Day 6- City View

I started the day by going from Kennewick to a bike shop in Hermiston to get more spare tires. After I left, I had basically no battery life left. So I hung out in a Subway restaurant and slowly ate a footlong while I charged my stuff. While I was sitting there, almost done with my sandwich, I realized I had another flat tire. This one was a slow leak, and I couldn't find the source. Both of my other flats were obvious. So I went back to the bike shop, and they offered me what I should have started out with- thorn resistant tubes and tire liner. Hopefully, this should make flat tires next to impossible- they are about 10 times thicker than the ones I had been using. While changing out the flat, I did find the source- a small staple that couldn't be felt from the outside. Anyways, I was finally able to continue on to Pendleton, which is almost straight down for the longest time- I'm not excited about all that elevation that I will inevitably have to gain again. Once there, I got to stay at the house of an amazingly hospitable couple, Athena and Tony. They are a warmshowers.org host, so they welcome bikers into their homes for a shower and a place to sleep for the night. There were two others staying as well- they were headed to Colorado and then Minnesota.
I am hugely thankful for the shower, dinner, comfortable bed, advice about what to do the next day, and breakfast.