I reached Idaho today, which means I have now completed the first of my 11 states and one Canadian province. Washington is the third largest state or province I'll traverse; Montana is the largest (duh) at 845 miles and Wisconsin comes in second at 492 miles. My planned mileage in Washington was 421 miles and my actual mileage was 425.7 miles. The difference may have been a couple wrong turns where I was briefly off course or a couple intentional detours to check out something I'd noticed. As an aside, North Dakota is a close fourth place as far as distance traveled goes, merely 15 miles short of Washington's mileage at 406 miles. Okay, enough numbers and data. (I'm a math/engineering geek, so you have to expect me to spout some numbers from time to time.)

Today was a relatively easy day. I just finished up the remaining miles to get me to Idaho. I started where I left off after yesterday's flat tire and completed the remaining 36.46 miles. It was another beautiful, warm summer day in eastern Washington and I cruised through the miles and into western Idaho late this morning. Lailla did a little shopping in the border towns of Oldtown, ID, and Newport, WA. Then she did some laundry this afternoon, while I ran a couple other errands.

I also stopped by a bike shop I had noticed on Google Maps. I told the bike mechanic about my journey and asked if he had time "today or tomorrow" to give my ride a once-over to make some adjustments that would make it spin quieter. He immediately put it up on the rack and spent about 15 minutes making some minor tweaks and cleaning the drive train for me. When I asked what I owed, he said, "Nothing." I bought him a beer. So a quick shout-out to North Division Bicycle Shop in Spokane!

Tomorrow is a rest day. And Thursday I'll get back on the road, hopefully feeling rested and ready to crank out some miles.

I also wanted to Thank everyone who has posted words of encouragement on this blog, or given me kudos in Strava, or emailed me. If anybody has any questions about my adventure, please feel free to send me your questions and I'll try to address them in future blog posts.

Cheers everyone!

We passed a loaded logging truck headed the opposite direction as us this morning on the way to the start of today's ride. I took this picture through the car windshield.

I entered the Kalispel Indian Reservation...

I have no idea what these posts in the Pend Oreille River near Usk are for, but there were a lot of them and they were quite large, probably sticking up 12' to 15' above the water.

...and I left the Kalispel Indian Reservation.

I found an alternate spelling of Pend Oreille/Ponderay/Pondoray.

After I made it to Idaho, I had to cross over the Pend Oreille River on a bridge that took me back into Washington. And that's where I ended today's ride. Thursday morning, I'll have to ride a couple blocks in Washington before passing into Idaho for that day's ride.


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