He gave us directions and we headed there. We no sooner pulled in than the same cop pulled in too. Turns out he rides and was appreciating my Triumph (I mean, who wouldn’t?). The three of us chatted for probably 15 minutes about riding etc. Officer Thompson told us we should ride through downtown because it has really been revitalized and was a very cool place. After getting our dinner fixins we did just that and I have to admit he was right. Downtown Walla Walla is very nice. The buildings are all cleaned up and looking their best. We headed to Walmart to pick up a fuel canister for my stove and then headed back out of town. What a fun detour to have taken!
Our target today was Lewis and Clark State Park which is a few miles east of Waitsburg and we got there a smidge before 6pm. Nice long days means we still had plenty of time to set up camp and cook our dinner, which for tonight was sliced steak, mashed potatoes, and mixed berries for desert. Good cell service meant we could talk to our wives, and showers meant we could wash off the sweat from the day. We couldn’t find any firewood, so we had no fire for the evening.
Friday, July 26 2019
Today was our last day of the trip. We had breakfast and broke camp leaving by 7:15am which was much earlier than previously. It was another gorgeous morning and we rode along US 12 past farm fields mostly harvested. Pulled off onto Patit Road at Dayton and headed due east. 
Saw a couple whitetail bucks and some does along the way. The route I set up had two spots that I wasn’t sure was paved, but figured we’d do okay and I was right – they weren’t. The first was Hartsock Grade a pretty steep, but smooth dirt road downhill to the Tucannon road but then we took Blind Grade to Tatman Mountain road up which was a bit of a vibratey washboard and dusty road uphill. Because I had ridden the V-Strom in Death Valley, I wasn’t too weirded out by it and Tim lives on a dirt road so we were fine. Had a bit of a laugh when we got to the top of the road and a farmer came out from nowhere. I figured he was wondering what two street bikes were doing there.
We connected back up with US 12 and rode west to the 127 junction and then headed north towards Central Ferry. Crossed the Snake River around 8:45am and stopped in Dusty for Tim to fill up again. Roger and Peggy Zaring live somewhere near here and if I knew where I’d have stopped to say hi. My original path had us heading up the Endicott South road, but it was being chip-sealed and I’d had enough gravel for the day. So we kept heading east until I found a paved road which was the main road into Endicott. We stopped in town to rest for about 20 minutes then continued on north.
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
