Taking the 20 east to west across Washington, we followed a beautiful road with a more than decent bike lane, courteous cars and a lot of up and down riding. 5 passes in 5 days, climbing anywhere from 2500 feet to just over 4000 feet. People are often most amazed that we make these long climbs, but to be honest, getting it all over with and ending with a cruisey, long decent, passes are preferable compared to the rolling hills of long climbs and little decent.
Hitting a rain storm as we were just riding into the small town of Tonasket, soaked from head to toe more because of the semi's that splashed as they sped by, we pulled into a grocery store to dry off, warm up and look for a possible hotel for the night if the weather was not meant to clear up. Right as we pulled in, a woman in a Patagonia jacket and techi-looking pants walked out pushing a cart full of groceries. She immediately said, "Have you heard of warm showers?" Warm showers is basically a website where you can host bicycle tourers, providing a shower, bed, laundry, dinner, etc. Whatever you so choose and there is a map online that shows all people throughout the US who belong to this and offer such amenities. Ani invited us to her home 17 miles away and halfway up Loop-Loop Pass which we were planning on tackling that day if the rain would pass. A few hours later, dry, warm and barely sprinkling out, we began our ride ticking off the miles to a nice warm shower.
This family has life figured out in my opinion. Their home sits on 60 acres amongst Aspens, solar panels in the frontyard, their own well for water, horses in the field, and trails for hiking or cross-country skiing literally right out their front door. With two girls, 10 and 13, they push their children to live more outdoors, play music and read. No cable and movie time has to be earned, same with the computer. I was utterly impressed and we thoroughly enjoyed a night with the family sitting at the kitchen table with spaghetti and salad over a few glasses of wine and great conversation. We lucked out yet again.
We continued west from their home, making our way over and through the North Cascades. This route was so beautiful and the change in foliage from the east side of the Cascades to the west was enough onto itself to take that route. We rode the 20 all the way to Anacortas where we then crossed over to Whidby Island for 50 miles of island riding south before taking a Ferry to Everett, WA. Visiting some of the Secrest's old family friends, we had a night in Everett to catch up before heading south to Seattle.
Ryan and I sold most of our possessions before taking off on this adventure in life. Those possessions included everything in life that couldn't fit into a small storage unit in CO. With this in mind, we now have the ability and freedom (just another word for nothin' left to lose....thank you Janis Joplin for those brilliant words) to move wherever we can find a job and a roof over our heads. Having this flexibility in life, we are always on the lookout for potential future "homes", the Pacific Northwest has always been high on our list. Getting to Seattle was something we were looking forward to. Yikes. Talk about the Seattle Chill. People stopped saying hello, barely making eye contact when we would say anything to them. I found it very odd and slightly disappointing that Seattle was not more friendly. I guess we now know that Seattle is probably out of the picture for future homes for us.
Continuing south to Portland, we changed between bike paths and roads to finagle our way to the beautiful state of Oregon where we were able to spend 10 days with my dad and Gina. Portland is a beautiful, vibrant city that is more accommodating to bikes than cars, which we both absolutely love. Nice people. Great biking. Beautiful surroundings. Now to just somehow be able to change the weather:-)
Hitting a rain storm as we were just riding into the small town of Tonasket, soaked from head to toe more because of the semi's that splashed as they sped by, we pulled into a grocery store to dry off, warm up and look for a possible hotel for the night if the weather was not meant to clear up. Right as we pulled in, a woman in a Patagonia jacket and techi-looking pants walked out pushing a cart full of groceries. She immediately said, "Have you heard of warm showers?" Warm showers is basically a website where you can host bicycle tourers, providing a shower, bed, laundry, dinner, etc. Whatever you so choose and there is a map online that shows all people throughout the US who belong to this and offer such amenities. Ani invited us to her home 17 miles away and halfway up Loop-Loop Pass which we were planning on tackling that day if the rain would pass. A few hours later, dry, warm and barely sprinkling out, we began our ride ticking off the miles to a nice warm shower.
This family has life figured out in my opinion. Their home sits on 60 acres amongst Aspens, solar panels in the frontyard, their own well for water, horses in the field, and trails for hiking or cross-country skiing literally right out their front door. With two girls, 10 and 13, they push their children to live more outdoors, play music and read. No cable and movie time has to be earned, same with the computer. I was utterly impressed and we thoroughly enjoyed a night with the family sitting at the kitchen table with spaghetti and salad over a few glasses of wine and great conversation. We lucked out yet again.
We continued west from their home, making our way over and through the North Cascades. This route was so beautiful and the change in foliage from the east side of the Cascades to the west was enough onto itself to take that route. We rode the 20 all the way to Anacortas where we then crossed over to Whidby Island for 50 miles of island riding south before taking a Ferry to Everett, WA. Visiting some of the Secrest's old family friends, we had a night in Everett to catch up before heading south to Seattle.
Ryan and I sold most of our possessions before taking off on this adventure in life. Those possessions included everything in life that couldn't fit into a small storage unit in CO. With this in mind, we now have the ability and freedom (just another word for nothin' left to lose....thank you Janis Joplin for those brilliant words) to move wherever we can find a job and a roof over our heads. Having this flexibility in life, we are always on the lookout for potential future "homes", the Pacific Northwest has always been high on our list. Getting to Seattle was something we were looking forward to. Yikes. Talk about the Seattle Chill. People stopped saying hello, barely making eye contact when we would say anything to them. I found it very odd and slightly disappointing that Seattle was not more friendly. I guess we now know that Seattle is probably out of the picture for future homes for us.
Continuing south to Portland, we changed between bike paths and roads to finagle our way to the beautiful state of Oregon where we were able to spend 10 days with my dad and Gina. Portland is a beautiful, vibrant city that is more accommodating to bikes than cars, which we both absolutely love. Nice people. Great biking. Beautiful surroundings. Now to just somehow be able to change the weather:-)
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