We left home at 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday headed for Eugene Oregon, where Kathy's daughter lives. We arrived in Eugene around 6 p.m. that night. We stayed at a beautiful VRBO cottage in Eugene. http://www.vrbo.com/476264
This cottage was a great start to our Northwest adventure!
Had dinner with Kathy's daughter and her soon to be husband at a great little place in Eugene called the Laboratory.
The next day we left our car with Kaley & Max and took a rental to Seattle. Portland is a beautiful city. We enjoyed the view of Mt Hood from the freeway.
As we were driving through Portland, we couldn't help but think of how far it was to Seattle. We were excited by the prospect of everything we would see on the bike. The beautiful thing about riding is we see so much more of the world. At least Kathy sees more of it, since she's the one looking around. Usually she points it out to Keith, but he is busy making sure no one runs us over.
First stop in Seattle was Pike Place Market. We love this place! The setting is beautiful, the food awesome and the people watching is a lot of fun. This place gives "one stop shopping" new meaning. The fruits and vegetables here always look amazing and who doesn't love fresh salmon? Regret for the trip, not being able to take any fish home. One day we will put a whole salmon on the grill.
Coffee just tastes better here!
Here we are in the park next to the Market. A little cool that morning but it warmed up nicely.
The night before the ride was a little crazy. We needed to eat dinner, drop off our bags to the start so they would make it to our mid point lodging, and drop off the rental car.
First dinner, we ate at Bizzarro. This restaurant was featured on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins' and Dives. We arrived before they opened and we weren't the first in line, surprising how many people were in line after us, before it opened. This was a hot spot for people riding STP. We met two woman in their 70's who were riding and one of their mother's was driving their SAG wagon. Inspirational!
The people at Bizzarro were so nice and so excited for us to ride in STP. The decor was eclectic and the food amazing! We would definitely go back!
The best part of the night was driving in our cycling clothes with flip flops on to drop off our bags, return the car and take a cab back from downtown Seattle. We might have looked a little odd but we looked odd together.
Saturday morning and we were excited to go. We rode about three miles, from where we stayed to the University of Washington Husky Stadium to start. It was a beautiful but cool morning. We found 10,000 new friends at the start and we were off!
Here's the route map.
Some of our new friends
Here we are waiting to start
Thanks to the Seattle Police for blocking lanes, roads and traffic. It took us a few hours to get out of Seattle, along the way we rode around Lake Washington. Beautiful view of Mt Ranier and the lake. (we actually stopped to take this picture)
It's easy to forget to be "in the moment" when you have an end point. We both worked hard to remember the moments of this once in a life time ride.
Our half way point came at Centralia College 5 hrs and 21 minutes after we started. What a great moment, a PR on our longest ride ever! We enjoyed the vendors there. Keith had street tacos and Kathy had tofu stir fry, so good and just what we needed after a fun but long ride!
Fourteen miles later we found ourselves in the home of our host family. Jerry & Jane, two of the nicest people we have ever met! They housed us and three other riders as a fund raiser for their son who graduated from high school in June.
What a wonderful time!
Staying with Jane & Jerry made this ride truly special! Awesome food, a comfortable bed, a hot shower, two alpaca and a beautiful yellow lab, we couldn't have asked for anything more.
We like to think with every ride we learn something. This ride taught us that you really can extend yourself past where you thought you could go, we are all so much more capable then we think we are. We also learned that anything is possible if you just keep peddling.
Here's a picture of us crossing the Willamette River. So close to the finish and an amazing view as we made our way into Portland.
It would be hard to beat the finish line of STP, tons of people lining the route, truly a moment to be cherished!
We are already looking forward to the next ride!
Thanks for your support!
Onward we roll!
Keith & Kathy
