Day Three- My Birthday! Leavenworth to Quincy (Route Change)

Happy Birthday to me... Unfortunately birthday luck was not with me today. Our day started with a wet rainy morning and a grumpy Marc. He did not want to get up and ride this morning. I don't blame him after yesterdays climb. Its also really hard to get motivated when its cold and rainy outside.

About 30 minutes before we left, we decided to pick a new route for the day. We weren't up to riding the 84 miles to Coulee City, so we decided to go South through Wenatchee and onto Quincy and then Ephrata. (A shorter 73 mile ride.)

The ride started out fine. Its so hard to get back on the bike in the morning but once you are a few miles into it, its all good. However around mile 12 or so I got another flat tire. Of course it was raining and we were on a busy highway. Ugh! After Marc fixed the flat, we rode down into Wenatchee looking for a bike shop. Marc needed to buy a new computer for his bike and we needed a few more tubes since I've had so many flats. We finally found the bike shop and got our supplies. The owner of the shop directed us to the bike path and up to the bridge on the North end of town as the regular bike path bridge was closed. Well this detour ended up taking us about 10 miles out of our way. It was a gorgeous bike path along the Columbia River. One of the prettiest rides I've done, but who wants to add 10 extra miles to a 70+ day! (not me).

We finally got out of Wenatchee around 2 PM (after making a few more stops to pick up supplies and lunch.) The ride out of Wenatchee was great until we hit strong headwinds and hills. And to top it off - I got another %$#&^! flat tire! ( What is it with the flats! I've ridden my entire life and can only remember 1 flat tire ever.) Washington is not going to top the list of favorite states - especially with all this rain and now 3 flat tires in two days.

After the second flat and miles of climbing, I was ready to stop at the closest town. It was nearing 6 PM and we could see the rain clouds heading our way. I was so hungry on the last few miles. We were passing all these fruit trees. Nothing like signs every few miles taunting you with the names of the fruit -- "Gala Apples", "Bartlett Pears", "Concord Grapes". I dug deep into my shirt pockets and found a small bag of trail mix left over. Ever try to eat trail mix while riding? Not a good idea. I ended up dropping the bag and spilling most of it into the road. Bummer - I was really craving fruit!

As we approached the town of Quincy (about 17 miles short of our destination town of Ephrata), I told Marc "Let's stop here - I bet they have great fruit pies with all the orchards around." We'll I'm disappointed to say that I could not find a single restaurant with pie tonight. We asked the motel clerk (a large Indian man wearing an even larger Turban), "Where are the good restaurants?"

His reply - "Well there is a McDonald's over there and a Mexican restaurant down the road. And if you want American food, there's a place down the way to the left."
(Wow, the choices!) We walked all over town looking for a potential 'pie' restaurant but ended up at a Mexican place as it looked like the only place open in town.

So, as disappointing as this sounds, I am settling for a Hostess Apple Pie tonight. I didn't think it would be so difficult to find pie in small town America but I am realizing that this is going to take some effort. I'm off to research our route for tomorrow so I will know exactly where we need to go for pie. Off to bed, I'm really, really sleepy right now.