Day4

(This is cool if you like lots of data! It may take a few seconds to load but you can hit play and time compress our ride)

DAILY REPORT: David, John, James and Skip. Another warm sunny day. Start temp was 66 deg and ended with temps at 89 deg. Winds were 5 - 15 mph as a head wind for until we reached the AFB.

In general this was supposed to be an easy ride today. Rolling hills into Spokane and no major climbs. Both boys were quite happy about that. We left the Coulee dam after a well rested night sleep and drove into Wilbur were we started our ride (see yesterday.)

There was moderate head wind that held us back a bit. We pace lined the entire way taking one mile pulls and then the lead rider would fall back to the back of the pace line. In this way you would pull for aprox 4 min and then rest for 8 mins. It works pretty well - just like the Tour de France (except we are going a lot slower; lot slower!)

The real treat for the day was getting a chance to talk with the Boys and Girls Club on the Fairchild Air Force base. We had no problem getting our vehicle on base and went straight to the youth center. We were warmly welcomed by the staff and John Smith their director. They had prepared a little fruit lunch for us since hadn't had lunch yet. It was very nice.

We then had a chance to meet with all the youth and staff. We talked about the trip, preparation, planning, the whys and hows. We then had a questions and answer secession. The boys and girls had lots and lots of good questions that John & James answered. We were running out of time so we went outside and held a group photo shoot. It was really a great time.

We said our thank yous and good byes and headed over to the base exchange so John & James could get a hair cut. They decided that with this warm weather they needed a lot shorter hair. While we were there we talked with a number of super folks that were very interested in our ride. They ranged from triathaletes to a Naval Corpsman Chief who had retired several years ago. She was kind enough to gives us some bottle water because she didn't want us to use tap water to fill our water bottles. A real sweet heart. Thanks!!

Overall it was a very positive experience for the boys. We then bike the remaining 15 miles or so downtown to the Marriott. We would like to say a special thank you since they covered our rooms for us. This is a very nice hotel; but specifically it is right on the Spokane River Centennial trail which we will depart on tomorrow. We will be using over 50 miles of bike trails between WA and ID.

Well once again it is after midnight and tomorrow we are off to Idaho. Until tomorrow.....thanks for joining us.....ride safely!!

YOU DON'T SAY:

Skip - We were packing out in the morning from the hotel "you guys know I am a Type "A" personality for my vehicles; I have never had so much junk in my car!"

John - John is the Navigator today (He makes all the decisions on our bike route for the day, reviews the maps, etc.) While we were at Fairchild AFB I asked John how were going to get to our hotel. He said "I don't know, let's just bike downtown until we find the right one!!"

James - "The best part of today was answering questions from all the kids of the Boys and Girls club. That was really a lot of fun!"

David - The AF base was a little farther than predicted/discussed during the evening briefing, James was bemoaning the fact that it was actually 54 miles vice 50 miles. So I said "From now on I am doing to add a 10% error rate to all distances!" James retorted "Don't play with my mind like that!"

DID I REALLY DO THAT?:

We were 15 miles out from Fairchild AFB with a persistent head wind. John was at the head of our pace line followed by myself and then James. When cycling in a pace line, the lead cyclist is responsible for alerting the other rides of obstructions, debris, etc because your field of view is very limited. I had mentioned to him before the need to be looking ahead; not down. I just happened to be able to see around John that there was something up a head so I shifted slightly left to avoid the obstruction (and so did James.) Well John did not and hit a freshly killed opossum dead center. Fortunately for him all he got was a few bodily fluids sprayed on his shoes and tires!! Yep pretty gross!!

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

This was everyone's friend today for the sore butts from yesterday's ride!

A friendly visitor during one of our rest stops.

Always a little time for some horsing around!!

The Boys and Girls Club of Fairchild AFB - you rock!!

Feeling a lot better after a nice shower and promise of a big meal.

One of our new friends from the B & G club.

Day 04 (Wed 7/1/09)

Boys & Girls Club @ Fairchild AFB

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