Farms are cool

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Well, after Matt and I shook the ferry we took a real nice ride down the Washington coast and onto Whidbey Island. Whidbey boasts being the second largest island in the contiguous U.S. Any guesses on the largest? Rhode Island popped into my brain, but I don't think that that's it. Hmmm, but I digress. More importantly Matt and I stopped on the Island to visit its most famous resident Joe Brannon, and his former Alaska State Fair Blue Ribbon winning horse Legs. I am learning that there isn't necessarily that much farming that goes on on all farms. Joe has a couple of horses there(purpose unknown) and they grow some hay. Growing hay as far as I can tell is like having a lawn that you mow less often, but when you do, you can collect it. What do I know?

The ride east on Route 2 from Joe's to our next destination of Ellensburg was nothing short of super sweet. The weather was absolutely perfect for riding. We had clear sunny skies the whole way, and the temperature was mild. Mild with one exception. We did see some snow as we went over Stevens Pass, elevation 4,056 feet. Luckily it was not on the road at all, and appeared to be at least a couple of days old. It was certainly a little chilly in the shade through the pass, as well as the descent along the eastern side of the Cascades.

The strangest part of the day was rolling through the Bavarian village of Leavanworth. No, not the prison, the Bavarian village, and it was Oktoberfest. At least that's what one could assume from all of the bad hats...but the skirts were all right.

Anyway the purpose of that gorgeous ride was to get to our next farm stopover at Adrian and Jenny's place in
Ellensburg. Oh yeah, get a load of the Mediterranean Donkeys. They are desert animals and have the disposition of very friendly, but reserved dogs. Real cool. I digress again. Besides visiting some of Matt's friends, the absolute boon of this stop was Adrian. Adrian would put the Professor from Giiligan's Island to shame. As Jay would say, "Mother F****r's better than Maguyver. In short Adrian is a mechanical wizard and helped us knock a couple of bugs out the the bikes. Most impressively, especially if you ask Adrian, was the modification of my gas cap. It was poorly designed and I broke it. Adrian improved the design and it's better than new. What else?; I got my flood lights set up, bent my side stand back down so my bike stands up, fixed my clutch switch(didn't know I had one) so I can start in gear again, patched up the nick in by boxes from the slide down the highway(I know, I know, black things on the pavement, but I assure you, I'm fine, nothing hurts from the spill...perhaps just my pride a little. Really.), and finally aimed my headlight so I'm not checking in with the eagles in the trees, but looking down the road. Stevens got some dings and nicks buffed as well as some things bent and unbent. The hot tub was also pretty clutch.

From here it looks like we'll actually do a stretch of interstate to double back to Seattle and catch up with so old friends.

One more thing I noticed. On some of the shots you can see the nick I took on my forehead. I assure you that it's not some killer helmet zit, I just learned the hard way not to head butt the jagged steel foot pegs.

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Photos

Sunset at Deception Pass
Crane shot, Whidbey Island, WA

Adrian's sweet car
An absolute classic '73 Datsun 240Z

More donkeys
It was hard to get shots of them in the pen because they would keep following you around

Petting the donkeys
There hair is super soft