Seattle, WA

Day 69 (04 August 2014)
Snohomish, WA to Seattle, WA
Day:  42.97 miles, Trip:  4286.13 miles (+110.87 miles)

We were suppose to sleep in today, but by the time I got up most people were getting ready to leave for breakfast. Its weird waking up and having the only tent left standing in a field that was a one point full of tents. I managed to get packed, give my closing interview with Duncan and make it to the Second Street Diner in time to have breakfast. It is the entire crew so we swarmed the place and they handled it very well. The food was amazing and even Andy found a breakfast that he couldn't finish.



After breakfast we attempted to stay in a group today. It was clear that it wasn't going to work. Between flat tires and new Michelle not being ready for the surprising climbs it wasn't effective constantly waiting for people and even more importantly not safe. So Kristen and I rode with Michelle and I am pretty sure the rest of them broke into smaller groups as well. At least it seemed that way when they passed us. We all met up again at the Gas Works Park. There we also picked up Don and a few others.

We successfully rode as a group to the Peddlers Brewery for drinks and food from a taco truck. At the pre-tire dip party we also had the check presentation ceremony. From here we headed as a group to the water for the tire dip ceremony. It took a bit to get organized but we got the pictures and then dipped the bikes and the clothes and all went into the water and celebrated with bottles of champagne. We got into the groups that we associated with for even more pictures.



After the celebration we moved to the Edgewater Hotel. This hotel is much nicer than we would normal be in. We are talking fancy. We got our showers and clean clothes and collected in the parking lot for a little party. We were joined by some of the Trans Am crew who came up before heading back to Virginia.We eventually had to move the party and then break it up around 8 pm. At this point it was time for dinner so it wasn't so bad. I decided not to walk a long distance for pizza and instead Kristen and I went for Vietnamese at Green Leaf Vietnamese. The food was good and we had a good waiter. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and were relaxing in bed watching mindless tv when we fell asleep. Another great day, and great ending to the trip.

Snohomish, WA

Day 68 (03 August 2014)
Darrington, WA to Snohomish, WA
Day:  50.73 miles, Trip:  4243.16 miles

Today ended up being much shorter than expected. We rode into Arlington, WA for breakfast at a local cafe. From Arlington we got on a bike trail that took us south to Snohomish, WA. The trail was nice except all the road crossings that made you slow down. This is expected as you approach a major city.

This morning I started out by myself but after 5 miles the fast group caught up to me and I hopped on their wheel and rode with them to breakfast and then with Richard and Michelle after breakfast.  We rolled into Snohomish which is a nice town. We decided to head into town first for some froyo instead of going straight to camp. This was followed by showers at the aquatic center (which were great in terms of swimming pool showers).

Back at camp Kate's family brought us dinner and drinks. Thank you it was appreciated. We also had some of Richard's family and Michelle's family came to join us as well. This included Molly who is riding with us tomorrow. We also had a new rider with us today. Michelle B is riding the last two days with us.

After dinner we were given index cards and wrote superlatives. We then took turns reading them out and guessing who it described. There really was no guessing, we have all gotten to know each other pretty well. I think it was a great idea and we all enjoyed it.

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