It was nice to sleep indoors last night! After we got all packed up, Sara made us a super yummy breakfast of eggs with carrots, squash and cherry tomatoes that we picked from her garden, and warm biscuits. She also had a nice plum tree in her back yard that is just loaded with plums, so we picked a few for the road! It was nice to get to spend a little time with her this morning and hear some of her stories from her tours. We bid farewell, with the possibility of maybe seeing her again if we ended up riding back to Bellingham to meet up with Greg and Lea. Before leaving town, we had a few errands to run. Our first objective was to find the Post Office. About 3 minutes after we left the house, we got a call from Justin, who was checking to see how everything worked out. Although he was out of town last night, he was on his way back and since we would be running around town for a while, there was a chance that we might get to meet him after all! When we found the post office, we decided we would wait for a little bit to see if we could find a box before we mailed the rest of our clothes from the cruise home (luckily we were able to send a bunch with Grammy when she was here!). Next we found the library, so we made a quick stop there too. We were lucky enough to find a box that was just the right size at the grocery store. As we were riding back to the post office, we realized we would still have to buy tape, but then would be stuck carrying that, or have to pay for it to be mailed priority if they taped it at the post office. As we were going by the fire hall, one of the firemen were outside, so Joey decided to ask if they had any tape that we could borrow. Sure enough, they had exactly what we needed, which was such a big help! We got everything we were mailing home all packed and the box all taped and ready to go. Luckily the post office was just down the hill, so Joey didn't have to carry the full box for too long. At one point, we decided to ride down and see what the waterfront/harbor was like. We called Justin back to see if he was back in town yet and found out it would only be about an hour before he was. So, since we had a nice spot to relax in the beautiful warm sunshine, we decided to wait. To kill some time, I reorganized my bags since they had gotten a little messy the last few weeks. Eventually, Justin met us right in the park where we waited and he led the way to one of his favorite coffee shops. It was the weirdest thing- when we pulled up to the coffee shop, Sara pulled up on her bike too, at the same exact time- it was totally crazy that we got to see her again. She came to use the internet, as did we in order to help figure out what we were going to do with our extra time while we waited for Greg and Lea. Over a fantastic cup of hot cocoa (compliments of Justin) we had a chance to share our thoughts and see what he thought as well as hear some neat places he likes to go. It was so neat that we got to meet him, and see Sara again. From there, he rode with us and showed us where the REI store was (we had to return the extra h2o proof bag we got to carry our cruise clothes). From there he gave us directions for the way out of town so we wouldn't get lost trying to find rt. 11. Once we started down rt. 11, I was excited because it was a pretty neat ride right from the start. It was very windy and totally surrounded by huge trees. When we got to the top of the first hill, we could see the water and islands off in the distance! It was stunning. The further we went down the road, the more fun it got. The curves continued and the road turned into being right up against a wall of rock on one side and a barrier before a cliff on the other. This goes on the list as another favorite road to ride. The traffic wasn't too bad even though a few sections of the road were pretty narrow-everyone seemed to go slower and give us plenty of room. It was very enjoyable! We came across Larrabee state park where we decided to stop for lunch. We found a little pavilion and even ruining water, which is always super helpful. As we were sitting there making our rice, a huge group of people on bikes came in. They all had hand-made panniers made of plastic buckets and were all about the same age. One of the leaders of the group came over to talk to us and we learned it was a group of incoming freshmen from the university doing some kind of outdoors program for a few days- sounds like it would be a lot of fun! After lunch (more like dinner since we had such a late start to our riding day), we continued on down our fun road. Eventually we made it to a long descent that took us from the wooded area in the hills to flat lush farm land. What a change in scenery! It was beautiful none the less. We followed the directions that Justin had given us and made it to the town of Edison. We though about staying in that town, but didn't see anywhere too good to camp, so we continued on. The next town was Bay View. There, we were able to find a good spot- right behind the Bayview Civic Hall. Before we even got our tent set up, we found a whole patch of wild blackberries. There were so many of them and they were so ripe, they were falling right off. We got the tent set up and then Joey went on a run. While I was inside getting our sleeping bags laid out, I heard a "Knock, Knock, is anyone home?" One of the neighbors had seen our tent and came over with a bag of homemade cookies and some plums from their tree! It was such a wonderful treat to "welcome us to the neighborhood!" Little things like this are what make bicycle touring so special. What a great way to end the evening! Tomorrow we will head down Whidby Island and take the ferry over to Port Townsend, where we will stay with Lys- one of the Warm Shower's hosts that we stayed with in FL a couple years ago while we were on our second tour. She has since moved to Washington, so we get to see her again! Our miles totaled 34.73 today, which was ok since we spent most of the morning and early afternoon in Bellingham.
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