Lazy day today. I did laundry this morning and drank coffee, check the chain tension (still ok, maybe tweak it in a day or two). The laundry was getting a little out of control so I wanted ti smell fresh and clean for the US border guy. Did not leave the motel until 9:15, which felt pretty darn good. The border is only 10 km away but there was already a 10-15 min line stacked up. I must have graduated to the "This guy is awesome" list because the border guy didn't ask me any of the usual questions. He even gave me some rout tips (hot on the other end of Rt 20, which turned out to be true). A got ahead of myself on the hot day prediction and stopped to add a layer. This part of Washington is very green and it looks like they get a lot of rain. They were growing cherries and raspberries and the cherries were ripe right now. I stopped at on of the endless roadside fruit stands and bought a small basket of cherries (Rainier) and arranged then in my tank bag so I could munch them while I was moving, a moving breakfast feast.
Rt 9 is a 50 mph road and very sleepy on Sunday morning, but to keep you awake, they pepper it with 90 degree 25 mph turns. Kinda fun actually. Those and spitting cherry pits kept me entertained.
Rt 20 was the road I was really interested in today. It goes over the mountains to the east and goes through the North Cascades National Park. They have all kinds of hiking trails and water access (canoes, kayaks). And a lot of people were up there parked beside the trailheads. I think it gets used a lot. And lots of motorcycles. Lot of Harley's (of course) and a lot of BMW GS motorcycles.
Winthrop WA is the first big town on the east side of the mountains and it was obviously and end destination, tourist town. Anytime you see "emporium" on a sign, you are in a tourist town. Kinda cute with the wild west theme. I kept going and stopped in Twisp just down the road for drinks for me and the bike. Gas was crazy expensive all day ($3.50) so either it is particular to Washington or this area or something blew up in the middle east while I was in Canada.
After Twisp I was shooting for Rt 2 to head back west through the mountains. The temperature hit 94 degF and was a bit uncomfortable, even with the mesh jacket on. I started to notice a lot of fruit trees on this side, but it was all due to the gift of irrigation. This side of the mountains is bone dry. Somewhere back there the built a bunch of dams and created huge reservoirs and used the reservoir to irrigate crops. The result is a bustling community built around apples. They also had peaches and cherries.
So 4pm I hit Wenatchee which is a lot bigger town than was expecting. I stopped and checked the map and it wold be 3 hours to go over the mountain again and they had nice air conditioned hotels here so..
I cooled off in the motel for an hour and then walked down the street to a brew pub, sat at the bar, had another local hoppy IPA I had never heard of and ended up spending a couple hours talking to a local guy who worked at the hydro dam and another guy who just retired and sold machine shop equipment. My two new nest friends gave me endless history items and lots of travel ideas. Looks like it's back west tomorrow, hopefully cooler and should miss the rain going on west of here tonight.
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