It had gotten pretty late by the time I went to bed the previous day and I wanted to sleep a little bit longer, maybe until 8 am but because it wasn’t raining when I woke up and I didn’t want to risk having to take down the tent in the rain I got up quickly and started my daily routine for next couple of weeks, collecting my gear, taking down the tent and packing the bike. Of course it started raining again soon anyway.

It usually takes me about two hours from getting up to getting onto the bike. In the rain miraculously I am faster.

I had left the mountain pass and to my delight I had also left the clouds behind me. I took this opportunity to stop at a McDonald’s (after all this was the US) and rolled out the tent at the parking lot to let it dry. When the sun is out this doesn’t take longer than 10 minutes and it would save me the annoyance of dealing with a soaked tent late in the evening when I just wanted to find a warm and dry place to sleep after another exhausting day.

After grabbing some unhealthy fats from the yellow M I was back on my route riding due East. Up until here the landscape in the state of Washington (Washington DC is on the exact opposite side of the state Washington on the continent) was very much like what I was used to from British Columbia. Now it changed. The trees and the green of the rain forests started to disappear. There wasn’t much green left except besides the water.

The sun was now burning on my cloths but with the wind blowing it was just perfect. That is of course until the wind got so strong that it almost pushed me over to the wrong side of the road multiple times. Luckily I was the only one on the roads for many miles. As a result of the strong winds I had to slow down losing quite a bit of time. I realized I would not be making it to my next goal Spokane today.

Driving against strong wind is extremely exhausting. Where had that wonderful rain gone! The reason for the strong wind was the change in landscape which now was actually an impressive sight for me despite how boring it was. I had never seen so much ‘nothing’. Nothing as far as the eye can see. All around me, nothing. The horizon was completely flat in all directions. I am used to see mountains in some direction and mostly when there are mountains the land is overall a little hilly. But here? You guessed it. Nothing.

The sun was setting now but I had at least gotten fairly close to Spokane. The camp site I had chosen on the map turned out to be some exclusive club thing that I really didn’t need. But I didn’t mind having to look for another one as the appearing trees were blocking the wind and the setting sun dipped my surroundings into a beautiful orange hue.

Eventually I did find a campsite where I put up my tent in the dark. I quickly ate some canned food and a few cold sausages and went to bed looking forward to day three.