Sea-to-Sea NA Day 7 & 8 Yesterday we had a fairly relaxing day, having managed to do the laundry later on Saturday. Breakfast was at 8:30 and even though it was our turn to set up we were able to sleep in and even listen to some nice music, as is my habit Sunday morning. We are camped under a big tree so had shade all day long. The church service started at 10:30 and the local congregation served lunch. The afternoon was spent trying to post pictures on our intermittent Internet. That called for a short bike ride part way through to relieve some frustration. Today’s ride was a 105km with about half along the Columbia River. The sky was clear right from the start of the ride. There were only 4 or 5 tents still standing when we made our final walk over to the gear trailer and got on the bike at 7:40. Florida Bill was riding with us today. Anne M was on sweep duty. Once we worked our way out of town-getting lost only once- we could enjoy the scenery along the river. As you can see this is a wide river valley and the wind was directly up the valley. The Rumba performs well against a wind so we made better time than most along this 40 odd km stretch. I have decided to eat on the run, every ½ hour after the first hour on the bike. This keeps the energy flowing as we ride. We still stop but that is more to rest the rear and for other relief. And so we stopped a few km before we were to leave the river and tackle the hill out of the valley. As we rode up the creek valley we were going in the same direction as the wind. This can be good and bad, good because it helps a little with the work but the cooling effect of the wind and riding speed is gone. The temperature was now in the 90s, with no shade. The net climb was about 1000 ft over 30km but it was rolling country so we did a lot more than that. The land at the top was dry, no irrigation and wheat was the primary crop. Some had already been cut; other areas were still that nice gold colour of ripened wheat. There was more rolling road but primarily downhill. One final good downhill before arriving in town; let us reap some reward for all the hard work we had done. Our group had now grown to 7 riders. We rode thru town, the temperature now over 100F, and arrived at the school at 12:15 to find no one else there. After something to eat and drink we rode back into town to visit the local DQ for a cone.