Across America North - day 07 - Baker City, OR --> Ontario, OR
Today was a pretty good cruise. One look at the elevation profile in the Garmin data will
tell you that the first half was mostly downhill. There were a few hills in the second
half and the last 15 miles were straight and flat. The last 15 miles were vast fields of
corn (GMO corn according to one rider who seemed acquainted with the varieties) and another
crop that I never identified. When we get to South Dakota, I wonder if my standard of
reference for "vast" will be reset.
The day included about 10 miles on the interstate highway. It's one thing to cruise down
the highway in a car that insulates you from the noise, the buffeting of the wind, and the
destructive trash left on the road by separated tire tread. It's another to live with all
those things on the interstate. When a tread separates from a tire, it spreads tiny wires
on the road that are fatal to bicycle tires. I had a flat tire on the interstate, which I
fixed as fast as I could and got out of there. We were using that road because it's the
only way from here to there.
Tomorrow we will bag our first state line. That moment will definitely be a photo-op. We
already crossed the time zone boundary into Mountain Daylight Time. That's 15 degrees of
longitude so we've gone 1/24th of the way around the world. (Well, not quite because the
Pacific coast probably isn't on a time zone boundary.)
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