A great night of and deep sleep and we both felt refreshed and had  begun to forget about the LONGGGGG journey we had to get to Bellingham. We tied up with the van Rich had arranged for the seven of us who were interested in transport to the park and after a 12 mile ride south to Larrabee State Park, we were dropped off at Sites 31 and 32.

Joe and Ryan, our two ACA trip leaders, were already there with the Adventure Cycling Association van and trailer and had things well organized.

I’ve got too much stuff!!! Before I left I had to decide which of many tents to take. I set these two up to compare sizes and the Marmot won. Although the literature say it sleeps three, you can always subtract one camper from the number (tent companies ALWAYS exaggerate). To get a more realistic volume measurement, and since this trip is van supported and I don’t have to carry the extra weight on my bicycle I chose the bigger one.

As more of our group of 15 arrived the tents popped up like mushrooms. Not the greatest of sites. Lots of tree roots and slopes.

A van supported tour allows lots of luxuries like coolers, food prep tables  . . .

. . . and more importantly a nice three burner, elevated, propane stove. No cooking on this trip with one burner Coleman stoves sitting on the ground.

As is tradition, the tour leaders, Joe on he left and Ryan on the right, prepare dinner on he first bight. Chicken burritos with lots of fixin’s.

Meet and greet time . . . .

Guacamole and sour cream too . . . lots of beer and fizzy water

After dinner Ryan introduced everyone on the proper ACA method of washing dishes. A three step process. Sanitation on these trips is vital in preventing any colds or bad germs from being passed around. LOTS of hand sanitizer used, too.

Every first night includes some type of ice breaker and this time it was to go around the circle, introduce yourself, describe your biking experience and state what type of bike you are riding. But you also had to repeat the names of all those who introduced themselves before you and what type of bike they ride. Because of the train trip, and highway noise, I didn’t hear much of it and being the second from the last to report, I flunked the test!!! I’ll have seven weeks to find out all the details I may have missed.

The plan was, as on our 2017 Northern Tier ride, Denise would take the ferry from MI to WI, I’d pick her up, she would stay with emJay and me and the next day Mary Jean would take us to Columbus where we would board the Amtrak  Empire Builder to head west!!! The ferry arrived right on time , , ,

. . . and soon we were seated at the Milwaukee Public market having a nice lunchy and catching up on the last two years.

After a dinner at Beuenveutos, we all slept great. Our train did not leave Columbus until 5:02pm so I had the day to show off Madison  during a bike ride around the city on the Cap City Tr. A stop at Budget Bike and Machinery Row, so I could buy some booties and a helmet cover (wet weather predicted ahead) and a ride around the Capital rounded out the morning and early afternoon.  Ms. Forward in the top circle and Lady D, as Ron coined Denise, in the lower circle.

We got to the Columbus station an hour early and had a nice time catching up with our train buddy, Bob. He works for a contractor that supplies station services to AMTRAK. His day job had been a prison guard for 33 years at one of Wisconsin’s prisons. AMTRAK pulled their employees out of the Columbus station 5 years ago when they stopped selling tickets there.

Bob explaining the finer points of the Empire Builder line line.

The train arrived 1 hour 45 minutes late because of ‘mechanical problems’. One of which was the two locomotives pulling the train were put in the wrong order and the seconded engine kept ‘rebooting’. It took a half hour to switch the engines and there were other ‘issues’ along the way.

Soon the three of us took one last photo, I kissed Smoochie goodbye, and Denise and I boarded the train, heading west!!

After riding in a coach car two years ago, Denise and I decided to ‘upgrade’ to a couchette (sleeper) this trip. 10 roomettes, 5 deluxe rooms, 4 bathrooms and a shower AND all meals, with premier seating times, included. Your choice of anything on the menu and dessert is included. Alcohol is EXTRA!!!!. Our car attendant, Kenny, appeared and introduced himself. He will be attending to us for the next 53 hours. He’s stationed in the berth right behind us so we could bang on the wall if we needed anything during the night!!!

The couchette is cozy, about the size of a closet with two bunks.

But it is big enough to have it’s own closet!!!

Some people don’t do to well with claustrophobic conditions!!!!

. . . but can certainly mellow out later in the day!!!

We were soon in the prairie pothole area of North Dakota . . . ‘land spreading out so far an wide, skip Manhattan and give me that countryside’!!!

Mid afternoon our dinning room hostess, Amanda, stopped by to take our dinner orders . . . nice!!!

The meals are included with the roomette and you have a new set of dining companions at every meal. Here was Kathy and Earl from a small town in southern Illinois heading to Seattle,  then down the coast to San Francisco and back to Chicago. All on AMTRAK!!!

With the meal plan you can order anything off the menu, including salads, soups, entrees and dessert. Here was Denise’s ‘surf and turf’ which included an Angus steak and large lump crabcake, $38 if you were in coach and had to order it off the menu (not worth it!!) I had the Norwegian Salmon, with a special sauce, rice pilaf and double chocolate torte, two nights in a row. Veggie burgers for lunch. Vino was extra!!!

After finally arriving in Seattle we had an hour wait for the next AMTRAK Cascade train that would take us the final leg to Bellingham . . .

. . . and of course at this point, about 56 hours into the trip, we MADE SURE our luggage and bikes were transferred to our new train!!!!

Arriving in Bellingham it started to drizzle. We schlepped our stuff about 1/2 mile to the Fairhaven Inn (Denise carried most of it!!!) where we left our bikes for the night with Rich and took an Uber to our home for the night, the Comfort Inn.

This train trip was quite the experience compared to other rail trips. Although we had the roomette, which was nice for sleeping’s, the train ended up being seven hours late into Seattle which meant we missed the bus service transfer from Seattle to Bellingham and had to take another train instead. The seven hour delay was caused by a number of ‘keystone cop’ type mishaps, like starting out from Chicago with the wrong engine in the lead. It took them a half hour to change that and round and after several more issues, arrived in Columbus 1.5 hours late. Along the way, during the middle of the night,  a tree had fallen across the track, taking another 1.5 hours to clear the rail. Various other mechanical problems developed, including air conditioning problems. All went into accumulating to a seven hour arrival delay into Seattle

No plans set yet on how I am going to get back to MSN from San Diego in seven weeks, but I think I might fly!!!

It’s only September and it seems like there must be time to get at least one more extended ride in this year . . .

Lets see . . . Trans Am, no did that in 2008. Southern Tier, nope 2015 . . . there is the Northern Tier, ugh-ugh rode it in 2017.

Still on the bucket list . . . the Pacific Coast ride from Canada to Mexico. LETS RIDE!!!

I broke Traci TREK, one of my carbon bikes, last year in Ireland when I crashed. I bought a new TREK Checkpoint (shown above) as a travel bike replacement . . .  but I could hear my old steed Connie Cannondale whinnying from out in the stable that she had at LEAST one more big ride left in her and didn’t want to be put out to pasture just yet.

Having ridden her on the Big Bend and Northern Tier rides, she needed a little ‘tune up’ before she was ready for another romp . . .

. . . and after everything went back together, with no extra parts left over, a test ride proved she was ready to run!!! She is really the perfect mount for this type of ride. 32mm tires this trip, her built in electric generating front hub that during the day keeps a front and rear light illuminated AS WELL as charging my phone, gps or camera battery, has fenders to help shed the rain were are bound to ride through, has a large handlebar bag to carry my lunch (VERY important and already has racks on for an extra pannier or two and last but not least a kickstand. Turns out that is a big deal when touring. If you don’t have one every time you stop, and there are many stops, one is constantly looking for a safe place to lay your bike down without damaging it. Not so easy to find a place some times. Wouldn’t leave home without one!!