We woke up early to another foggy morning in Washington. Pretty much every day we've been here, it has been really foggy and chilly in the morning. But somehow, almost every day the fog has cleared into a beautiful sunny day. Joe and I made pancakes this morning for everyone and then we hit the road. Unfortunately, we didn't have an opportunity to see Sandra again this morning since she had to leave early for work. Again it was fun riding with a big group. Our first turn started us off climbing hills. They continued on throughout the day, although it seemed like we did way more ups, than downs. After about 5 miles or so, we came across construction that said "local traffic only." Usually for us though, there is a way to sneak through without too much trouble. That was the case this time too, except there were 6 bikes and a trailer to go through. The guys working construction said that it was the worst possible scenario to have to go through the construction site, but it turned out to be just fine. There was a short section to start and then we turned into a downhill and then made a right and we were out of the construction zone just like that. We all thought it was one of the best construction sites we had been through, so we don't know what they were talking about. Ronja was not having as good of a day as normal and ended up crying a lot. Eventually we found rt. 161 that we followed for almost the entire day. The traffic was really heavy in the beginning, especially since it was a 4 lane, but it later turned to a two lane, not quite as busy, road. Greg, Lea and Ronja stopped early for lunch by a lake, but the rest of us decided to keep going and make it to the next town (Eatonville) which was less than 10 miles away. We would wait for them to catch up there. Once we split, Joey, Kevin and Charles took off. They waited for me at the top of one of the hills, but I told them to just go ahead to town. It is sometimes easier to just go my own speed and not have to feel like I am slowing anyone down. With the big group it isn't so bad because there are 2 of us girls to wait for, not just me. There was a little grocery store in town where we restocked on a few things. Joey and I bought some stuff to make ham sandwiches for lunch, which was great since there was no clean up. We had a few peaches left, so we each had one of those too. From there, the 4 of us went to the library for a while to kill time while we waited for Greg, Lea and Ronja to get to town. It worked out just fine splitting up for lunch. I was able to get caught up on all of my blogs and we were able to relax for a while. Later we found out that Greg and Ronja had gone swimming on their lunch break, which would have been nice, but we enjoyed getting to town, having something different for lunch, sitting at a picnic table, and going to the library. Our lunch break ended up being a couple hours long, but that is ok. Yesterday we were able to get a few great glimpses of Mt. Reiner, and in town we could see it again- it was almost like a ghost because sometimes it was there and other times it was out of sight. From town, we rode for the last little bit on rt. 161. Our planned route turned out to be a closed road for construction, but we all decided to give it a shot anyways. It was a beautiful road, it meandered up and down, back and forth across the edge of the hills; the views were just spectacular. The road was indeed closed, with cement barriers in the middle of the lanes, but nothing we couldn't push our bikes around. There was no one around, since they weren't working today, so it worked out great. We had the entire road to our selves- and boy was it peaceful to not have to hear or smell cars!! This just gave us all such a "happy high" to get to just purely enjoy the area we were riding through and breath the fresh air. It was a great way to spend the afternoon! We had originally planned on riding to Alder Lake (in the town of Alder), and it came up sooner than I expected. In the end though, we all decided to go to Alder Lake Park and relax. There were picnic tables, bathrooms with running water, a playground for Ronja, a swimming area, and beautiful scenery-what more could we ask for, it was perfect! A few of us decided to go swimming, but we didn't stay in for long since it was a little chilly. Joe and I played a game of Farkel and made a box of mac and cheese for dinner, even though we weren't super hungry like we normally are. It was very nice to just relax for the rest of the afternoon (and my arm enjoyed it too- it was definitely ready to be done for the day!). We all enjoyed watching the beautiful cotton candy sunset, and then ventured over somewhere out of the way/out of sight to set up camp. There is a campground close by, but since we are all on tight budgets, we figured we would try to camp here for free. We'll see how it goes. Our miles totaled 36.14 today.
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Today we took our time getting ready again, which is always nice to not feel rushed. The one good thing is that Greg and Lea end up getting done about the same time we do (but they have to get up much earlier for the baby). Joe had fun playing pirates again with Gustuv (Marta and Johanns oldest) and I worked on blogs since I was a little behind-oops. We didn't have too much trouble getting out of the city. The four of us followed the waterfront for a while and then from there we found a bike trail that took us clear out of the city. It followed a river, so it was nice and flat most of the way. That trail dropped us off on the interurban trail again, and we rode on that for another 20 miles or so. We have been talking about going to Pizza Hut for lunch buffet, and at one point we came to an area and Greg said that it looked like a good place for a Pizza Hut to be. Joe rode over to the road to check (since we couldn't tell from the trail), and asked the receptionist at a nearby hotel. We found out that there was one in the area, but it was a couple miles from where we were. Joe and I thought it wouldn't be too big of a deal to ride the extra couple miles, but Greg and Lea decided they didn't want to. So, we decided to split ways for lunch and knew that if we didn't meet up after lunch, we would meet at our Warm Shower's hosts place. Joe and I ended up not going to Pizza Hut after all since it was down such a busy road. We found a nice picnic table outside that hotel and made some mac and cheese. We even had a little bit of internet! Couldn't believe that! After lunch, we continued on down the trail again. We didn't see Greg and Lea anywhere, but we weren't worried. About 5 miles later, we found a Wal-Mart right on the other side of the trail, so we decided to get some more camping fuel since the little bottle we got in Bellingham was getting low. When the trail ended, it was in the right spot (I had written down some directions when we had internet for after the trail). We followed the roads on my list and then got to a really populated area-we were close to our destination (the town of Puyallup). We stopped to ask for directions, just to be sure we were going the right way, and then next thing we know, we see Greg, Lea and Ronja-- and TWO other touring cyclists (Charlie and Kevin from Quebec)!! What a party! So, once we figured out where we were going we all headed to our hosts house (Lea had asked our host if the other two cyclists they met could join us too). We all stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things before heading out. The guys all pitched in and got a bottle of whiskey just for the heck of it. From there we didn't have too much trouble finding where our host lived. We thought our group was big before, but now we have 7 touring cyclists (including the baby). It is so fun to ride down the road with everyone- it's almost like an army of cyclists going down the road. Our host, Sandra lived in a house on the Washington State University research and extension center here in Puyallup. She was doing studies on wheat. Once we got there, we found a perfect yard for camping- fit with picnic tables and even a pavilion. We all got our tents set up. Charlie and Kevin had a fun tent because it is just huge- they can fully stand in their tent and put their bikes inside if they want, too. So many bikes, and so many tents! Sandra made some amazing rice soup for dinner and we also enjoyed some french bread with cream cheese that we picked up at the store since we knew she wasn't expecting 7! I got to do a little laundry and later on we all played Categories. That was a riot because out of the 7 people playing (all the cyclists except Lea, our host, and one of her roommates) 4 of those who were playing had English as their 2nd language! It was so much fun. Sandra made some really awesome popcorn for us, which was an awesome treat. Our original plan was to ride from Puyallup to Olympia, where Greg and Lea had set up a place to stay, but Lea figured out that it was just too far for them to do in one day, so we ended up changing plans. We will all skip Olympia, which works out because Charlie and Kevin weren't planning on going there anyways, and head down towards Mt. St. Helen. Another day of sun and fun! We rode 44.46 miles today.
Today e planned to take a rest day so we could explore Seattle. Marta and Johann made some pancakes for breakfast and then we got ready for the day. For some reason my arm was hurting a little more today even though we had a light day yesterday; it is still so swollen that I cannot straighten my elbow completely. Lea had forgotten a couple things at Neil and Janice's house, but luckily Neil worked close by in Seattle where she could easily meet him this morning. The 5 of us took off towards downtown; we decided to walk instead of ride. We walked along the waterfront/harbor area, past the aquarium and then found the public market. It was a rather large market and there was just so much going on, and the best part was there were a ton of stands that had free samples! From there we ventured over to REI, which is the main headquarters building, so it was huge- there was even a rock climbing wall inside the store. We looked at the sleeping bags again since we are still contemplating if we should get new ones for the winter. We also looked at the tents since the doors in ours are starting to malfunction. There weren't any tents that really stood out to us as ones that we would like, and there weren't any like the one we already have. I think our best bet is to check with Eureka, the makers of our tent, and see if there is any way to fix the zippers, we will see. From there, Joey and I wanted to walk to the brewery, but Ronja was getting tired, so Lea and Greg decided to head back towards the house. Joe and I walked around for a bit and then found the "free bus" in the bus tunnel. It was so neat because it was set up just like a subway, except there were trains, and busses (electric)! Being on the bus made it fun because you could see out the front window as we went through the tunnel- which you can't do in the train. When we got off, we were near the Chinatown of Seattle, which was really small. The brewery was near the stadiums, so we got to see where the Mariners (baseball), and the Seahawks play. Unfortunately the last brewery tour was at 4 and we had gotten there at 4:30, but it was ok, because we had just as much fun walking around. On the way back, we walked by the Space Needle and found our way back to the house on the hill. We had hoped to get back around 5:30 to help Lea and Greg make dinner, but by the time we got there, they had already started and had the hard part done. We enjoyed some pasta with spaghetti sauce and vegetables for dinner and then relaxed the rest of the evening. Since we walked everywhere, we didn't have any miles on the bikes today.
Day 2 of riding with Greg, Lea and Ronja. I didn't sleep very good last night because of my arm, but we don't have a lot of miles to do today, so it will be ok. After having some english muffins with some elderberry jam that Lea had brought back from Germany when she returned, we got packed up and hit the road. We had a pretty easy time getting out of the city since we had directions from Neil and there were bike paths. We rode on the interurban trail for almost the whole day. It was nice because it took us right into Seattle. Once we got off the bike path and were on the roads, the only way to go was up, and it was really steep. There were 2 big hills we had to go over on our route to our host's house, both of them had really steep hills- kind of reminded me of photos I've seen from San Francisco. We stopped at a little grocery store to grab a snack real quick since we were hungry, but didn't have far to go to get to our host's house. The steepest hill was the one to climb up to the Queen Ann Hill area. Going up was so steep in one section that 3 out of the 4 of us had to walk our bikes up. I wish I could have pedaled up because it would have been easier on my sore arm, but I just couldn't do it- Greg, who was carrying the trailer with Ronja, and Lea couldn't either- Joey on the other hand did ride up it. When we finally found the road that our host lived on, we were certain we found their house, but no one was home. It turns out that Greg and Lea were off by a couple numbers in the address and when we looked it up, we found out our real destination was just a couple houses down. It was pretty funny! When we got to Marta and Johann's house (they are not Warm Showers, but are on Couchsurfing, but were referred to us through another Warm Shower's host), Marta was home with the kids. After we got settled a little, we enjoyed some tastey bread, with cheese and watermelon in the back yard. For the rest of the day we relaxed, played with the kids (they had 3, plus Ronja), and I recuperated. Marta made some yummy pasta with chicken and mushrooms in cream sauce for dinner along with a cucumber/beet salad. After dinner the 4 of us went in the hot tub, which was great! I think it helped my arm a little too. Since we were in Seattle, Lea, Greg, Joe and I thought it would be fun to watch a movie that was filmed here- so we watched Sleepless in Seattle. Joe and Greg had gone on a walk before dinner and brought back some Doritos and Fat Tire beer (from New Belgium in CO) to enjoy as we watched. Later on, Marta and Johann joined us- which was fun because Marta explained where all of the different scenes took place. It was a very relaxing night, for sure -which was great since Greg pointed out that today was our 400th day of being married (Greg and Lea were married on the same day as us!). Marta fixed up the couches upstairs so that they made a make shift bed so Joey and I didn't have to sleep on the floor. It was a pretty good day yet again-we have had so much sunshine! We rode 28.73 miles.
Don and Pat made some great pancakes for all of us for breakfast. Today was the first day riding with Greg, Lea and Ronja. Edwardo rode with us for a little while before heading back to the house. It was so much fun riding with a big group of cyclists. The terrain was pretty flat, with a few hills here and there. After riding for a while, we planned on stopping for lunch in one of the towns, but found out when we got there that there was a great little park with a playground in the next town, just 4 miles away, down a bike path. It was nice to be on the path away from traffic, but there was still a lot of pedestrian traffic on the trail. We had been on the trail for about 2 and a half miles when there were two sets of couples walking along the bike path, in opposite directions, that ended up taking up the entire path so no one could get through. The four (plus the baby) of us were moving along at about 12 mph (Greg says we were going faster). Joe was leading and yelled "Slowing," so we all started to slow down. Next thing that I knew Lea, who was right in front of me (I was last in the line) jammed on her brakes. I didn't have time to stop, since no one said anything about stopping, and next thing I knew everything started to be in slow motion. I tried to veer to the side to avoid hitting Lea, but there was no avoiding it. I hit the bike and then the pavement, with my handlebar bag flying off and I heard some of the coins that I had found scattering all over. Almost all of the impact was on my left elbow and hip. I of course had scrapes and spots that would be bruised, and my wrist also hurt quite a bit- so much so that I was really worried at first that it could be seriously hurt. Like the baby that I am, I cried for a while after the initial shock. Lea had a great medical kit handy and was nice enough to clean up my scrapes for me. In the aftermath of the crash, Lea's right rear pannier was laying under my bike and her rear fender had snapped off and was laying in the trail. Since we didn't think anything was seriously injured, we packed up and continued on down the trail. My arm was so swollen that I couldn't straighten it all the way or bend it all the way, but I could move my fingers and everything so that was good. There was a grocery store right close to the little park, so Joey and I decided to get some ice cream since that always makes me feel better. When we got to the park we had some mac and cheese for lunch and enjoyed watching Ronja play. I took a couple ibuprofen to try to reduce the swelling a bit. An hour or so later, we stopped at McDonalds to use the internet and found out that we actually did have a host for tonight in Everett! From where we were, we were pretty sure it was only about 15 miles away. We continued following the bike path that we had been following and it just kept going and going. It was almost like we were never going to get there. It turns out that it ended up being a little more than 30 miles from the McDonalds. At one point, when we still had about 15 miles left to get to their house, Ronja decided she was ready to be done for the day. Since we knew she wouldn't make it, we planned on just finding a spot to camp. We called our hosts to apologize that we wouldn't be able to make it there and explained the situation. To our surprise, they offered to come get Lea and Ronja in the truck! What a great plan, now we still get to go to meet them and go to their house. Greg, Joey and I left Lea and Ronja where we had stopped and the three of us continued on. About 20 minutes later, our hosts Neil and Janice beeped at us! Greg unloaded the trailer and a couple other things into the back of the truck so that he would have a little bit of a lighter load for the last 10 miles or so. Neil hopped on his bike to lead us home, while Janice headed down the road to pick up Lea and Ronja. It was so great having a tour guide- we definitely would have gotten lost. The first 8 or 9 miles were flat, but after that we had pretty long steep hill to climb. We just kept going up and up and up. Although it was steep, Joey and I have ridden up tougher hills on this trip. For me though, it wasn't so easy because of my sore arm, not to mention the ibuprofen that I had taken earlier had started to ware off. When we were riding on flat ground, I was able to keep moving, bending and straightening it to try to keep it limber; climbing was a different story though. Since it is so slow, I really had to hold onto the handle bars in order to keep the bike straight and not fall over. This put a lot of stress on my arm and made the hill way harder than it really was. When we finally got to their house after climbing up hill after hill, my arm was so stiff and swollen. The best thing though, was that a nice hot shower was waiting for me- and that definitely helped. Janice made some chicken and potatoes for dinner and we all enjoyed relaxing after what was a really long day for Greg and a pretty long day for us lately. We had a little "slumber party" in the guest bedroom. Lea, Greg and Ronja slept in the bed and Joey and I slept on the floor. Today was a pretty exciting day I'd say- although I definitely could have done without the crashing part, there has been too much of that lately between Joey's brakes going out causing him to crash into the pricker bushes and the car cutting Joey off yesterday. But I guess we can't complain since we've ridden over 7,300 miles without any major incidents. Our miles totaled 61.98 today.
Well, today is Jessie and Tim's wedding. I've know I was not going to be able to be there once we decided we were going to go on this trip and I thought by the time it got here I would be able to accept the fact. But, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be to miss it-all I could think about was how they were doing and hoping that everything worked out perfectly- and that the rain would go away back at home! We woke up early this morning to catch ferry at 8. Unfortunately we didn't get to see Lys this morning, but we wanted to make the early ferry so we didn't have to wait another couple hours. The ferry ride was relaxing as it was before, however it made me pretty sleepy just sitting there. The wind was at our back today so the miles went by really fast. Before we knew it we were in Oak Harbor again. On the way through the first time we saw a buffet that was just so reasonably priced and planned on stopping there on the way back through. It worked out nicely because it was a Chinese Buffet, what better place to go to cheer me up about missing the wedding. We still just couldn't believe how inexpensive it was, so much different than AK and Canada! There was a lot of traffic on the road today since it was Saturday, but most of the drivers were pretty courteous, except one. As we were getting closer to Anacortes someone decided make a left turn right in front of Joey. Luckily, Joey saw the guy fly into the left turning lane and could tell he might try to do something like that, so he was already slowing down. Even still, the guy in the red car still managed to hit Joey. It was a very slow crash for Joey and he was able to pretty much lay his bike over and come out standing- so there were no scrapes and nothing was broken. After parking the car, the guy came over to apologize to Joey. The only thing that made me mad was that he said "I'm sorry, I'm not used to looking at the shoulder for traffic." That is the big problem with a lot of the people in cars is that they don't think about cyclists and don't attempt to keep an eye out for them. In the end, we were lucky that nothing was broken on the bike or on Joey. From there we rode into Burlington. Joey set up a host in Burlington- the host that Lea and Greg got to last night. They had emailed us the directions to their house a couple days ago, but we figured we would check them again when we got into town and had internet again. We later figured out later we had to do a little backtracking to get to our host's house, but it wasn't too far, so it wasn't a big deal. When we got there we were greeted by Greg and Lea (Ronja was taking a nap). It was so neat to be able to see them a few months later! We also found out that there was another cyclist there, Edwardo, who had been staying with Donn and Pat (our hosts) for a while to try to finish something he was working on. We had a blast with so many cyclists in one house. Don and Pat even let all of us try to ride their tandem, which is what they ride when they tour. It was a little scary, at least for me since I was in the back, but fun at the same time- it would take a lot of getting used to, that's for sure. Edwardo, Don and Pat made a super yummy dinner part of which was called Moussaca, a Bulgarian potato dish. There was even homemade plum and blackberry cobblers and ice cream for dessert! Greg and Lea got to sleep in the spare bedroom since they had Ronja and we were fixed a nice place in the living room to sleep. Since we don't usually get up as early as we did this morning, we were pretty tired by the time we went to bed. We are looking forwards to the next few days of riding with Greg and Lea. Our miles totaled 51.29 today.
Today we made some oatmeal for breakfast with some of the blackberries we picked yesterday on our way from Port Angeles. We continued down the same road we took a couple days ago as rode from Sequim back to Port Townsend. It was a foggy morning again, but by the afternoon it warmed up a little. Since we had about 2/3 the amount of our normal serving of mac and cheese before going to bed, we had just enough for a little snack for lunch, which was perfect because we didn't have many miles to do today. We found a little cafe that wasn't open yet that looked like a good spot to make our snack. With a little food in our bellies we started climbing over the last big hill. Shortly after getting into town we saw a tent and a barbeque going outside of the Napa store. We decided to check it out and found out that they were having a cookout/tool sale. Everyone was enjoying cheeseburgers, hotdogs, salads, baked beans, chips, and soda while perusing the tools. It was such a great treat, especially since it was free. Before heading up to Lys's house, we rode around town a little just to explore and then stopped at the library for a little while. When we returned to Lys's house it was kind of neat because we already knew the ropes, so she could keep busy in her garden/ canning. Lys made a really great spaghetti dinner with some of the tomatoes that she had just canned. Again, we had such a great time chatting with Lys. Again it was so nice to sleep in a comfy bed, especially since our tent zippers are starting to fail- the less we have to set it up at this point the better, at least until we get a new tent or figure out a way to fix the one we have. Tomorrow we will ride to Burlington where we will meet up with the German couple, Lea and Greg, and their 14month old, Ronja. We rode 36.47 miles today.
We woke up and headed to Safeway to get some cereal and milk for breakfast. From there, we hurried to the bike shop, which opened at 10, so that we could unload all of our bags and go figure out which bus we would that would bring us closer to the hot spring. There is a bus that would drop us of 10 miles from our destination, but we found out that the only busses are at 9:30 am (which wouldn't have worked because the bike shop would be still closed) and 1:30 (which, in combination with the bus ride and bike ride there, wouldn't give us too much time to get back before the bike shop closed). So, we were at a loss of what to do. Joey really wanted to go to the hot springs, but 80 miles in one day would give us almost no time to spend in the host springs, and riding there today and coming back tomorrow would put us a day behind schedule. In the end we decided to just ride around Port Angeles and see a little more of the town, including the hook, which was a lot like the spit in Homer, except without all the restaurants and buildings. It was really foggy on the way out to the hook, so much so that we couldn't even see the water on either side. We sat on the beach for a little while and watched the fog roll out; it was neat seeing everything come into view. Since we weren't going to go to the hot springs, our next destination was back to the bike shop to reload our bikes. On the way, we saw a touring bike outside a little cafe, but after further investigation realized that it was Mac's bike. So, we went in to say hello and chatted for a little while; it was nice that we got to see him again. After reloading the bikes, we went to Safeway to check our email in case Greg and Lea emailed us. Turns out we had gotten an email from Greg and Lea, one saying that they had left Vancouver earlier than planned and would be to Burlington (our planned meeting location) 2 days early! So, I guess it worked out that we didn't go to the hot spring so we could start heading back to meet them. Soon after, we followed the same trail we took in yesterday all the way back to Sequim. Since it was already close to 6, we decided to spend some time in the library uploading some photos and planned on camping behind the church next door. It was already pretty dark by the time that we set up camp and made some mac and cheese for dinner. We only rode 32.51 miles today.
Today we continue our side trip ride while we wait for Greg and Lea. After leaving Lys's house (we will be back in a couple days) we headed towards the grocery store and decided to get some cereal and milk so we were nice and full for the day. It was pretty chilly this morning, but as the day went on there were periods where it was a little warmer. There were a couple rather long hills on the way out of Port Townsend in route to hwy 101, but nothing too strenuous. Unfortunatley there were a couple windy, narrow sections of road, but it still wasn't nearly as scary as when we rode through the Cooper Landing area on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. When we got to the 101, there was more traffic, but there was also a nicer shoulder too. A few more hills continued as we dealt with the ever so popular rumble strips on the shoulder, oh how I have grown to dislike them so much. About 8 miles before reaching our first town, Sequim, a touring cyclist had caught up to us on one of the hills. His name was Mac and he was from Juneau, AK! He flew down to Seattle and is doing a sort of loop ride around the Olympic Peninsula before returning to Seattle. A few miles after meeting him, our maps indicated there was an alternate route, other than the busy 101, so we took that. It was so nice to be away from the traffic and actually be able to talk to Mac and be able to hear each other. From that side road, we were able to find a bike trail that took us all the way into town. There were a couple steep hills near the state park as the trail dipped down closer to the water and then came back out. We said our goodbyes in Sequim, since Mac was staying in town tonight and we would be continuing on to Port Angeles. Joe and I went to Safeway to get something different for lunch. We ended up making some mini bowtie pasta with alfredo sauce and enjoying some freshly made, still warm, french bread. It was so tastey! From Sequim, there was a bike path all the way to Port Angeles. It was flat for about the first 10 miles as it meandered through farm country, with cows and fields all around. For some reason, Joey's rear brake cable broke, so he only had his front left, but he thought that would be enough to get him to the bike shop in Port Angeles. Following that, the trail changed quite a bit and was now very hilly, and lots of really steep hills I might add. Going up all of those steep hills made our legs burn, which was good in a sense since we were probably still out of shape from the cruise. The one hill was labeled with a bicycle hill sign, and even had a switchback as we went down into a raveen, crossing a bridge at the bottom and then having to climb back out again. That one was so steep and long that I just couldn't do it. I got about 40 feet from the top and my legs just gave out, I had to walk the rest. About 5 miles later, the trail changed again. Now it was flatter again and was taking us out towards the water; that's when it got really cold. As we approached the waterfront the fog was very thick, making only a little bit of the water right near the shore visible. At one point the trail took us in a big loop around the water treatment plant. As we were coming around one of the corners down a slight grade, all in a split second, I looked at Joey, who had a panicked look on his face, asked what was wrong, he replied with "NO BRAKES!!, and next thing I knew Joey and his bike were laying in a pricker bush along the side of the trail. I was so scared that he had gotten seriously hurt, probably more scared than Joey-the one who actually crashed. But being the tough guy he is, there were no tears or complaints. He pulled his bike back onto the trail and we got all of his scratches all cleaned up. It looked like he had gotten into a brawl with a big mean cat. Joey said later that it was either the bushes or the pavement and the metal fence- I guess I would have picked the bushes too, even with the pricker bushes (which he found out were there after the fact). At that point, we were only a couple miles from getting to town and the bike shop, so Joe was able to fix his breaks enough to get us there without any more incidents. So, with the trail now covered in leaves from the commotion, we continued on. Right before getting into town, a couple guys sitting on a bench asked us where we were traveling to and from. We gave them our usual explanation and talked for a few minutes answering their questions. Just before we were ready to leave, one of the guys gave us a small dream catcher with blue feathers that he had made out of a twig and twine. He was so impressed with our trip that he insisted on giving it to us; it was just so nice of him. The bike shop was only about a block away from where the trail ended, so we were able to make it there on time. It was a little after 6 when we walked in, but the lights and everything were still on. Joey was able to get what he needed and get his brakes all back in working order. We stayed there talking to the guy for a little bit and explaining that we might ride to the hot springs in the park (which we learned was 40 miles away). Since we were kind of tight on time, the guy at the bike shop suggested we take the bus out to get us closer to the hot spring tomorrow and offered for us to leave our bags at the shop. So, that's what we plan to do tomorrow so that we have plenty of time to relax there. After riding around, we found a park area near the fair grounds to camp. It looks like it was set up as a campground originally. We were still so full from lunch, that we just ate the rest of our french bread and went to bed. It was already getting really cold out, so we got in our sleeping bags really quick. We rode 55.62 miles today.
A perfect camp spot last night! While Joey packed up the tent, I spent some time picking berries to go with our oatmeal. We got to enjoy sitting at a picnic table to have our breakfast- which was definitely a lot yummier than normal! The berries were so yummy in our oatmeal- if we only had berries every morning for breakfast! Less than a mile out of town was a nice bike path that we could take right out to the main road that would take us onto Whidbey Island. Once we got off the bike path, we were out on a busy road. Definitely wasn't as fun as our ride yesterday along the water. The ride went back to being a bit hilly once we turned to go on the island. We rode over what is known as Desception Pass. It wasn't a super hard pass, but was pretty neat since we ended up going over a really neat bridge. From there, the hills continued. Eventually we made it to the city of Oak Harbor where we planned to have lunch. It's amazing how big the towns are compared to towns in Alaska. We remember the town of Nenana and how we thought that was a big town since it had a library. Now almost every town we've been through has a Safeway and/or Walmart and McDonalds like restaurants. What a big change! Now that there are so many grocery stores, we keep wanting to have something other than our normal rice or mac and cheese. So, we got another hot sub from the deli today- they are just so good-so much better than the normal! While we were sitting there, I called home and even got to talk to my Aunt Ellen who I haven't talked to since before we left. It was so good to hear her voice. Even though we have so much left to explore and I'm not ready to be done with the trip yet, it will still be really great to see everyone when we get home! The ride from Oak Orchard to the next town, Coupville, still had a lot of traffic. Once we started riding down the road to catch the ferry, we were finally able to enjoy some quiet time from the cars. We timed the ferry just right and only had to wait about 20 minutes before we could board. Compared to any of the other ferries we have been on, either on this trip or the last, this was the biggest one yet! It had three floors!! The bottom floor for the cars, then the other two floors for passengers to sit and walk around the deck. It was so nice to be on the water, it almost felt like we were on the cruise again when we stood and looked out over the water, but it was far from being as pretty or as comfortable as the cruise, that's for sure. As we approached town, we could tell it was a neat place. The downtown area was so pretty. Since we had no clue where anything was, we stopped at the bike shop that we saw and asked if they could point us in the right direction for the library (since we were a little early to get to our host's house). While we were at the library, Joe came in and said "I'm almost positive that Lys (our host) is outside; it's been two years since I've seen her, but I think it's her!" Sure enough, a few minutes later, Lys came in and found us since she saw our bikes out front. It is just so cool that we get to stay with her again, in a different state, on a different trip! She gave us directions to her house, which was really helpful. A little while later, we made our way up the hill to her house and were greeted by her brother who was busy working in the yard. Lys gave us a tour of her new house and explained all of the work they have and will be putting into the place. I could tell that it had already come a long way. She is working on planting a subsistence garden since she loves gardening so much. She explained how it is so different growing things up here compared to FL and how she is having fun learning what does and doesn't work. Once it was dark and she couldn't work outside any longer, we had a little time to sit and chat. We had a whole bunch of questions for her about the hemistour she and her husband went on since the beginning of it was in a lot of the same areas we were in. She told us a lot more about her trip and we learned a little more about how she and her husband got involved with starting Bikecentenial association that later turned into Adventure Cycling Association. Joey and I made some mac and cheese for dinner since Lys had already eaten. It was nice to get to use a real stove! Lys also gave us some frozen peas to add to it, which definitely was a nice addition! Tomorrow we plan to head out towards Port Angeles as a little side triip while we wait for Greg and Lea. We may even go to a hot spring in the national park that is somewhere around 30 miles or more from Port Angeles. Even after just one night in our tent, it is so nice to sleep in a bed we always wake up feeling so much more refreshed. Our miles totaled 43.11 today.
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