Washington state university

Monday 4/30 Day 10
I woke up a few times during the night to the tip tap of the rain coming down. Then it turned into the sound of a shower on the tent. I was concerned enough to turn on a light to make sure nothing was getting wet , we were ok. Although I do believe if we were using my tent we would have been soaked. My tent has some structural flaws that have been advanced since I got the tent eleven years ago.

Cool house!

When we woke up at seven thirty there were a few pools of water on the rain fly and it sounded like it was still raining outside. We devised a plan which involved running to the car and stuffing our things in it as fast as possible to maximize us staying dry. One of us forgot a rain jacket, her name will go un mentioned :). To our surprised once we managed to get out the tent, the only rain coming down was the dripping from the trees so we could abandon our original speed plan and take a more relaxing approach at packing. As we were ridding down from the national park the land got drier and drier. Now if you looked at the spot for this day it looked like I rode over one hundred miles. I did not. I did not ride at all from Dayton to the park, also Garrette dropped me of ten miles north of Dayton so we could spend a bit more time together.

My audience

When I was dropped off I went through my bags and got rid of all unnecessary weight including a big bottle of soap, a towel, and many other things. Let's just say now my sleeping stuff has its own back pannier and my food has the other. I also traded my draumidary for a nalgen. I'm finally getting the grove of packing. I can probably get ride of a bit more weight once it warms up but I need to carry a bit more cloths for the cold weather.
After a quick breakfast that I cooked in the trunk of Garrett's car, totally safe since I'm a professional, I said my good byes and headed off. As I left I told her I would probably beat her to beat her to the east coast where we would see each other next. She is driving out there at the end of June.
Today had some pretty long and sustained climbs. About thirty five of the seventy miles were up hill. The great part was that for some of the uphills I had the wind to my back. The bad part was for some of the early downhills the wind was at my face. I was stopped in a few places going downhill again and that got pretty frustrating. Going downhill is suppose to be easy and it's suppose to be the break. Lunch was great, some cheese in a tortilla while i sat at the edge of the road and watched the wind blow through the wheat. After lunch I sadly missed my turn on highway 194 and had to go up to Colorado to take 195 in to Pullman. These last fifteen miles on this road were terrible, it was uphill almost the entire way, had a pretty strong cross wind, and it was hailing and raining on me. I did get through it and I was glad to be in town at the end.

Cat

When in town I dropped my bike off at the house I was staying at, I was staying with a Scott and Susan. They did not get home for a few more hours so I went and explored the city a little bit. I went up and saw Washington state university. While I was walking through there I saw the students and I did not envy them. I got a feeling of relief that I didn't have to be trapped at a school to learn I was able to explore and lean a different way. I'm sure someday I'll go back to school but right now I have no idea what it is I would study. Which brings up a question that I have asked my self a few times on this trip and a few others have too, what do I want o do with my life. I think the more appropriate question to ask is what do I want to do when I'm done with this part of life. And my response, I have no idea. I toyed around with the idea of a mechanic, or fire fighter, or a space man. This is an idea I need to think on a bit more during this trip and over my time in Japan.

WSU

When I got back to the city I got a coffee at the local coffee place, where I started chatting with Kayla who served me my coffee. The idea of living in the moment and focusing on that moment came up in our coversation. It's amazing how much more you can do and realize in your life when you practice this train of thought. I have a perfect example of this and how looking into the future affected where I was at that moment, for tomorrows blog.
For dinner with Scott and Sue we had pizza. We talked about or travels on our bikes. I gave them some good advice for rides in Washington. They shared with me their trips in Canada and Europe and than we plotted tomorrows route out on good old google maps. Another set of amazing people. As much as I have enjoyed camping out in various parts of the west I truly do enjoy this warm showers a bit more. Everyone so far has been amazing, so kind and caring and a willingness to listen to where I have gone and a willingness to share where they have gone. I think the coolest part of all this is the trust. We both have to trust to make it work. I mean I'm basically hitch hiking in their house haha. But without trust this idea would never work. It's a powerful tool!!!