Day 9--Goodbye Jean-Paul, Hello Jonathan, Alex, and Antoine!

Jean-Paul was heading to Lewiston (about 70 miles). I just wanted to go to Pomeroy, so we said our goodbyes.

 He was riding much speedier today and got ahead of me quickly. I could see emergency vehicles ahead about 15 minutes after we left the park. When I rode by, J-P had stopped. There was a guy in the ditch. Looked like a cyclist. When J-P caught up to me, he said it was, indeed, a cyclist. A lady had hit him with her car.

We rode into Dayton together, J-P stopped. I kept going. He caught me later, and that was the last time I saw him.

The ride was just wheat fields, and the occasional field of peas.

Wheat

Peas

I pulled off at a building where I could be in the shade (yes, it's another hot day...upper 90s) and have a snack. As I pulled up, I thought I saw J-P in the distance. But, I don't think it was him, because, later I met up with another guy in a yellow jersey. As I pulled up to him, I thought it was J-P, but then I noticed he had grey panniers. Not J-P...instead, Jonathan from Portland going to Glacier. We talked for a bit, then took off. He warned me he was slow. I got ahead of him. 

About 5 miles later I pulled off at a restroom. I set up my chair, and fixed myself some lunch. I saw Jonathan go by. Pomeroy was just another 9ish miles, but it was quite hot, and those miles seemed to go by very slowly. Finally I rolled into town. My plan was to camp at the fairgrounds. But first, I wanted ice cream! As I was rolling through the town, I saw a sign for ice cream at The Bean Counter. I also saw Jonathan's bike parked out front. I parked MC and JP, and went inside. They also had smoothies so I got that instead. I joined Jonathan outside. He had asked about camping at the City Park. They said yes, so I decided to go there too. There is a pool with showers and, of course, restrooms at the park. The only concern was the sprinkler situation. Fortunately, we encountered the sprinkler guy. He told us where there wouldn't be any sprinkling happening. We set up our tents there.

We both went over to the pool. I opted to swim (best $1.75 I've ever spent!), Jonathan just showered (free). The pool was delightful! After swimming, I showered and came back to the restrooms to wash my shorts.

As I was hanging my shorts, swimsuit, and towel on the fence, a couple more cyclists showed up. They are Antoine and Alex. They are riding from Portland to DC. Turns out, I had met them before. They were the two guys I saw in Roosevelt that asked me about the road construction. They didn't stay at Roosevelt, but instead went on to Crow Butte. Now they are here. I'm not sure how I managed to get ahead of them, but I suspect they have been doing some creative route finding. They were also at Lewis and Clark Trail SP last night, but I didn't see them.

So, we have a nice little group here tonight at the Pomeroy City Park. And...it's another free night of camping!

Total miles today: 41.45

Average speed: 9.46mph