Day 2 - July 18 - Snoho-ho-ho-mish

We got up this morning around 7:00, none the worse for the mosquito's and burrito's, to overcast skies. We packed up camp and following the directions Bob and Cat, our unexpected hosts, gave us we took the parallel road we were looking for last night. We rode past farms, cows, horses, antique rose nurseries and viewed Rt 9 from afar. It was lovely

We found a small airport with a restaurant, the Buzz In, where we had $3.00 breakfast specials of fat and protein. The waitresses and patrons were friendly and helpful pointing out that we were very near the Centennial Trail - a 17 mile paved walking and biking path - that would take us up to Arlington. On our way there we stumbled across an Internet Cafe in Snohomish, the "Wired and Wireless" where we've spent the last several hours getting the blog to work properly and mapping our next leg.

If all goes well, we'll take the Centennial Trail to Arlington and then catch SR 530 to Darrington where there is a motel! The promise of a shower and a bed is motivation for me to keep pushing as long as it takes to get there. From Darrington it will only be another 19 miles to Rockport and the Northern Tier Trail that we will follow until we get to Sandpoint, ID.

I'm hoping that it remains overcast and cool today - much better riding conditions after the heat and sun of yesterday. It should take less out of me.

Starting Out

--
A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.

Kurt Vonnegut, Sirens of Titan
US novelist (1922 - 2007)

Day 1 - July 17 - The best laid plans

The alarm did not go off at 4:00.

When I woke up that morning, Ivan was just taking Sally for a walk. I looked outside and thought to myself "This is later than 4:00am." I started getting dressed and Ivan checked his phone when he returned - it was a few minute past 5:00am.

I woke up Craig and we quickly realized that our plan was not going to work. Ivan and I repacked the Tiger and we drove back to our house in West Seattle. We were not defeated, but very tired as neither of us had slept very much or very well.

Back at our house we both took showers and our awesome house sitters Kelly and Stephanie rose to the challenge. With their help we managed to get our bikes on top of Kelly's small truck and our gear in the back. He then drove us to Golden Gardens and stayed with us until every piece of gear was checked, adjusted, test-droved and we were finally on the Burke-Gilman trail by 10:00am.

Of course, we had had nothing to eat that morning but a vegan cookie and some coffee so we pulled off fairly quickly and had some breakfast at The Dish in Fremont/Ballard. We decided while eating that he would track mileage and I would track costs.

We followed the Burke-Gilman trail north and then switched over to the Sammamish River Trail which is gorgeous by-the-by. Our goal was to reach Woodinville and figure out how to get to Rt 9 from there which we would then follow up to Rt 20. True to form, however, we by-passed Woodinville by 5 miles. We were in/or near Redmond when we discovered our mistake so back we went 5 miles to Woodinville. We rested for awhile because I was experiencing a bout of toe numbness in both feet and wanted to take off my shoes.

We got directions from a couple of bikers that took us to another trail that ran behind the UW Bothell campus. It was unclear at one point what to do next so another friendly lady walking her dog gave us direction to Rt 9. Which we found. Yay!

But by this time I was really dragging. It was hot and it was uphill and we hadn't eaten since breakfast so we stopped at a Quickie Mart in search of food. I found a beef and bean burrito that would later find *me*.

Fueled up, we got back to the the long, slow slog up Rt 9. I prayed for long stretch of downhill and it finally appeared much to our delight. However, it terminated at a stretch of construction just before Snohomish and I was hurting. We both knew I was too tired to manage the traffic and the jersey barriers so we pulled off in search of a parallel route. However, I was now feeling sick to my stomach. We saw a barn with a lawn off the side road and a man mowing his estate. I rode down to him, explained the situation, and asked if the people who owned the barn would mind us camping there for the night. Turns out he and his wife owned the place and were ok with us pitching our tent. They also let me use there bathroom for which I was grateful.

I was glad that we stopped, but I had a rough night. I felt sick, I was wound up from riding and I started planning how I could get out of this cock-a-mamie plan without Ivan thinking I was a wimp. The temperature in the tent was cool but my sleeping back was making me sweat so I was alternately sweating and shivering. Finally, I got some sleep. Not a lot. But enough that I stopped thinking of ways to sneak home.

I have faith that it will get easier as I get stronger.

Prep Day - July 16, 2008

Briefly:

I spent the morning doing last minute errands and shopping while Ivan attempted to get all of his projects wrapped up. His clients were not cooperative.

We finally managed to get packed and over to Katja and Craig's house around 9pm with all of our gear and Sally and her things. (Sally will be hanging with them while we are gone.) The plan was to wake up at 4:15am, Craig's bread truck packed with our gear, and be on the road to Golden Gardens by 4:30am where we was finish our preparations and Craig would be able to drive back to work by 6:00am. We went to bed exhausted around 11:00pm