Day 5 - Coffee, fruit, and other encouragement

Day 5 - Friday, July 4

Yakima to Sunnyside —41 mi, 66 km

Today we biked from Yakima to Sunnyside. It was a 60 kilometer ride through the valley of the Yakima River. It was not a difficult ride, because we are still going downstream with a short hill from time to time.

I rode together with chaplain Riemersma. He is a pastor in Ohio, and we talked about our families, Haiti, church and the work of CRWRC. Part of the reason I am in the tour is to be a resource person about poverty, and the ministry of CRWRC. Half way through the ride we stopped at the CRC church in Zillah. People of the church had prepared coffee, which was good. They also provided bananas and cherries. This area is dry, but full of orchards, where farmers (many from Dutch origin) grow apples, grapes, pears, and cherries under irrigation.

One of the CRC families lived along the road that we passed. They had put a sign on their lawn to encourage us, and they were outside waving to the riders. We stopped and had a talk with them. It reminded me of Coby’s family sitting in front of their house during the "Vierdaagse" in Nijmegen.

It is American Independence day today – the 4^th of July. Yesterday a group of Canadian riders purchased small American flags for all the bicycles, and so we rode today with a small American flag on our bikes. It rained during the first hour, so our bikes and the flags got wet and dirty. When we arrived at the Sunnyside Christian High School here everyone started cleaning chains and sprockets.