Day 7 Richland, Washington

Like I said, all cyclists were extremely sore this morning.  We had around an 80 miles ride today, and while that might be a relatively easy day at any other time, it was extremely tough for them.  Saying the route had rolling hills is an understatement.  It was uphill to downhill over and over, and the fact that there was not a cloud in the sky and high temperatures did not make it any easier.  These cyclist’s determination is amazing to me.  I can honestly say that I do not think I could have completed today having done the 125 mountain pass miles yesterday.  I was also given a completely new meaning to being in the middle of nowhere.  It was as if I was in the desert in Arizona, but with rolling mountains and hills instead of great big mountains. Nonetheless, it was extremely cool to see and be around.  One advantage of being in the vans on the side of the road is that I get a lot of time to just sit there and look around and enjoy the scenery and think.  The song choices were a little bit harder to think of to have it fit the day, so I just played motivational songs and played some games with the cyclists at my stops. 

Tonight we had a friendship visit with the Arc of TriCities.  For the second night in a row, we had Mexican food, i.e. taco salad.  What was even more exciting about this visit was that we played bingo! I cannot remember the last time I played bingo besides the annual family Christmas party bingo game.  Me and two of my friends sat down for dinner and bingo with these two older women: Beatrice and Sharon. If you remember the part of Muppets where the two old best friends just argue and yell at each other, this was the real life version.  Beatrice forgot one of Sharon’s sweaters at home and kept apologizing and Sharon kept getting mad.  Then, to top it off, Beatrice spilled Sharon’s drink later on in the night, and I thought the world was going to end.  Do not get me wrong, they were both sweet old ladies and fun to be around, but I would be lying if I said it was not hilarious to watch.  After saying our goodbyes, we headed back to lodging at a grade school gym where we fell asleep almost instantly after another long day on the road.