Cassandra: (Tues June 26) Today took a couple of very unexpected turns. This morning after leaving the coffee shop in Pullman, Lisa and I drove to Walla Walla in the pouring down rain. It would've been a nice drive had it not been so gross and wet out, and had I not been so concerned about hydroplaning. But we finally made it into Walla Walla and parked the car at Tourist Information where we got some physical maps of the bike routes in the area. We also found out where the local bike shop was so that we could get some advice on the best rides to do. And that's where things got interesting.

We hadn't really been planning to ride today, because it was so rainy earlier and we needed to familiarize ourselves with the area. But the man who helped us at the Allegro Bike Shop told us they had a ride leaving tonight at 6:15 pm and we were welcome to join. I was definitely in but it took some convincing for Lisa to feel good about it. She didn't want to be the slow one holding everyone up.

We showed up at the bike shop at 6 pm, fully dressed and ready to go. I noticed that more and more men were arriving, and I was starting to think we were going to be the only females. But then, finally, three or four other women showed up. We started chit-chatting with the first of the ladies to show up, a music student originally from Bainbridge Island. We told her about our around-Washington bike/road trip and how we had been Couchsurfing the past few days. It came out that our Couchsurfing host for tonight had fallen through at the last minute, and she offered to let us stay at her house. We were super excited, because we had been planning on sleeping in the car in a parking lot somewhere. I am morally opposed to paying $30 to pitch a tent in an RV campground, like we would have had to do here. What happened to the days when camping was actually cheap?

It wasn't long before we set off on the ride. We wound through the city streets of Walla Walla, headed towards the west. Our pace was decent going through town but really picked up when we hit the old highways and country roads. Lisa did really well for the first ten minutes or so, and then she started to drop behind a bit. I was trying to push myself to stay towards the front, even though we were traveling at 20-23 mph.

Tonight was my first experience with riding in a tight group, and it definitely took some getting used to. We were all bunched up like a school of fish, trying to draft off each other. We rode by two's, with everyone rotating into the lead position to take the wind for a while. It was scary to be riding so close to other people. I couldn't enjoy the pretty scenery or anything because I was so worried I would hit the person in front on me and go down. If one of us was going down, we all were going down. We were riding with less than a foot between each biker. I did notice a difference in effort when I rode that close to the person in front of me; it definitely seemed easier, but I was constantly worried.

I dropped back a bit to watch for Lisa and ended up riding with an older gentleman named Randy who regaled me with stories of all of the adventurous things he has done like running ultra-marathons, biking up mountain passes for fun (for fun?!), and solo-climbing Mt. Rainier. This guy was an inspiration. By this point, our group had broken up into three smaller groups. The really fast people were up in front, Randy and I were in the middle, and Lisa was taking up the rear with the bike shop guy who helped us with routes earlier in the day.

We only stopped once for water, and that was a very brief stop. By then, I was really, really ready for a break. We were biking a lot faster than I was used to biking, and I kept pushing myself because I didn't want to be that girl who fell behind. I have almost an irrational fear of getting left behind and lost. I chugged almost my entire big waterbottle with Nuun (the electrolyte tab) and shoved a bunch of raisins down my throat.

The way back was both fun and kind of brutal. I had fun talking with Randy but was in some pain, finally, from pushing myself. I got a big cramp in my right butt cheek and when I would stop at stoplights my toes were cramping up and curling. It was not a pleasant feeling.

Finally, we made it back to the bike shop. Overall, our ride was about 28 miles, done in just about 2 hours. I am hoping I am going to feel okay tomorrow, not too sore. Lisa and I are planning on riding through the local vineyards and doing wine-tastings, depending on how she feels. I almost want to retrace the route we took tonight so I can actually see the fields and vineyards we passed, instead of catching a glimpse of them out of the corner of my eye while trying to force oxygen into my lungs.

Here's our ride in numbers:
Total mileage: 28.08 miles
Average speed: 16.6 mph (and this was with some good hills in there)
Max speed: 24.6 miles
Ride time: 1:43:46