Ride Spangle WA

Friday, May 2, 2014

Don't believe everything you read! The book said "...nearly level romp through the fields ...".

This may not look like much of a hill -- until you are on it, and you do several of them.

Granted our book was published in 1998, and we anticipated there may be some changes in the route like more traffic, different roads or differently named roads, but the terrain would not change without some catastrophic happening (like Oso's mudslide). The book also noted "...without challenging the cyclist...". Except for WIND! which we had plenty of, and seemed like a (strong) headwind for more than half the loop ride. The only tailwind we got was within the final five miles. And it was the kind of tailwind that makes you feel oh so strong, and like you could now ride on forever with such little effort!

Oh, and nothing has changed in these towns since at least 1998.

There was very little green so this farm building stood out!

This is more the color we saw most of the day.

So -- riding up hills -- fairly rolling but some very long -- into a headwind and with very limited (as in none) scenery did not make the most interesting ride today. We all are glad we did it, but will not do it again. I guess the glad to do it part is because we bested a challenge and felt accomplished afterward.

"Wuthering Heights" type trees

We started and ended our ride in Spangle and joked of trying to find some new fangled, spangly, dangling bangles. But we did not. The other "town" the route took us through was Plaza. Turns out that is mainly a grainery town.

Grain loading in Plaza

The only thing the wind did in our favor was to keep us from frying in 80 degree heat of the bright sun. Our stop at Spangle Foods refreshed and replenished us with cold drinks -- chocolate milk and cans of Starbucks beverages.

We chatted briefly with a woman here who said she had gone to school in Plaza. So at some point it must have been more than a grainery.

 

Oh yeah -- this morning. We took our regular morning walk to the latte place, but I took my bike with me for a visit to the bike shop (fortunately right on the way and open at the time we were passing). During loading of the bike onto the bike rack at the end of our ride yesterday, we had somehow messed up my front brake cable and could not figure out how to fix it. They fixed it (at a cost) immediately and I was good to go, thankful that this had not happened at the beginning of a ride somewhere.

One more day and night and we will be heading home. How time flies!

 

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