Day’s distance: 284 miles
Total trip distance: 1,737 miles
Nice day, temperature-wise, 60s and 70s. The rain showers predicted in Seattle didn’t arrive until well after dark. Winds picked up ahead of the rain, but weren’t too bad earlier in the afternoon.
Rocket Market is the place to get your morning latte in the South Hill neighborhood of Spokane. Excellent latte and breakfast burrito, and the staff was super friendly and helpful. Thanks for the suggestion, Christopher!
The vista seen from South Hill.
The ride west to the Columbia River was uneventful. Some haze but orders of magnitude clearer than Wednesday when I passed through heading east.
Just after I crossed the river, and climbed up the hill past Vantage, WA, I rode through a small wildfire in the median of I-90. It was still very small, maybe 15 minutes old, but it had jumped to the north side of the freeway, as well. Traffic was still moving through at speed as did I.
The freeway was closed in both directions shortly after and didn’t fully reopen in both directions until 8:45pm. Whew!
It was smooth sailing again until nearing Cle Elum, WA, where traffic indicators were suggesting a significant delay ahead. I pulled off in a rest area and discovered a crash west of Cle Elum closed both westbound lanes. I diverted into Cle Elum and hung out at the Dairy Queen for an hour or so until traffic started to clear.
A fair share of traffic drama is a reminder that I’m getting close to home. I expect it and try to steel myself, so neither the fire or the wreck (because there was warning of it) bothered me too much and I arrived home safe and sound.
I’ll make a permanent page for the whole trip at post it under the Adventures page soon.
Thanks for following along!