311 miles, 7.5 hours.

I've needed to visit my friend Colin over in the bucolic Tri-Cities, Washington area for quite some time now. He's visited us in Seattle, he's visited Tamara in Portland (while I was out riding), and I've gone on trips past his place, but haven't stopped in. Now was the time.

Tamara was going to go with me, but she's responsible, so she stayed behind and did homework. But I hopped on the bike and rode out on a Friday.

My plan was to take some detours on the way over so I could collect Wikipedia photos needed in Oregon State. That meant instead of being a 212 mile, 3.3 hour trip, it was a 310 mile, 7.2 hour trip. Perfect for a Friday afternoon.

One of the funnier things happened on my way to Echo, Oregon. There was a very large field full of sheep and lambs. One of the sheepdogs ran up to me, making sure I knew it was HIS territory. No problem.

As I rode down to the end of the pasture, he wanted to chase the whole way. Unfortunately for the lambs, they ended up being herded by him until the dog herded about four lambs into the wire fence. SPLAT! It was hilarious to watch, especially as they walked away stunned, surprised their herder made them do something "wrong". I wonder how their little brains cope with things like that.

On Saturday, Colin put me to work. We did some wiring, stored boxes in the attic, built a trellis, and did other projects around the house. Since we moved into an apartment, I've been out of the habit of honeydo chores.

246 miles, 5.5 hours.

After lazing around on Sunday, I finally left for home after a great lunch. My route should have been 212 miles and 3.3 hours- instead, it was 246 miles and 5.5 hours. I didn't deviate from the main route as much, but I did stop to take photos in some small towns.

Some of the time was from a stretch between Boardman and Arlington- I got "trapped" on backroads that didn't go through, and ended up going in circles around a center pivot irrigation field (see the satellite map, below). Once I got out of there, I got "lost" on the Arlington Municipal Airport dirt runway. They only get about 3 planes a day, so I just zipped the length of it and got off the runway as soon as I could.

I was pretty proud of the picture I got at Columbia Gorge Regional Airport (aka The Dalles Airport). The shot of the larger corporate jet with the smaller planes in front is kind of neat. I suspect the jet is being used by Google, as they have a datacenter in the area.

I ended up collecting 17 usable photos on the way out, and 12 on the way back. Not bad- I've put some of them on this page; they are not always the same version that is on Wikipedia, though.