Friendly Foot of the Mountains

Sunday June 8th. We awoke a bit late and spend about as long as we could in the hotel room- you know, get our bang for our buck. We went over to a pancake house to have our complementary breakfast, albeit a small complementary breakfast. We needed a few things around town so we hit up a bike shop to look at water bottles, tire tubes for my flats, and a few other knick knacks. Shortly afterwards, I hit a curb wrong and not only fell off my bike, I did a full 360 into the bushes. Josh found it hilarious, and frankly it was funny. I did end up with some scrapes on my ankle, knee and inconveniently cut up my palms.

Not an award winning wound, but kept me from putting pressure on my handle bars, which was annoying.

So we popped over to target where I got antiseptics and band aids and whatnot. Josh got all sorts of stuff as well, sunscreen and pampers or whatever the hell it was he wanted. I don't know. I'm not his babysitter.

So we managed to get a earlier start- 3:00 today. Getting earlier! Although still far too late. We rode on out of Redmond and through little towns here and there. It was quite pretty really, here are some photos

Josh even made a friend!

So our total goal for the day was to make it to highway 522 which leads out of the Seattle suburbs to a town called Monroe. As you approached Monroe you could see some awesome views of the Cascade Mountains ahead. Honestly, these pictures do them ZERO justice. It was honestly breath taking.

As we entered Monroe we changed roads onto route 2. Now, let me explain my route plotting strategy.

1. My most important feature is simplicity. One road for 200 miles is easier than 10 roads for 100 miles. Simple is better.

2. Lack of mountains. I really really hate hills.

3. Water routes. I like to make sure I have somewhere to get water at LEAST every 60 miles.

So, based upon that I had planned to take route 2 straight from Monroe all the way to the Eastern border of Washington State.

Monroe was a cute little town. Not a whole lot there, but we did notice a UPS store coming through (Josh wanted to ship some more stuff back) although it was Sunday and we couldn't until the next day. We kept watching for easy places to camp off in the woods but the vegetation was simply too thick. We eventually turned off onto a little road and came to the first house of the road. We were feeling bold and asked the kind lady if she minded if we pitch a tent on her yard. She talked it over with her husband and they even offered us a place to stay for the night! We know my rule on hospitality. Always accept! The kind people were Claudia, a soon-to-be retired nurse, and Rolland, a retired man from the logging profession. We spent the night chatting it up and Claudia made us what must had been a half dozen vegetarian sandwiches which were like sweet ambrosia! Holy crap. So good. I wish I had some right now.

Claudia and Rolland.. you were far too kind to us. We appreciate it more than you know!

So that was that really. We showered and felt great and were stuffed to the gills. Great times at the foot of the hills.

Oh! One last thing. How could I forget. Coming into Monroe I ran over a piece of copper and got another flat tire. I didn't realize the copper in the tire though and inflated a new tube and 30 seconds later had another flat. Tack on two more flats to my tally.

Trip Summary
Day's mileage- 34.08
Total mileage- 62.38