So . . . it’s been nine  years since I rode the TransAm route from Williamsburg, VA to Florence, OR a total of 4,389 miles. Adventure story here.

Seems like time for another ride-about!!!

 May 2 – August 2, 2008 – 4,389 miles

March 1 – May 2, 2015 – 3,053 miles

Two years ago five of us rode Adventure Cycling’s Southern Tier route from San Diego, CA to St Augustine, FL. Adventure story here.

I’ve got one more crossing to do to finish my personal goal of the ‘trifecta of nation crossings’ and that’s the Northern Tier which should clock in at right around 4,240 miles. 2017 is the year to do it!

What’s changed in 9 years . . . lot’s of things in the world as we know it and a few in my life, too!

Our dog Kali passed over the rainbow bridge . . .

. . . but a new girl came into our lives, Daisy.

Ruth, my mother in law, now has Alzheimers, a terribly debilitating disease. emJay and her brothers have been a wonderful support network for Ruth, and to each other.

In 2015, I rode the Southern Tier and through the generosity of many friends raised over $10,000 for Alzheimer research. emJay and I and thanked them all after the ride by hosting a picnic.

I shaved off the beard I sported for 45 years,  now wear glasses . . .

. . . and nearly cut off two fingers!!

I traded in my 17 year old Toyota  and replaced it with an energy saving Chevy Volt.

I bought a another new bike TREK Domane SL7, with electric shifters . . .

. . . plus a mountain bike and haven’t injured myself (seriously) yet!!

Connie ‘the Clydesdale’ Cannondale, got a new hub generator and a set of bar end shifters (after MANY hours of contemplation to make that switch from STI shifters) and will, for the third time, carry me across these great United States!

But the main thing that has remained a constant in my live is being VERY happily married to my bride, emJay! Her ‘approval’ of my latest adventure is fantastic.  I owe her deeply . . . literally.

Every time I leave for an extended period of time on one of these crazy rides, she remodels something in the house. A trip this long means new kitchen, flooring and island. The flooring and counter people have already made several visits and they are beginning to feel like family. I am not even out of town yet! I hope she is holding the line on cabinets)!!!

The ‘before’. Check back in about 4 months for the ‘after’!!!

What lies ahead . . . one never knows what is going to happen on the road!

One morning on a tour I woke up and my toenails were painted . . .

. . . on the Southern Tier, I woke up one morning and my hair had been dyed!

course, it is easier to make new friends when you are a redhead!!!

Who knows what will happen on this trip.

Eight years older you know . . . but any wiser?

Our ‘official trip’ starts on Sunday but Denise and my adventure starts a little earlier.

She lives in Muskegon, MI and took the high speed ferry across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee where I picked her up and we traveled to Madison and spent the night at our house.

The next day emJay and neighbor John shuttled us to Columbus, our nearest Amtrak station that takes checked luggage, for our 5:00pm departure.

Thanks to John for the use of his pickup and his time transporting us north. Lots of gear!

At Columbus we met ‘Amtrak Bob’, right, who handled our checked luggage and got our travel plans all squared away. On the left is Jimmy who lives in Milton and is a ‘train spotter’. Bob says Jimmy is it at the station everyday! Even has his own earmuffs!!!

A pleasant surprise was that Amtrak no longer requires bikes to be boxed for travel. You just roll the bikes down to the checked luggage point . . .

. . .  and ‘Amtrak Bob’ hands them up to the loading staff. The are evidently hung from the ceiling of the luggage car. Easy on, easy off . . . just like on the Continent!!!

The train pulled out at 5:02pm, two minutes early. Soon we met Cherie, who we termed our semi-conductor. She works across three cars and reports to the conductor. She probably has an official Amtrak title but we thought Semi-Conductor seemed appropriate. She ruled the roost in the three cars. When we arrive in Everett, on Friday, we ride 7 miles to the ferry that will take us to Whidbey Is. Ends ups she lives two blocks from the ferry landing in Everett! She also found our fellow rider Jim, who had boarded in Chicago, ahead of us. We all had a nice chat and we invited ourselves to stop at her home in Everett for showers. Unfortunately she is traveling to the end of the line in Seattle before returning home..

At  7:15 we were seated for dinner in the dining car as we passed over the Mississippi River at LaCrosse . . .

. . . where we shared a table with Joan from Illinois and Steve from New Jersey. Steve is a retire vocational instructor and is traveling to Seattle. Joan is only going as far as Fargo where she will ‘detrain’ at 3:30am to attend an in-service massage seminar starting tomorrow. She specializes in ‘foot massage’. Not massaging YOUR feet, but using her feet to massage your back, arms, legs, etc. More surface area in her feet than in her hands.

Lynne was our waitress and was a real character. She is retiring after this trip ending a 12 year career with Amtrak. She uses Lynne or Shirley as a name. Lynne when the customers fill out the service survey and they feel she has done a good job and Shirley when they are not happy!!!! I had the Amtrak Angus Hanger Steak, mashed potatoes, veggies and Whiskey chocolate bundt cake for dessert. l washed it all down with a half bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon!!! Fell asleep right away!!! But it didn’t last!

Inside . . . there was lots of drama regarding folks who were traveling by them selves trying to take two seats with either their gear or trying to lay across both to sleep. The train has basically been full since we left and there are not many spare seats.

Here the conductor tries to calm down a belligerent rider who was bout one stop away from being ejected from the train in Havre, MT!!! You can see from the woman on the rights face, she had had about enough of the whole thing.  So had the rest of us.

We finally left ND and entered MT,  which in the east looked a lot like ND, but before long we we abut ready to enter Glacier National Park. Unfortunately, due to the constant pulling over on sidings to let freight go by, we were now running behind schedule and went though the park at night.  Although Amtrak has the right of way on rail lines most freight trains are 160-200 cars long and will not fit on the siding . . . so guess who pulls over instead.  Time for bed!!!

 

We all slept better last night only because we had not slept well the night before, had eaten too my much during the day and had not done a lick of exercise, except walking down to the dining car. Soon we were into the Northern Cascade range and near the end or our train adventure.

We de-trained in Everett, Washington two hours later than the expected 8:04am scheduled arrival time. I suppose for a 52 hour journey that’s not too bad!!

On of the things that set us back was the difficulty they had in Spokane, WA at 2:00am hooking a privately owned rail  car to the back of the train.

Nice setup though!!! The cars range from $10,000-$75,000 to rent and that doesn’t include the $10,000 hauling fee Amtrak charges to attached the car behind whichever line you decide to use. But . . . you do have your own balcony!!!

We said goodbye to all the new friends we had who were seated around us for the last 2.5 days and soon were standing at station in Everett as the train tooted it’s whistle and rolled away. End of Adventure #1.  . . . onto Adventure #2!!!

Although the bikes were ‘hung’ in the baggage car like a side of beef, there is till ‘some assembly required’ and the need to make sure everything is securely attached . . .

. . . and by 12:30pm, we were ready to roll on.

I had marked on the map where Cherie, our semi-conductor, had told us where she lived and her house was still there, we reported to her.  Green in color  and sitting next to a large two story tan colored house . . ‘

. . .  there it sat waiting for her return. She and the Seattle based train crew work 6 days on and then are off for 5 days, unless they are on the Stand By list which means they can be recalled or another trip within 48 hours of getting home.

We stopped to get a sandwich before getting on the ferry. Jim bought a Powerball ticket with a payoff of $485 million. He told the store owner if he won he would buy him a new car and the rest of us dinner. I suggested if he won he also buy his riding compadres a Class A motor home to accompany us eastward on our ride!!!

The 1:00pm ferry arrived just as we got to the dock and bicyclists are the first to load before cars and trucks.

Lisa, Cherie’s sister, checked my ticket to make sure I had not ‘accidently’ received the Senior discount. I was good to go!!!

Also lining up with us on the bow of the ferry were the motorcycles. I had a nice chat with Liam. from the UK, who has been on the road since June of 2016. He was on his way to Alaska. An engineer, who lives in London, he took a leave of absence to see the world . . .

. . .and he had!!! The red line represents the route of his current tour. He met a couple of Aussies when he was down under and they convinced him to accompany them on a trip next year for a three month tour from the UK through Russia, China, Mongolia and points east shown by the blue line I added. Typical of many many conversation with folks we will have in the next three months, a great conversation with Liam ended after about 10 minutes. He roared off on his BMW at 60 miles an hour and we roared off at 10mph . . . never to see each other again!!!

And what a ride we had. We‘de-boarded’  the ferry at 1:00pm and headed north on Whidbey Is towards our destination for the night, Anacortes.

There is basically one main highway that runs up the middle of the island and everything motorized or not seems to take it. But folks are tolerate of bicyclists and there was wide shoulder most of the way.

Houston . . . pretty close to Huston who I am already missing!!!

Great scenery along the way including these two in a kayak. Picture perfect day with blues skies, mid 70’s, no wind and smooth roads. Perfect riding, a mellow experience . . .

. . . and if you were not mellow enough, you could stop by the Vapor Dude and pick up whatever more you needed!!!

The road did meaner along the coast in a lot of places and afforded some wonderful scenery .

mmmmm . . .hope that does not include bikes!!! Denise, with her recumbent, really has some fun descents. Yesterday her top speed was 34.9mph but she has reached over 50mph on her recumbent.

We soon passed over the Deception Pass bridge where we de-biked and walked back to the middle of the bridge where we were had . . .

. . .some great views. Beautiful cycling. We are hoping everyday could be like this. As we rolled into Anacortes we were ready for the day to end though having biked 64 miles and climbed 3,595.8 feet . . . loaded!!!

And we were hungry! Right across the street from the Anacortes Inn was the bowling alley that also contained the Family Restaurant. WHICH . . . claims the best fish fry in the state. However, we soon learned the menu said only the best fish fry in Anacortes. But we all three had it and it was EXCELLENT.

Our serve Pam was excellent too and gave us the whole scoop on Anacortes . . .

. . .  Oh, they even had a wall of accolades for the fish fry. We add our ACA (Adventure Cycling Association) approval. It had been quite a day and by 10:00pm it was time for bed. Laying completely prone for the first time in 2.5 days was sooooooooooooo nice. We’ll be on the ground soon for the next three months!!!

Spent the day resting, mailing stuff home already, and re-nourishing ourselves after our first ride in the west yesterday . . .

. . . our rebuilding regime included a hearty and nourishing breakfast back at our new favorite restaurant in town the blowing alley’s, Family Restaurant.

. . .  where in typical road warrior fashion there wasn’t much left on the plate 15 minutes later.

Had to climb a hill on the way to church and the old pegs were really howling  . . . problem?  Yes, probably not enough nourishment yet.

Remedy: continue to replace those valuable calories we  burned yesterday with burritos ‘as big as the size of your head’ and several beers . . .

Here is my ‘road wife’, Denise, enjoying a waffle cone ’as big as your head’ a perfect finish to a perfect day in Anacortes . . .

. . .  and having been in the medical field she can dispense anything you might need  to help with ‘overindulging’ from her right, front pannier pocket!!!

Officially our big adventure starts tomorrow!!!!

Yippee!!!! After many months of anticipation the day has arrived.

mmmmm  . . . wonder what would happen if I just hit the snooze button???

First order of business was to hit the lobby for the first cup of ‘jojo’. James the night auditor has been very accommodating to us. At this time of the morning he is like the ‘Maytag Repairman’  . . . nobody around!

Today his buddy Michael had dropped in on his morning walk down the main drag. A human resources manager for the State of Washington’s Public Defenders office, we had a nice chat.  By the time the three of us had solved all the problems of the world and I got back to our room, he coffee was cold enough it needed to be micro waved!!!

The three of us went out for one more nice breakfast before we begin the oatmeal, nuts and raisin morning routine of the ride.  Denise came VERY well equipped for the trip with a VERY large stack of Ben Franklin’s. She broke one of them to buy breakfast for us!!! Jim and I made a pact to stay Denise’s BFF!!!!

We are transferring hotels today and on the way to Ship Harbor Inn we passed this old hull of a ship in a marina that had ‘literally’ grown to the bottom. Local word has it the ship was snuck into the marina late one night, abandoned and it has been moored there ever since.The trees growing out of her are about twenty feet tall!!!

Another beautiful day of riding but only 4 miles . . .

. . . to the Ship Harbor Inn. Other riders started filtering in with Bernie and Wade being the first two. Jim was still in town waiting for the bike shop to open so he could buy a set of pannier bolts to replace those that had ‘fallen off’. Better to find out now!!!

The gang continued to filter in until we had fourteen riders and one tour leader, Allison. The plan was to have our meet and greet at 4:00pm and order out for pizza at 6:00pm. Good meeting with PLENTY to eat!

There were NO leftovers!

Interesting and diverse group, from all over the US, along with David from the UK and Corvin from Germany. It is going to be a fun group, as was evident from the number who gathered in the bar after the meeting!!

Tomorrow we do a  24 mile ‘shake down’ ride which I thought ended up back at the hotel and we would have another night on a nice bed with soft clean sheets. WRONG, we hit the road tomorrow with our first night camping at Deception Pass Park!!!

Everyone slept GREAT in the very comfortable beds at the Ship Harbor Inn. We thought we were staying there two nights so imagine our surprise when we moved down to Washington Is State Park.

Corvin, our 20 year old German, has taken a fancy to some American foods . . . but definitely not biscuits with sausage gravy!!!

Last morning for a while with chandeliers hanging over our heads at breakfast!!!

After breakfast we had a meeting on the veranda where we broke up the ‘group gear’ among our panniers . . .

. . . had a map meeting for todays first ride . . .

. . . and made our lunches complete with these goodies!!!

Oh, you will meet the cast of characters in the next three months but right now I am sure most of the bikers out there are interested in what people are riding . . . so here we go!!

this is Wade’s solar panel that he is hoping to power his c-pap machine every night from a battery he charges during the day.

Corvin has a solar panel too for his phone, although somewhat smaller than Wade’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soon we headed out for a 20 mile shakedown ride to make sure everything fit on the bikes and nothing fell off!!! Mark has a Topeak trailer he hauls. He put a dynamo hub on both his front wheel and another on the small trailer wheel. The one on the trailer powers his lighted flag pole. LED’s run up the length of the pole!!! George, Mark made his own inverter, and it didn’t blowup. I’ll get you the plans.

We rode over to our ocean overlook at the half way point of todays ride for the traditional wheel dipping in the Pacific and a group photo.

Connie cooperated and was happy to had her hooves dipped in the ocean

Here is our happy group . . . it’s going to be a great ride!!!

. . . and Allison gives us her blessing!!

As we left, we noticed the vertical rifts of sand running up the water onto the beach. Nobody could explain it . . . seems the sand should be piling up the other way, parallel to the waves.

At the beach we ran into a Backroads Touring group that was riding among the San Juan Islands. They are an expensive outfit and supply every luxury, including all bikes, meals, single rooms and . . .

. . . nice little lunch breaks along the way!!!

Nancy and Jasmine were two of their riders and they were having a great time!!!

We got back to camp hungry but set up our tents before dinner. Here Corvine, displays the footprint of his his new smalllllllllllll German tent. he has never camped before!!!

Sanitation and cleanliness are very important in camp with a group this big. Hand sanitizer used before all meals and a triple was of dishes afterwards!

A hot pan set + on a new plastic tarp = melting !!!!

Chili tonight with the meat added after anyone who is a vegetarian has scooped out their portion. Here Bernie and Anne wait for the frying pan to heat up to cook the beef.

Come and get it. Diner is always at 6:00pm, followed by a map meeting at 7:00pm followed by more chores and then into the tents!