We arrived today in Tonasket, WA after a short (29 mile) ride. We were greeted by a Founder’s Day parade (we thought it was for us) which we watched from the porch of the visitor’s center, behind which we are tenting tonight–free for bicyclists. The people were incredibly nice and we are heading to the rodeo with some of them later this evening. Fun, fun! This is really a slice of Americana.

Our ride so far (with the exception of today) has been quite challenging. We started from Anacortes on Wednesday with a flat tire. Maybe that will be our only one :). I don’t know what possessed us to ride over 80 miles on the first day, given that our longest fully loaded ride before that was about 60 miles, and then follow that with another 80 miles the next day up the most challenging climb we’ll probably have, period. 42 miles uphill followed by an exhilarating descent. We arrived at our warm shower host’s abode totally exhausted at around 7:30 pm. There was really a time when we thought we wouldn’t make it, particularly as we ran out of water and there was nowhere to refill. I guess we learned our lesson! It was a long 12.5 hour day and our most challenging ride ever. But we made it! Along the way we enjoyed beautiful scenery, river beds that actually had water in them (!) as opposed to Arizona “rivers”, waterfalls galore, since it had poured the night before, and gorgeous wild flowers including wonderful wild lavender. Gorgeous! Our warm shower host was a minimalist. He designed and lives in a two room house, small living room, kitchen and dining table plus bathroom downstairs (about 200 square feet) and a bedroom upstairs, reached by a ladder. He rides his bicycle almost everywhere and when he’s low on time, he drives a moped. He rode his bike up the two very difficult passes we had just come over pulling a trailer weighed down by 150 pounds of stuff. And you think WE’RE crazy! In front of his house are the remains of a tri-maran he built himself. He’s a very nice guy and we had a wonderful breakfast with him before we set out on our second day of climbing.

Based on the trash we have seen along the side of the roads (you become quite aware of trash as you slowly cycle past), Washingtonians aren’t too bad when it comes to litter, but they do have a penchant for throwing out beer bottles and cans (mostly Budweiser), which makes up about 80 percent of the trash. Other bottles make up about 10% and the rest is miscellaneous, including such items as sofa cushions (oops), single shoes, a clamp (wonder what that was holding in place) and a badminton net.

People have been very nice and include many Canadians who holiday just south of the border because it’s a lot cheaper here. All are very interested in our ride and are encouraging.

After our first long day and then two days of climbing, we deserved a short rest day today. Tomorrow is another hard climb. We may decide to ride into Canada the day after tomorrow–a somewhat longer route, but it avoids some of the elevation of the US only ride. Decisions, decisions.

We have not had any political conversations, so far. And Washingtonians don’t seem very political, at least outwardly, since we have only seen two “Vote For” signs, and both were for Trump.

The weather has been varied and has included a night of pouring rain, with showers the next day, and now two sunny days of 97 degree heat. But still nothing compared to the 115 degrees all of you in Phoenix are suffering under. Lucky you.