Shelton, Washington

Day 2 = 43.2 miles

Total = 56.2 miles

An old mill with a water wheel

Welcome to Shelton!


 day started out a little chilly but we quickly heated up and began shedding layers as we started hitting a few hills. We had a nice flat ride along Hood Canal watching people pick oysters. Ended the day in Shelton. There are no campgrounds here so we had a mexican dinner and stayed at the Shelton Inn.

Belfair State Park, Washington

Day 1 = 13.0 miles
Total = 13.0 miles

Our first full day of riding ended at Belfair State Park.   It was a really busy section of road with lots of cars.  We had a few small hills today but got through fairly easy.  I can really feel the weight of the panniers while riding up the hills...downhill is awesome!  The bike is very stable loaded.  Nice campsite next to a brook/creek.  Sleeping to the sound of running water is very relaxing.

Bremerton, Washington

We missed our bus connection to Vancouver last night because our train was 3 hours late getting into Seattle.   Not to worry....our team motto is improvise, adapt and overcome.  We took a room a few blocks from the train station.  This morning we walked a few more blocks (we noticed a surprising unumber of homeless along the way) rented a car, drove with the bikes to the Canada border, returned the car to Seattle and ended the day at Illinee State Park.  One of the last of the "old growth forests".  

On the Ferry from Seattle to Bremerton

today's springer moment ...

had to share this....

so, susan and I get on the train this morning, sitting in front of this guy, one of your incessant talkers, not hearing much out of the guy next to him. 'our boy' takes a walkabout for a spell and comes back drunk, really tanked. gets on the phone and was a bit too much on the unacceptable language with kids around. he takes another stumble-about shortly before a stop in Salinas, at which time the local police greeted him coming off the train. cuffs slapped on. so, susan and i are wondering what this is all about. getting too drunk and thrown off the train? nah, had to be more than that. turns out the couple next to the drunk saw him stealing from the other guys backpack and reported it. turns out he also stole an iPhone being charged. as an encore, he tossed an elderly woman's prosthetic leg in the trash! WTF with that ??

Start of the next leg of our journey - Amtrak from Los Angeles to Seattle

Ladera Ranch - Wood Hospitality

Woke up to another beautiful day although much cooler than before. Donnie has his usual pot of coffee in the morning and we use the showers in the park to be presentable to his friends we are visiting today.
We see some cyclists venturing up the mountain as we descend. What a climb that will be!

We stop at a San Diego bike shop for some bicycle shipping boxes and find Dave and Tiffany's home as we end the road trip segment of our tour. We spend the afternoon organizing boxes, panniers, performing gear checks and drinking beer. Later we had a fabulous salmon dinner with the family including Tim and Julie Riddle (also long-time friends of Donnie).

We had originally intended to catch Amtrak at San Juan Capistrano however they don't load checked bags there so Tiffany made some last minute adjustments to schedules and offered to help us coordinate getting everyone and everything where it needed to be.

We are now ready to begin the next segment of our journey.

Palomar Mountain State Park

We stayed in Tucson at a Motel 6 last night. This was a bizarre night. The shorthand version of the events: no wifi-broken remote-change rooms-wifi/remote!-loud a/c-bedlamp stuck on-loud hookers-security knock-elevated heart rate-poor water pressure-broken deadbolt.

We decide to make our way to Palomar Mountain State Park for the evening. We thought we found a wild turkey in the road until we realized about 20 of his best friends were also hanging out at their house further down the road.... so....not so wild after all.

Wound up the mountain (above the cloudline), registered at the campsite, set everything up and had a steak and salad for dinner.