Spending a good weekend in Seattle was nice. Natasha was
incredible, driving us to and from different places in Seattle. We head to
Puyallup which is where one of Nathan’s friends parents lives. There was a
really nice bike path that we took almost the whole day. When we got to
Puyallup, the street that we had to take had no shoulder. On top of that it was
raining, it was in rush hour and it was getting dark. We ended up on some guys’
driveway to think of our options because we didn’t feel safe. The guy who lived
in the house ended up giving us a ride to our destination which was only about
three miles. It was a great ride, Morgan, the guy who gave us a lift shared
some of his story with us. It was really great that he would do that with two
guys he has never met before. It just seemed like one of those times that God
had placed in front of us. We prayed for Morgan when he dropped us off and he
prayed for us.
We arrived at Grant and Jeanette Dickau’s place all wet and
sorry looking. They thought it was hilarious and took a picture of us in our
vulnerable state. We took showers and devoured delicious chili. They were
incredibly hospitable. We were discussing our next day and how we didn’t think
we could do it, so Jeanette offered to drive us closer. With the rain and not
wanting to camp if we didn’t make it to our next stop, we agreed.
Grant and Jeanette.
Getting driven about 40 miles and riding the next 60 miles
felt good. We stopped for lunch in a little park, with picnic tables under a
roof. We stopped there to get out of the rain for about two hours. For the last
hour there was a cop across the street just stting there. As soon as we took
off the cop left. We weren’t sure if he thought we were part of the seedy
underbelly of the cyclist world, running illegal drugs across the Washington –
Oregon border.
Another lunchtime stop at a small lake.
A funny barn along the way, advertising a remedy for 'weak women.'
We strolled into Toutle River RV resort, the place we stayed
for the night, with good time. The owner is part of Warm Showers and he showed
us to “The Love Shack” where we slept. We had some time to watch It’s a
Wonderful Life. When it was done we were both brought to tears.
View from the top of a bridge on the way to Portland.
From the RV resort we went through Portland and then went to
Beaverton, which is just out of Portland. This day was our longest day yet, we
rode 85 miles in total. The day was sunny and the hills weren’t bad so we made
good time and had about 2 hours in Portland. We stopped at Powell’s City of
Books and Microcosm Publishing.
Microcosm Publishing: Anarchist, DIY, and Cyclist literature.
Heading to Beaverton seemed straight forward, however we
didn’t anticipate the huge hill that my GPS told us to take. Click here to see the sudden elevation of that hill. We arrived at
Terry and Mary’s place in the dark, which I guess we are getting used to. Mary
prepared a delicious meal for us and had baked chocolate cake for dessert and
coffee cake for breakfast.
Me, Terry and Nathan.
In the morning Terry took us through Beaverton to get us to
the main highway to get us to where we needed to go. We knew we had a long day
in front of us, 80 miles. But, we just did 85 so we felt like the Kings of the
Road. Our feeling of superiority however completely fell as we saw the mountain
in front of us. We were warned by Terry about what we would encounter, but we
didn’t really imagine it as bad as it was. It was by far the worst day we had. Click here to see how crazy this day was. It was 4:30 PM and we knew we only had
about two hours of sun left. We knew in our hearts that it could not be done,
but we kept going for some reason. We still had a hill to climb, it was our
third and we didn’t know how high it would be. But we figured that a town
called Seaside would be around sea level, maybe that’s what kept us going.
Against all odds we did it, with the help of it being almost all downhill from
the summit. We get there as it started to rain and also right when our host
drove into his driveway. We get our bikes in the dry garage, get into the warm
house, have some refreshments and reflect with Neil on how crazy our day was.
Tree branches along the way.
Lunchtime stop atop the tunnel opening. Nathan's sitting just below the sign.
We needed time to recuperate and figure out some sort of
schedule, so we stayed an extra day at Seaside. During the day we took a walk
on the beach, it was raining but to me it was just as beautiful as it would
have been on a sunny day. We also tried to go to the High School football game,
we showed up at around half time. I didn’t really want to go, and I had no idea
why Nathan was so driven. But didn’t really seem like I had a choice, so I went
thinking it won’t be so bad. We get there and we lock our bikes up, but I was
only worrying that they would get stolen. Also I didn’t bring my rain cover for
my seat, and I was worried that it was going to get wet. About five minutes
left in the halftime show it started pouring. I wanted to go, thinking that
this is just getting ridiculous. So we rode back to Neil’s house in pouring
rain, we get back soaking wet. Nathan tried to comfort me by downloading the
original Oregon Trail. It kind of worked.
The beach.
Me, Neil and Nathan.
It was great staying with Neil because he loved hosting
people. He is well travelled and loves talking about different experiences he
has had. He was a gracious and wise host.
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