Day 6 - "I thank God for this opportunity..."

Day 6 - Saturday, July 5

Sunnyside to Kennewick —49 mi, 79 km

First of all my apologies. I have not been able to send out emails yesterday and the day before. Our internet system is not working, so the information on the blog has not been updated. So my blog manager is not at fault.

We are now in Kennewick. The ride from Sunnyside to Kennewick was really nice – it started with a bit of rain, and the tent didn’t get dry in the bag, but later the weather became really sunny. The temperature went to about 100 F. We had the wind in the back, so at a certain point I was going uphill with a speed of 20 km/hour. Yes, Tim, you were right: a road bike rolls so much easier than a mountain bike.

We are biking through this dry area behind the Cascade mountains, and which stretches North-South roughly from in Canada to Mexico. The mountains are brown, like the mountains in Haiti in the dry seasons.

However, they have big irrigation systems in the valley. They pump water from the river and use it to grow mainly fruits: grapes, apples, cherries. Rows of poplars are being used as wind breakers. They look like the rows of poplars in the Betuwe in the Netherlands. "Oma’s trees" our children used to call them.

Yesterday we were in Sunnyside, and we learned that the majority of the population is Spanish speaking. Many of the Mexican people came here to pick fruit. As you can see on the picture I could find work if I got stuck here, because they are still looking for people to pick fruits. It would be good for my Spanish if I did that.

Sometimes we stop and buy a drink. Yesterday I went in a small store and bought a bottle of Gatorade. When I paid, the lady asked where I was biking to, and of course I said “New Jersey”. She was shocked and called her husband. We use these opportunities to talk about the reason for the tour. People along the road ask questions about Sea-to-Sea, because they see the trucks and all these cyclists. The other day a lady in a store spontaneously gave a donation of $10, and so we are fundraising while biking.

During the week we camped mostly at the grounds of High Schools. The shower facilities of these schools are really good. Today we are camping under big trees in the Columbia River Park. This is a State Park. I can hardly believe that this is already the end of the first week. The main challenge was the Steven’s pass on Tuesday, and the two passes on Wednesday. For the rest the biking has not been as hard as in Haiti. I thank God for this opportunity to bike and to meet all these people. I thank Cullie Woodall who played the role of my coach in Haiti, giving me a lot of good advice, and biking many times with me on the mountain roads of Haiti.