Met a Californian on a recumbent who used to

be 300 lbs.! He worked for a vision insurance

company...imagine that: a 'bent riding eye

doctor meeting a 'bent riding vision  insurance

employee. The world is small. We rode about

10 miles along the Snake and back again to the major bridge connecting the Clarkston, WA

community and Lewiston, ID town.

A sunset on the 24th was followed by a large

dense cloud that was kept at bay by the heat

and not a drop of rain survived falling on the

side walks despite the water balloon above that must have stretched for miles east, north

and south.

Lewiston is a moody place. Seemingly

depressed and removed from the grandeur

of the Lochsa, the Clearwater, the Lolo

Pass. You would never think that this is a

gateway eastward to the mountains folds.

This is a distinctly Corporate town with

many homogenized, greyed buildings and

people indoors on these hot 109 day.

Thursday was predicted to be 5 degrees

cooler.

The Snake River contains Lewiston from

ever growing west. The high grades or roads

surround the outskirts like a coliseum wall

keeping the humidity, the factories, the

granaries hemmed in. It is a worker town.

I had a terrific little chicken sandwich and listened to the

local gossip about a fellow who would come into the

'diner' and be too friendly to the waitress.

My dear friends Otto and Martine picked me up at the

Clarkston Library (air conditioned and Internet access).

We streaked down the highway on the Washington &

Oregon sides of the Snake River to Enterprise, OR

arriving tired and exposed to beautiful mountains lit

gracefully. I drove. It was very bizarre for me to be going 65 miles an hour or even 35 mph. It simply didn't allow to me to look at what was around. It was such a contrast and so disorienting to be zooming through new environs without really being able to pay attention. Ah our fast lives. What a Luddite I had become. Finally to sleep in a motel after the jarring contrast of a bike ride snaking between Lewiston & Clarkston and then to transform into a truck driving man.

Thursday End.