Sun Aug 19 - Which Way Should I Go

I looked at the NOAA site last night and it looked like it would be cool enough to go south. But this morning things shifted so that I would be looking at 90+ degree weather for the next week. So it's north I go. We missed the Columbia River Gorge on the way out because of the wind so that seemed a natural. There is also some great roads we saw from the train. Beverley slept after going in to the hospital at 3am so I used the time to catch up on the blog, forgetting half of what happened over the last 4 days, downloaded maps for my GPS app and rode Bretts bike for a mile or 2 for the Endomondo thing. One last goodbye, bungee the bags on the bike and we are off. North over the river to Vancouver (WA) and then east on Rt 14 which is a 2-laner that goes the entire length of the gorge. Still seeing some sawmills and paper mills, but also coal and freight trains on this side of the river. The other side is the interstate. At one point, I must have seen a hundred wind surfers in the river. The temperature was cool and I thought I was going to get rained on, which is nothing like what NOAA was showing. It was a long beautiful haul until I hit Umatilla, which is where Dave, Jeff and I had turned south because of heavy wind in June. I passed at least 3 dams / locks including Bonneville and as I got to the east end of the gorge, the landscape got dryer, more open and the temperature climbed. There seems to be a lot of vineyards popping up here and there. They must irrigate the dry hills and plant grapes. Lots of grapes and lots of tasting rooms. As I turned north it was probably hitting upper 80's. I turned north on 395 to Kennewick and then continued north. Originally I was going to stop at Yakima, but decided it was a bit too far west so pushed on to Spokane. I stopped by Lind WA, because it is of course home of the world famous combine demolition derby (check it out here).

I turned off on some real remote roads that weaved through the wheat fields and had to stop for a picture as it was so amazing. It looks like they harvested the wheat. As I approached Spokane, irrigation booms started cropping up and I started to see corn fields. It is amazing how travelling a couple hundred miles changes everything terrain and crop wise. Washington sure is a diverse state.
I ran into a Harley guy who just got back from an 8 state loop for his vacation. He had some great tips on roads and definitely recommended Bear Tooth Pass which we missed on the way out. So now I am not sure where to go tomorrow. North to Rt 2 or east to Bozeman. Or both??