Othello, WA 6/12/2010

Rolled into Othello at around 10:30 this morning after a fast 40 mile ride. Still have about 55 miles to go before camp tonight. Camping at Palouse Falls which is supposed to be gorgeous.

Will and Dan are watching the soccer game at Wal-mart and Goody, the girls, and I are checking out the public library. We have pics to put up but haven't found a SIM card reader so those will come later.

Quint-essential buffalo burger

5-patty buffalo burger from Blustery's while we watched the World Cup on a big-screen TV. It was a scoreless draw between France and Uraguay, but was kept interesting by chatting with a two-generational family of Uraguaians who hapened to be passing throgh. Hopefully we will be able to catch the USA - England match at a Walmart tomorrow.

Luke and Stephanie

Shout out to Luke and Stephanie! Thanks so much for your hospitality
and generosity. A peaceful night and delicious doughnuts in the
morning left us ready to ride 90 miles to vantage.

Leavenworth was certainly a charming experience. It'll be a place that
sticks with us on this trip thanks to the cool people we met there and
the Bavarian flavor it had. The pic of our campsite on the backyard
has already been posted.

For now we chill in the Blustery Burger Drive-in and watch the world
cup game. The girls went on ahead about 50 miles. We will see them
again tomorrow. Ta for now.

My first text update to the blog! we are in vantage washington. resting our bodies after biking 200 miles in 2 days. all my love and strength goes out to my mom

America

After chilling at the confluence of the Wenatchee and the Columbia we are following the latter down to Gingko Petrified Forest. The gorge has been stunning.

Campsite in backyard in Leavenworth

The sun is out and looks to be here to stay for a while. We awoke to doghnuts and bannanas compliments of our gracious hosts Luke and Stephanie. Now to Gingko

We made it. 106 miles to leavenworth. The sun came out in the Wenatchee Valley on the way down providing the most bogachill and scenic ride yet.

stevens pass aint no thing chickenwing

In skykomish eating lunch. The weather is holding and it looks like were going up to stevens pass.

Today was our rest day which consisted of bike maintenance and lots of eating. After a healthy brunch of fruit salad, lasagna, toast with jam, cheese bagels, grilled cheese sandwiches, and ice cream, we cleaned our bikes and dried out our wet gear in the sun. Next we travelled to the bike store to pick up some new supplies; it was quite a treat to ride without packed panniers. Afterwords we drove (crazy I know) to REI to pick up some gear to get us through the rainy and cold mountains that lie ahead. It was a great day to reorganize and repair.

For dinner Will helped us all make some dank risotto, which complemented the cheeseburgers and salad that the Foster's prepared. Mr. Dan and Robin Foster have been extraordinary hosts and the pictures that I posted earlier were masterfully captured by Dan. The last two days hear have been wonderful and hopefully our batteries are recharged for tomorrow's rainy ride. Carrie and Ashley made it up to Deception Falls today and will tackle Steven's Pass tomorrow. We will head our early tomorrow and if we feel it, we may try to tackle the 100+ miles up and over the pass into Leavenworth. We will see how the weather and our legs respond. Now I must return to my Tillamook Ice Cream and Black Butte Porter; the fuel of the transcontinental rider.

Making mushroom risotto (aka feed)

Chillaxin' at the Foster Residence

Goody and Chad Worthington

Pete and Rhonda

Will and Shadow Fax

Dan and The H.M.S Beagle

6/7 Update/End of Olympic Peninsula Leg

Got into Everett around 7:30 today. We're staying at Dan's housemate Jordan's parent's house. They made us a delicious lasagna dinner, and having a place to stay indoors after the past couple days of rain is awesome. We made the ride to Everett today from Port Angeles, and our total mileage was just under 90 miles. We left around 11 after an interesting morning.

After waking up at our campsite right on the edge of the Juan de Fuca Strait, we biked about a mile into town and my rear derailleur seized up and bent the hanger and rear dropouts on my frame. We had to wait a couple hours for the bike shop in Port Angeles to open, and at this point I thought the whole frame was toast. The guy we talked to at Sound Bikes and Kayak checked it out and bent the hanger back into place with a special tool. He said it was about the worst bend he's seen, but since it was an older steel trek frame, it was stronger and easier to bend back into place without breaking. The derailleur is still a little bent, and also just very worn out as it's 1o years old, so I'll be picking up a new one tomorrow.

The ride today was great. We started from the bike shop where we met Jay, who lived in a town just east of Sequim. He showed us an awesome bike path which ran from Port Angeles along the strait and up into the hills east of Sequim. We ate at a deli, and then went east to the ferry which took us to Whidbey Island where we biked about 25 miles through hills to the other side where we took the ferry to Everett. It was only a few miles to where we are staying. We'll have our rest day tomorrow, and then start the long haul east with Carrie and Ashley who just arrived.

goody's bike is good to ride. we are halfway to port townsend, then ferry to whidbey island, then ferry to mukilteo

More pix

A massive piece of pie after an already massive meal. The waitress didn't know what to do with us.

Tall stack of HUGE pancakes. We managed to take them down.

The cajun chicken scramble. A rainy day's antidote

I love you Edward

Here is a video that Goody shot of us arriving at a view over our starting coast. A vista which will stand behind us over the coming weeks.

Bike Troubles and more Pix

Our first views of the unbridled Pacific

First siesta point on our leisurely 70 mile ride up the coast toward Forks

The gang so far dips their bikes into the bosom of the PacificFORKS, OMG BELLA

OMG Goody's bike is not maintaining

What appeared to be a minor problem with Goody's chain has evolved to be a debilitating issue. While rolling into Port Angeles from our coastal bivy site, Goody's derailleur seized up breaking the chain (again) and bending the frame. Spirits remain high as it is yet early in the day and tomorrow is a planned rest day anyways. 80 minutes until the first bike shop opens when we can see how bad the damage is.

We came into Port Angeles last night soaking wet and thanks to 3 hours in a laudramat, slept dry and warm. A rainless morning complete with doughnuts and beef jerky leaves us here, in a coffee shop drinking espresso and hoping for the best.

Crescent Lake Lodge

Left our campsite at bogachiel state campground this morning and biked a quick 5 miles into Forks where we ate for about 2 hours. Probably a 4000 calorie breakfast each (about 2 big breakfasts per person plus pie). After this we got hooked up with only a small percentage of Forks' great TWILIGHT gear we wanted and got on the road around noon. It's been raining all night and all today and we are soaked. We've done about 50 miles so far and have about another 20 to go today. Luckily this lodge has hot drinks and a fireplace. We plan on staying at a hostel tonight in Port Angeles to get dry and get all the sand and dirt off of us. Tomorrow will be a 70 mile day vs. the planned 50 mile day. We will take the ferry to the mainland where we'll stay in Everett. We've all been keeping the D Simms deep in our thoughts these past couple days.

Recording from 6/3 test

just got feed at forks coffee shop. Yesterday was as good as it gets. Today will be a rainy 85 miles to sequim state park through port angeles.