Day 5 Yakima to Sunnyside

This morning we woke up to a light rain. They say it rains 4 times per year here in this desert country. This time I packed up my tent first before it could get too wet.

We got on the road a little later as the day was not to be a long one. Our cycling group today was Fred M, Andy H, Greg D, and myself. It drizzled the first 20 k (12 mi) or so. Our first stop was at Zillah CRC, where the roads were finally dry. The CRC church there had fruit and drinks ready for us. The church is right on the Yakima Valley Highway, which we spent most of the day on. Prior to the pit stop we ended up with a larger group for a while. That ended when Jenna Z from AB got a flat that needed 4 tries to repair. Later she had another flat and a spill. The SAG (support and gear wagon) patched her up.

Upon reaching camp at Sunnyside Christian HS, my sweep team went to work. FIrst job is to unlaod everyone's duffle bags from the semi trailer gear truck. It goes pretty good when several people are at it. A sweep team has about a dozen people in it. I believe there are 10 sweep teams in total.

After that it was time to clean my bike. Lots of people were doing that, as the wet roads make the bikes and chains a mess. Every good cyclist knows you gotta have a clean chain.

Tonight supper was hosted by the Sunnyside CRC. That's good for our cooking people and our sweep team as it would otherwise be our turn to set up and clean up (but not cook). Supper consisted of chips and salsa and watermelon as the entree. The main course was beef and pork tortillas with strawberry shortcake and icecream for dessert. Just enough to fill a hungry cyclist's stomach. Ater all that, we watched the 4th of July fireworks.

We didn't have our peleton meeting tonight so I don't know how many flats etc there were, but I did learn of a nasty culprit called "goat's head". It'll give you a flat tire for sure. It's basically a hard plant seed with a few points on it. It's like a little mine (about 1/4 in round). Oh, Fred M got 2 flats at the dinner.

Today's ride was 62 k (37 mi), 2:18 min ins the saddle, and a 26.7 k avg (about 16)