![\"\"](\"\/zagorsky\/files\/2018\/07\/By-days-end-I-was-going-so-slow-even-a-statue-could-catch-me-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>![\"\"](\"\/zagorsky\/files\/2018\/07\/Thanks-to-Alex-and-his-mom-for-the-ride-over-the-bridge-300x225.jpg\")
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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>![\"\"](\"\/zagorsky\/files\/2018\/07\/Another-view-of-the-climb-out-of-the-Columbia-River-basin-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nWhat happened?<\/h4>\n
I left Ellensburg, Washington on a sleepy Sunday morning.\u00a0 It was 28 miles to the bridge.\u00a0 The first 18 miles were a slog.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t going very fast and the scenery was mainly scrub and sagebrush.\u00a0 I did have a nice tail wind, so it wasn\u2019t miserable.\u00a0 After pedaling for 18 miles I stopped at the top of a large hill beside a giant windmill farm to take off my windbreaker.\u00a0 I was not looking forward to the next ten miles.\u00a0 I was surprised at what happened next.<\/p>\n
From the windmill farm to the Vantage Bridge was a 10-mile-long steep downhill.\u00a0 The downhill was so long my fingers began to cramp holding them in anticipation of using the brakes.\u00a0 The experience was a scream (both literally and figuratively).\u00a0 I rolled into the gas station without pedaling once in the entire 10 miles.<\/p>\n
I went inside the gas station to buy an ice cream and the clerk asked me if I was trying to get over the bridge.\u00a0 She said there was a woman in town who drove cyclists over the bridge for a nominal fee.\u00a0 She called, but the lady didn\u2019t pick up.\u00a0 Clearly, other riders had hitched rides across the bridge if the gas station clerk knew what I needed before saying anything.<\/p>\n
Since the unofficial lift was not there, I looked around myself.\u00a0 There was a boy and his mother selling cherries in the gas station parking lot.\u00a0 They had a pickup truck and no customers, so I paid them to give me a lift over the bridge. \u00a0I worried for weeks about crossing the bridge, but it was relatively simple to get across safely.<\/p>\n
The climb out of the Columbia River Basin once I made it to the other side was only a six or seven mile uphill.\u00a0 Maybe it was the sugar from the ice-cream or relief that I made it across the river easily, but the climb was not too bad.\u00a0 The last 50 miles of the day were okay.\u00a0 I spent about half of it on the I-90 service road.\u00a0 The scenery was mainly cars and trucks whizzing by, but I got to Moses Lake, which is where I want to be tonight.<\/p>\n
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Before this trip started there were a number of days I had either nightmares or tossed and turned in my bed thinking for hours about part of this ride.\u00a0 Today is the first of these days. I have an easy morning, just 28 miles to Vantage Washington on a flat road that ends in a … Continue reading Day 3: Ellensburg to Moses Lake, WA<\/span>