I started off slowly this morning, taking my time packing and then looking for a coffee and breakfast. 
I had to go to the store to buy microwave breakfast items and they had no coffee. Also, I do not carry a microwave with me. So, I bought some fresh fruit, yogurt and bread and cycled back to the Wheat Lind coffee shop for my coffee and a Muffin top. The owner and her husband were in front of the shop when I arrived. I had my yogurt with the coffee as well and after a good chat, I packed up and started cycling around 10:00am.
This is a great Coffee shop that started in November 2021 and that is crying for more customers. The service is great and it is a very comfy place to be in. I loved the bookshelf full of second-hand books for reading there in the shop. There are bookmarks that you could use to mark your spot until you come back for your next cup and some more reading. :):):)
Next weekend is the big thing, the annual Combine Demolition Derby. This event was also cancelled during the COVID-oandemic. So, this year's event is keenly looked forward to by all in the community. Apparently there are already about 70 combines lined up for the event. Seems to me like the scrap metal dealers would also be interested in the fallout.
The town is struggling economically and this Cafe, with its interesting signage was closed.
Just outside Lind I passed the remnants of what must have been a beautiful trestle on the Milwaukee Way. You can also see a big maintenance team working on the operational BNSF-line that runs to the right of the left abutment.
The area is certainly drier than what I have cycled through WA to date. This wash is dry and there is a lot of sagebrush around.
I enjoyed cycling today. I felt good and the countryside kept on changing. The Trail runs on the other side of the valley. 
I passed this work team busy planting something. What I found intriguing is the mobile restroom being pulled around be a small 4-wheeler.
The road was slowly taking me higher out of the valley with beautiful views. I like the different colors so much. I should have been worried about my direction here because the map shows very clearly that the road I should be on, is on the other side of the valley. But I cycled on.
I stopped at a road intersection to greet my favorite trains - yes, of course, I did get a good honk or two in return. :):):)
I was about to continue when a local farmer, Reid ...., stopped and asked me where I am going. He showed me the correct road to Warden and told me that I took the wrong turnoff outside Lund, now about 7 miles back. He was so kind to show me a better road to Othello, when I decided that I could bypass Warden altogether.
I took a photo of this signpost of Herman Road, a road running almost due west and on which I spent a considerable part of my day. I was so happy with the warm encounter that I felt good the whole day today.
This is a small parking area for farm workers from where they are taken to the farm/area of a farm where they work for the day. I noted that their packs were all standing next to their respective vehicles. Where I grew up, these packs and, perhaps, some of the cars as well, would be gone in 5 minutes and here they are just standing there.
Herman Road going past an operational elevator and pointing west.
When I saw the mountains in the background, I knew I was going in the correct direction. I have seen photos of these earlier and they are running east-west just south of Othello.
I tried several times to get the different colors in one photo, but the sky is too big to bring out the colors on the ground. I would be forgiven if I say this feels like Big Sky Country.
The farming is mostly wheat and I could see irrigation systems all over. This must be a very fertile part of the United States.
And suddenly I smelt it, cannabis. There are acres and acres of it under irrigation.
I saw these strange storage buildings and noted this truck being loaded with a conveyor belt. I decided to stop and saw that these were potatoes.
I walked inside and, after permission was given, took a couple of photos. Look carefully, the "wall" you see are potatoes. They were harvested last year and
are now being loaded for the market. There were only three people present, all Spanish-speaking, two worked at the potato "coal-face" while the third was the driver of the truck.
I saw this Nebraska-made wagon next to the road and thought about trade links then, so much more difficult then. This must have been a prized item then, more or less like the top-of-the-range Ford F150 nowadays.
I reached the outskirts of Othello soon afterwards and
stopped to look at the irrigation canal and the power substation here. These elements are critical to agriculture in this area.
I took a phot of this sign to remind me that there is still so much more to see in the area.
The water tower reminded me that I have not had an ice-cream in days and I stopped to have some chocolate icecream. Interestingly, Othello's population is probably more than half Spanish speaking - probably to support the agriculture in the area - and this ice-cream parlour was all decked out in Spanish signs with the assistants not able to speak English. I actually wanted a milkshake, but gave up in the end because my Spanish is too weak to explain what I really wanted.
With some severe thunders storms forecast for the area, I booked into a hotel for the night. It was good to have a warm shower as well.
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