Day 6 Sunnyside to Kennewick

Sweep duty carries on from the day before, so I was up at 5:30 to unlock the gear truck. There were already a few cyclists there waiting. (easterners) Then we go to unload the breakfast supplies, eat breakfast, and load the bags back onto the gear truck and put the breakfast supplies back in the cooking trailer. We are the last people to leave camp as it is our job to "sweep" the stragglers along. We left at 9:30.

Our first person in need was Gresham V. We would see lots of Gresham today as he got about 6 flats aong the way. A US postal lady we talked to gave a donation to the Sea to Sea.

Around the 40 k (24 mi) mark one of our cyclists needed a bathroom and we spotted a portabanyo by a cherry orchard. I asked the Mexican if we could use his banyo. He said no problem, where are you going? So we told him and he couldn't believe it. Here have some cherries, take lots he said. That was pretty neat.

The ride was nice, a tailwind, a slight downhill route, and interesting scenery. Two or our sweep team people also had flats today, so it took us a long time to get to Kennewick camp, a park called Columbia East Park. We are right beside the Columbia River. We arrived at 3:30, 6 hours on the road total. Tonight's menu was hamburgers.

At one point in the ride we came through a part of the road that was uphill and cut in between rock. No breeze and about 104 degrees.

The ride today was 83 k (50 mi) 3:15 min of cycling time (plus 2:25 of tire repair and waiting time) avg 25.6 kph (15 mph). All in all a nice road, just a little stretched out time wise.

PS, just talked to Fred Meyerink. All of my pictures, good or bad, are on his blog. You can see them there if you like.