway, Oregon, three cyclist out for a Sunday spin ask me where I was headed.  VIRGINIA! They cheered me on as breezed by.

      8:17 am out of the blocks this morning from Richland. The night before two guys invited me over to their RV for a few grilled dogs and IPAs, a good time was had by all.  No sooner had I returned to my humble bivy sak tent than the skies opened up. Stuffing me and my street cloths into the tent was a bad joke. The bivy sak tent is going bye-bye for sure; three nights in it and torture each time.  It sounded good in theory but in great outdoors it flunked big time. No room to wiggle and drenching condensation every time I use it.  Any step towards perfection. Shipping the new tent will be a trick, what town at what date?

       Today's ride covered 67 miles, two mountain pass and the crossing of the Oxbow damn in to Idaho.  Oregon took over 700 miles and two weeks. Crossing the damn at 1pm made for a sweltering ride.  The lack of guard rails on the Idaho side was unnerving.  Praise to the big guy for almost no traffic; I rode the center line to give myself some distance from road edge which dropped off precipitously. Not fun given my fear of heights.  

       The thought of climbing a second mountain in the afternoon was not in the game plan.  "Local knowledge" failed to tell me that the camp site I was looking for was a mere few hundred feet below the 4131ft elevation of the summit. I kept climbing thinking that the real climb was further ahead.  A six mile grind to the top proved otherwise.  Bouncing around 86 degrees, I must have drunk six liters of water.  Why stop now, once over the top, I barreled down the back side for 13 miles into Cambridge, Idaho in well under an hour.

    Hunched over my map trying to read the write up on the town, I found a hostel a few miles down a country road.  To my pleasant surprise the $22 for the bed came with a hot spring pool. The place had recently changed hands and was being renovated but pool was spot on. It was absolutely divine soaking my tired body in a 99 degree water.  This little secret needs to relayed back to The Adventure Cycling Association which sell the maps along with all the pertinent information on each town.  TransAmerican cyclist will call this place Mecca.  I could not believe I was the only cyclist there.

    Tomorrow, I haven't a clue as to my next destination.