Washington Daze

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June 28th 2009

Published: July 4th 2009

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Wandering Aimlessly

Photo 3

Feeling a little guilty after seeing British Columbia with a highly modified and shortened cycling route, we vowed to cycle every mile in Washington. After catching our ferry off of San Juan Island, we spent the night in Washington State Park and caught the new Transformers movie (opening day with literally only 5 other people in the small movie theatre). Our cycling southward through Washington state was very smooth with few items worthy of mention. This section of our trip is kind of out of order as we both are beginning to feel it was the first time we were really training for our voyage. We can feel ourselves getting stronger (or we assume we are by the amount of fatigue at the end of our rides and the 'growing pains' or DOMS for you physiology people. Washington cycling is marked by decent to good shoulders and road terrain with some decent climbs and very fun (scary fast) descents. During our tour of the state, we did see our first fox, Caleb survived his first flat tire, and had an interesting stop in Westport, WA.

We arrived in Westport, WA on June 27th to find the very small town bustling

Random Windmill

Old-fashioned windmill seen from side of the road

with energy and minimal parking. As we extracted ourselves from the Fit, we are greeted by none other than PIRATES! We had stumbled upon Pirate Daze, a local street festival where the entire town dawns pirate attire and small stands sell local wares, pirate gear, and fair food. Shows and trailer-based pirate ships were a plenty. I must say in a semi-shout out to Steph/Gary, the vast majority of costumes and events were in no way even close to the pirate party (harbor cruise) they threw, but still quite fun! Also in a shameless plug...Steph just launched her new 'pet' project... www.careerpuppy.com. Go check it out!

So southward we continued fulfilling our desire to be good cycling boys and not cheat on mileage, cycling the entire route through Washington to Astoria, OR. Astoria for those who do not know is the location of the infamous "the Goonies" movie. We then took a two-night side trip to Portland to get our bikes tuned, mine properly fitted, and see the sights. Then it was back to the grind, continuing southward through Oregon to meet up with our third amgio, Alex, after the Fourth. Next time on Eric's Rambles: Oregon, another Whale,