Grain fields, blue skies, railbeds, and the clippity clop of concrete beneath horse shoes.

Tucked under cottonwood, willow, and ponderosa, complete with a grassy lawn and a brick house, we rest and find refuge from the heat and the dust of wheat harvest. Babushka and Sweetheart take turns nosing a cotton wood, while the other browses the tall grasses of Suzi Arndt's homestead.   I was luckily swooped up by Suzi-  a generous wheat farmer who bounced into the small town of Edwall at the elevator in her grain truck where she was informed of my arrival.  She could not have been more accommodating and with her bright beaming eyes, beset by her silver hair and her sun-kissed smile, she assured me that I was welcome in her home (I even got to have a shower, sleep in a real bed, and do my laundry- oh the luck!).  It is people like Suzi, in places like Edwall that I am reminded of why I've chosen to complete my rather arbitrary goal of riding a horse from Colorado to Bellingham.  These last 60ish miles from Tekoa to Edwall have been hot, long and dry.  The combines have been chewing up the wheat from there to here and as far as the eye can see and the dust that is created in the process has found its own sort of refuge in my eyes, nose and the back of my throat.  Both horses have a hacking cough, and so we are aiming to arrive in Davenport tomorrow to rest at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds and wait for a delivery of antihistamine that the ranch in Idaho will send us.  Twenty more miles through the ocean of wheat fields till we arrive.  Davenport will be the largest town I have traversed yet.  Each time we enter a new town, Babushka jumps left, then jumps right, not quite sure if the sidewalk or the stop sign will swallow is whole, but she soon surrenders as we clippity-clop through the streets to find camp.

I must say that each page I get to turn on my Washington Gazateer feels like a Christmas morning for a seven year old.  Tomorrow I get to turn one more.

The pictures below are a few captured moments from Tekoa to Edwall 

Trestle Bridge on the John Wayne Pioneer Trail

Looking back at Tekoa Mountain

Wheat fields and old power lines

My witness on the rail bed of the Old Milwaukee road

The trestle bridge at Rosalia- I walked the ponies across this one

Invited to lunch by the farmers along the road to Williams Lake

Homestead campout

Crossing the freeway at Tyler- this was a big moment for me!

Once upon a time

I jumped with joy to see a small sliver of mountains back there

My outing with Suzi to the Edwall library

High School history of Edwall

Old school house turned library

Edwall grain elevator- in other words "mainstreet"

P.S. Plans changed- I've decided to go cross country and I'm so happy I decided not to go south on the John Wayne Pioneer Trail.

Cheers!