Day one. Tailwinds.
My first stop was the garden first to water and get some veggies for the trip. Green pepper, tomatoes, and kale will all survive several days in my panniers. I decided to take 99 instead of Bellfountain to avoid the hills, then from Monroe I took Territorial. Tailwind was great and I made it much farther than I had planned. It felt like a very good omen for a bike tour to have a tailwind get me started. Territorial had very little traffic. it was a lovely ride through farm fields and forests.
I had a snack at the Crow store and continued on down the road. I saw a really nice place to camp under some trees next to a field by a creek, but it was owned by some rick folks and the caretaker said he wasn't 'authorized' to let anyone camp there. I continued on and found an unlocked gate, with no 'no trespassing' signs, leading down to a neglected field with plenty of places to pitch my tent out of sight of the road. So that was my first camp. A quiet and very pleasant night.