Day 4 Centralia to Lewis and Clark old growth forest

Kevin and I left this morning after stocking up on oatmeal and fruit from the continental breakfast at the hotel we begrudgingly paid for. The ride was hilly and hills, I found, are a lot harder with an extra 30 pounds on the bike. It felt great to work a little harder though. It was so quiet riding through the hills, amplifying the sound of my derailer clicking away above the mellow farmland, the smell of rain and fresh cut grass. The clouds socked us in in a way that held everything in place and muted every movement and noise around us. We picnicked next to a creek in the beginning of the old growth forest and later found a campsite deep in it, everything dripping with moss and dew. It rained in the kind of way where water was just held in the air, clinging onto things without falling.

Today, day 5 I guess, we decided to stay here for the day. It rained in the morning so we made breakfast and coffee in a little rain shed up the road, over maps and a tiny magnetic chess set. Kevin's knee is not so good and my cold is in the stage where blowing my nose is like kicking off a siphon and I'm running out of things to blow it in. So we hitch-hiked to a town nearby with an old bumbly guy who insisted on giving us a very complete tour of everything in the one-block town before letting us out in front of a cafe, the only place in town that sells anything not deep fried. Lovin the country music. My goal for the night is to write a country song on the uke. Seriously, how hard could it be? I got that twang down!