Day 5 - Twisp to Grand Coulee

Distance - 96.2

Turns out the sun rises at 5:10am in Washington, which woke us from our public park slumber in Twisp pretty early. After a crucial 65 cent doughnut breakfast, we took off from our friendly little town and headed east. The morning gave us smooth riding with only slight hills and lots of flat stretches. Of course we are finely tuned biking man-machine monsters at this point (picture the terminator on a road bike) so it was a cake walk. Around mile 45 we passed through Bridgeport, which was the last town for 50 long miles, and left us with nothing but endless stretches of slightly uphill road surrounded by sun-scorched rolling hills and sage brush.

The only shade we could find for lunch was a lonesome farmhouse we came upon surrounded by a small grove of trees, and that's where Lt. Col. Glen Heartsmith (retired) entered our lives. He welcomed us to eat in the shade of his trees and then began to tell us stories while we took off our shoes and devoured some bagels, nutella, bananas, and peanut butter. Glen served in the Marine Corps (Uncle Sam's Misguided Chilluns as he called it) from '67 to '71, after which he returned to Wa state to:
- get run over by a tractor, shattering his pelvis, and breaking an arm and a leg.
- crush part of his spine lifting something too heavy
- get a finger chopped off in a conveyor belt, which he showed us

He now sits on several thousand acres of farm and 'collects any and all kinds of information on weapons.' Before we left he invited us to fill our water bottles up with his hose, 'as long as we weren't allergic to arsenic.'

The rest of the ride into Grand Coulee was wide open and isolated with only the occasional questionably accounted for cow that needs to get himself an education and a job. We rolled into the small Dam town of Grand Coulee around 5:30, and scored some Dam ramen noodles, crackers, easy cheese, and summer sausagii at the Dam grocery store. We are staying at a campground on the lake, and took our first glorious 'shower' in it's frigid waters. Tension rose on the RLTP 09 however, when several kids stole the swings on the beach from Sam and Aaron. Sam and Aaron wanted to swing. Stay tuned as the drama unfolds...

- Posted by Aaron