April 19 – 22, 2007
Odette and Jerry bike Eastern Washington
On Thursday, the 19th, we drove over to Lake Chelan, stopping for lunch in Leavenworth. I ate a burger and drank a beer and then slept most of the rest of the way to Chelan. The original plan was to ride one of the loops out of Leavenworth but I didn’t have the energy for it. That evening we ate at Campbells and I had a steak that wasn’t anything special.
On Friday, the 20th, we rode from Hartline to Grand Coulee and back – 60 miles for me and 42 for Odette who waited at a fishing pull-out for me to come back and get her. I guess that before Memorial Day the traffic to the dam must be less because the ride back along Banks Lake was really pleasant. Odette didn’t like the hill down into town and walked the last part of it. She psyched herself out when we came to the only hill on the ride back and decided to wait for me instead of grinding up it. I had a flat just below the top of that grade. We ate at the Wapato Point winery where I had an exceptionally good steak and we jointly drank a bottle of something red. Somewhere, either getting into the car in Hartline or getting out of the car in Chelan, I lost my prescription sunglasses.
On Saturday, the 21st, we rode from Twisp to a spot about five miles north of Winthrop and back – 30 miles. I had to fix the front tire again before we started. We went out on the road on the east side of the valley (by the smoke jumpers base.) Washington Pass wasn’t open yet so Highway 20 beyond Winthrop was almost deserted. We had lattes in town and then rode back to Twisp on the main road. Turns out that there isn’t much shoulder on the main road between Winthrop and Twisp and that it is hiller than the side road… We got back to the car just before it showered. That evening we ate at Capers – a new restaurant that Odette really wanted to try. The food was very good but the service was slow and inattentive.
On Sunday, the 22nd, we got up early, had breakfast, fixed a flat back tire on my bike, and then rode from downtown Chelan out to Manson and back – 15 miles. Odette didn’t want to do the loop in Manson that comes back to the main road by the casino. She was surprised that the big hill she was dreading never materialized. We drove back over Bluett Pass and were home by 2:00.