I woke up at 5 am because Captain Lars said that the sunrise would be worth it. He did not mention the fog we would pass through, leaving the spectical of the sun rising behind Mt Rainier to my imagination. Disemarkation from the ship went smoothly, we chose to carry our bags allowing us to be among the first to leave around 8:15. Today would be as much about taking care of business as riding and it began with a cab ride to the hotel where we found the bike just as we had left it.We began separating clothes into two piles there in the garage... one would travel with us while the second we would carry as we walked the 5 blocks to the Fedex store to ship them home.
Then we headed south a few miles to Renton, where I finally got an appointment for the oil change that never happened before we left on the cruise. They also cleaned all the road grime so at least we will look good for one day. So between the leaving the boat, sorting and mailing clothes and the bike service it was 1:00 pm before we really got going. Our route took us a little more South of Seattle avoiding the interstate for a couple of hours. I expect we would have had great views of Rainier had the fog lifted in time. The air was cool but dry until about 4:00 when light showers cooled us down even further as we approached the town of Ellensburg...home of the University of Central Washington Fighting Wildcats. When we found that this was the only town within an hour, we decided to cut the day short and find a laundrymat since we were out of clean clothes anyway. We had wings and burgers next door while the washer did it's thing. By the time we were done, the skies were clear, but we decided to call it a day.
We began seeing more bikes and at our first gas stop Debbie found some heading to Sturgis. Two weeks ago we crossed the Cascade Range in California and Saturday and Sunday we crossed again in the Northern Cascades as we rode through Washington. I had read of this ride in a book about Scenic Byways but could not imagine how riding on an interstate would be very appealing. But this feels less like a freeway as it rises gently along with the mountains, no switchbacks needed, then drops to follow various large lakes and rivers. This pattern was repeated numerous times during the day.
The license plates here read "Evergreen State" and it is a well deserved nickname as we could smell the Pine, Spruce, & Fur trees that covered the landscape. The winds were fairly calm today, but that is not always the case here based on the windmill farms we passed this morning.
On Sunday we entered and passed through a portion of Idaho, crossed Lake Cor D'Alene one of many boating destinations in the Northwest. The upper portion of Idaho is only about 70 miles wide but it took well over an hour to cross due to speed limits of 45 & 55 due to road repairs here. Because we stopped early on Saturday we are a coulpe of hours behind schedule but will reach our cabin in Yellowstone sometime Monday afternoon as planned. We will, I expect, be without internet for a couple of days while in the park, but will catch up on the other side.
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