This Train Runs on Time...Except When It Doesn't

I slept in Aubrey's sun porch which meant I could make a quick getaway this morning.  I'd like to tell you that it was a quiet getaway too, but his screen door has a monumental squeak.  Shhhhh!  I left around 5:30, riding down to Sandpoint's Marina where there is a bike path that leads the way to a bicycle/pedestrian path (it's really more like a couple of traffic lanes!) across the Long Bridge and Lake Pend Oreille.

I had hoped there would be light traffic on Highway 95, but the trucks probably love early morning too...we were there together.  Sometimes the shoulder was excellent, sometimes it sucked.  I was more than happy to turn off onto Highway 53 after 40 miles.

I was steadily making my way to a dear friend's house in West Spokane.  I stopped at a funky little restaurant called Pryor's on Wellesley in Otis Orchards about 11 and I was thinking breakfast...I
was thinking pancakes, but they handed me a lunch menu.  The East Hill burger has a beef patty, shaved ham and bacon plus two kinds of cheese.  Sold.  It's my last one.  Really.  Even if I get home and go out for a long ride, you should test me by suggesting that we go out for a burger after the ride.  I will say no.  I think.  But I might crumble like a buttermilk biscuit.

I rode on Wellesley a lot today and it was a good way to get across Spokane Valley and to the Centennial Trail.  Spokane's Centennial Trail runs 37 miles from Nine Mile Falls to the Idaho border along Spokane River.  Beautiful in places.  Somewhere along Wellesley I found Sydney and Trinity (who was very shy and hid from me!) two young entrepreneurs who had set up a lemonade stand.  For 50 cents they put some in my water bottle and gave me extra ice.  I thought the extra ice earned them a healthy tip.  They told me that yesterday they made $60.  Atta girls.

I arrived at Susan's around 2:30, having clocked over 82 miles on the bike.  Susan had an afternoon appointment, but she left a door open for me.  The first thing I did was return Amtrak's call...they had left two automated calls on my phone about my train being delayed and alternate service.  Ummm...yeah...22 hours delayed.  The alternate service?  They could put me on a bus to Seattle tonight at 8:30 and get me to Portland by 9:30 tomorrow night...with the bike going in the undercarriage of the bus.  No.thanks.

Susan and I went to The Flying Goat for dinner and I had a Caesar salad and a really good pear cider from Lone Tree.  I also got to see her sister and brother-in-law whom I love to pieces.  Amtrak has tossed me some lemons...I shall take Sydney and Trinity's lead and "make lemonade".  I asked Susan what she needed done around her place...