Day 53, Aug. 7 Pink House Hole Campground, ID to Clarkston, WA?

It rained a little bit during the night, so at some point Andy hopped out to put the rain fly on, but otherwise we woke up this morning sans event, with sore throats and a beautiful view.

We pressed pretty quickly onto Lewiston, about 40 miles, only stopping briefly to pee, put on rain coats, speak to another biker, take off rain coats, and fill water bottles. We did stop at the Clearwater Casino Gas Station, a very strange juxtaposition of this flashy cement place against some very rocky and raw gorgeous country. It was the end of the Nez Perce Indian Reservation.

Lewiston was no sight to see either. Very industrial, hot, and smelly, your entrance into it is of a enormous factory, some dive motels, and a general feeling of desolation. But with a population of 30,000+ it is not to be missed. We didn't find its charming downtown, but did eat at a good salad/soup/sandwich place for lunch called Sage something, where we met Marianne who was so excited for us on our trip and recommended the restaurant highly, as did two other ladies.

Andy chatted it up with the ladies in the restaurant and got the best directions out of them. So now, here we are at the Clarkson Library (on the other side of the Snake River- just like Oregon trail), now in Washington State, and trying to decide whether we will be able to shoot a squirrel for dinner, or whether we should stay in one of these dive motels and shower tonight.

Either way we'll let you know.

In the meantime, we are trying to get back some of our momentum. I am not sure when it happened, but we have felt a little lack luster the past week or so. I guess our bodies and minds are just going through a new phase that I'll call "beat." I have a feeling it will pass before the trip ends and we'll be sad to get off those seats, but in the meantime, we are trying to soak it in and not push too hard. We seemed to get confused about the simplest things in conversation with each other and it actually seems less stressful when we are able to "pontificate" a bit, as opposed to deciding whether to turn left or right.