Woke up looking up at our ladder of tree limbs, retrieved the food unharmed from the restroom, made some grub, and headed out. Decided to overpay the park since we couldn't find change for our twenty and apparently good karma is always in need of accumulation.
Headed up a little road called Jackson Ave to Chehalis, only about 12 miles, but at this point, we decided to stop and take a long rest (apparently losing momentum, but also wanting to use the computers at their much sought after library). It was only about 9:30 when we got there however, so the library was not open, so we treated ourselves (finally) to one of these little espresso huts in town. The barista was wearing high heels in her little hut and seemed to find them a little awkward for traveling the 6 sq. feet around the interior, but she was going out later and definitely needed the practice.
When we got to the library at 10:01 we had already been beaten to their two computers by two brothers who camp out at the library every day. So we chatted it up with the librarians for a good while, they told us about Abel Ostrander's grave that is in the middle of a median strip somewhere around there, but which was previously a field (M- I can give you the details later- she printed them out for me). There were also some complications with reserving the computer system so that kept us occupied for quite a while as well as the printer of receipts.
After our blogging, etc. it was time for lunch, as we made ourselves comfy at a bakery cafe on their mainstreet that was pretty delicious. They definitely knew how to bake some fluff into their quiche and spinach pies. We spotted the movie theater that was playing Dark Knight (which we so were longing to see) and briefly entertained the idea of staying there and watching it. Fortunately, our sense got the better of us, so we set off for the next 50 or so miles of our trip to Raymond.
It was a slow day. It was already 1, so that was our own fault, but we were starting to get bored, and suddenly the brilliant wide and exotic WA shoulders, dwindled as the speeding logging trucks increased and the road just got rougher and rougher. The old forests flanking the roads were beautiful, but our hands were vibrating like crazy and our brains were going 100 miles an hour, while our bikes were only going about 10, and the ratio wasn't computing well. We put on our ipod hiking device for the 4th time on our trip and tried to let the day pass. It was also very hot and humid, although not in a way that competed with VA.
We stopped about 20 miles from our destination at Lebam, one of a series of old logging towns that ran along the railroad and used to thrive until they switched everything to trucking and made the railroad into a trial with fist size gravel so its not too good for anything. Anyway, we stopped at the one business still there, run by a lady named Mickey, who had let us use her restrooms and gotten ice water before she even knew if we were buying anything. All the lights in the store were off to cut down on the heat and it was nice and cool compared to outside, so we split a tasty club sandwich and a peanut butter milkshake (which she said she had put 1/2 jar of generic peanut butter in). She split everything onto seperate serving dishes so we didn't have to fight. After a spell, she sent us down the road to the next town, Menlo, to say hi to her friend May or Kay there who ran their general store. We did say hi and drink a soda, and then pushed on the last few miles to Raymond, with Alison Krauss giving us a little push on to the end of the day, until we started smelling a bit of saltiness in the air.
Raymond didn't have much to offer, but we did stop at the grocery before heading to the RV park on the river for the night. The older woman who ran it also sold emu products, from Nativity emu eggs to oils, which we rubbed on sore knees to see if it would ease the joint pain. It did, but unfortunately by the time we remembered to buy some, she had turned in. We cooked our pasta dinner and ate our snacks, showered and turned in.
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