Days 3,4,5 - Wenatchee to Spokane

Day 3, Tuesday, May 27
68.4 miles; Wenatchee to Coulee City

Another tough day; Gerry says one of his hardest. It was a great ride along the Columbia River out of Wenatchee to Orondo.But the climb out was brutal - 2000' in about 6 miles. (Susan, I think they took out the 'catch your breath' stretches you talked about.) Here, we're looking down on Kevin and Laura as they're coming up to a hairpin curve. This picture is looking back down from nearly the top; the river is tucked way down there.

Climbing up Stevens Pass the day before, I went through several memorized chapters of Romans (Besides lifting the heart, it helps take the mind off the pain.) Today I sang songs in my head (don't worry, they were all my own voices).

Lunch in the park at Waterville was a welcome and needed break. When we headed east out of town, it turned into miles and miles and miles of up and down, up and down through wheat fields. It was beautiful, but draining. Up and down, up and down...then came a cruel surprise: a four mile drop into Moses Coulee, about halfway to Coulee City. I have renamed it "Cruel Coulee" or "Unjust Coulee". Actually, it's not the drop that's bad, it's the climb back out the other side - over a mile of about 8%. I was gripping my bars so tight that my arms hurt and Gerry ended up straining an inside leg muscle (Yes, we ARE on vacation!!). This is Kevin and Laura just cresting the top. The rest of the ride into Coulee City was up and down, up and down, but we were rewarded with a nice 3-4 mile drop into town where we set up camp for the night. After dinner, Gerry and Kevin walked over a couple blocks for ice cream, Laura read, I found the mats in the tent to be overwhelmingly inviting so I took a 45 minute nap. Gerry did find a few minutes alone with the Lord before bedtime.Day 4, Wednesday, May 28, Coulee City to Davenport
62.9 miles
The gulls from the lake decided it was time to rise and shine at 4:30; too bad I wasn't on the same page with them.

We left the campground about 7:00 and headed off again across the wheat fields - up and down, up and down. (As much as we are truly desiring and appreciating all your prayer, whoever is praying that Irish blessing "May the road rise to meet you...", could you leave that part of it and get on to "may the wind be always at your back"?)
We stopped for a break at Hartline and talked with a farmer (4200+ acres) who was filling his truck. It was interesting to get his perspective about how the fuel prices are affecting farmers.

A few miles from Almira our rear chain snapped. We were glad it happened now while Kevin was with us. Although Steve at Summit Bikes gave me a quick crash course on fixing a chain, it sure would've taken us a lot longer if it would've been just Gerry and me. We were also thankful that it didn't happen on one of the tough climbs.

We bought lunch at Doxie's in Wilbur - we needed fuel. I can't remember the last time I ate at a small town greasy hangout. Gerry said his burger wasn't as good as the 59er Diner at Coles Corner.

Not having any cell service along this whole portion, we borrowed a phone from a lady in the cafe and called a Warmshowers couple in Davenport. They were glad to have us come for the night. (Warmshowers is a bicycling reciprocal hosting organization that we're a part of.) They had a nice little guest room out back, a place for a tent, and were kind enough to even feed us a pasta dinner (fuel for the next day!). Jeramiah (yes, with an 'a') has a cyclery shop where he builds and fixes bicycles, mostly recumbants. It was so enjoyable to spend the evening with them. Thanks you two for your great and relaxed hospitality!

Day 5, May 29, Davenport to Spokane (our 'rest' day)
39.4 miles 302.55 miles to date
We had breakfast at Subway (usually, we make oatmeal over the Jetboil, but we need to get to a store), I can't believe that I ate a chicken sandwich for breakfast!

Today hardly seemed like a ride as we cruised along through Reardan into Spokane. We had only one steep climb at Deep Creek and we grunted through that in short order. At Airway Heights, Kevin and Laura departed our company as they are renting a van to go up north to Sandpoint. They will ride along the Clark Fork down to Thompson Falls then to St. Regis where their truck is parked.

We cruised through downtown Spokane and hit the Centennial Trail at Riverfront Park, which goes within a block of Will's place (Will is our youngest son; he's interning for a structural engineering firm here this summer.). A nice shower, laundry, checking email and updating here has filled the afternoon. Tonight......PIZZA!

Our praises to our God:
-His loving protection on all roads
-Our enjoyable time with Kevin and Laura
-No major body pains
-Endurance for the hard climbs
-No rain...yet
-Great Warmshowers hosts

We have not had cell service until today; hopefully, that will improve from here on out. I'm not sure when we'll be able to post next, but keep checking.

Love to you all, and again, thank you for praying!
Gerry and Pat

Days 1 and 2 - Everett to Wenatchee

Thank you, thank you to all of you who are praying! This post will be abbreviated, I will probably fill in more later

Day "0" Saturday, May 24

We arrived at Josh and Monica's about 7:00 p.m. after a good day on the road.

Day 1 - Sunday, May 25
Josh and Monica took us up to Everett for the drop off. They then took the van and will store it for us for the summer. Thanks, you two, for giving up your holiday weekend to help us. We love you!

It was a good day out of Everett over to Skykomish. We dipped our back tire in Puget Sound (that counts as Pacific water, right?), then took off. We left early enough in the day to have very little traffic in the city (being Sunday morning helped also) so got through just fine. As the hours went on, the traffic increased as people left the city for the holiday, going out to the mountains and lakes. We wearied of the traffic noise more than anything.

Setting up

Back tire in the Pacific (kind of)

We got to Skykomish, expecting....well, much more than there really is. We thought there would at least be a campground right there. Not so. But there's one about 1 1/2 miles past, so we rode out there and it was quite nice. Although we were hoping for a shower (Forest Service CGs usually don't have them), we were happy to have a place to throw up the tent. We got the tents up and had time to lie down for a while. Then it rained for a few minutes. That's the only rain we've had. We rested well. Thanks, those of you who are praying that we can actually sleep on the ground! (Susan, you can be proud of me: I actually went to bed without showering after riding. It's amazing how good a washcloth can feel!)

Day 2 - Monday, May 26
Wow, what a day. Gerry and I made our longest climb on a bike today - 16 miles, the last 7 were at 6% grade. It took us 3 hours. (Typically, we can cruise 16 miles in about 50 minutes) All four of us were beat; we were pretty much at the end of our reserves. The leg trembling was our first clue. So, Stevens Pass will be etched in our minds (and muscles) for a long time. It was pretty cool out, probably about 35 degrees at the top. We had to put our layers back on before heading down the east side. But that was sweet - 20 miles down to Coles Corner, where we stopped at a cool little diner for some refueling. A little rest under the pine trees, then off we went again. It was downhill all the way into Wenatchee, where we are tonight. We stopped briefly in Leavenworth, but there were so many people in town that we hightailed it out. We left camp this morning at 8:00 and pulled into Wenatchee this evening at 6:15; 75 miles. I think it's time for bed. The start of the 16 mile climb

The summit at Stevens Pass

16 mile climb, 3100', 3 hours - phew!

Again, thanks for your prayer. We have most definitely seen God's protection already.

Hopefully, I'll be able to add a bit more tomorrow - a half day off!!

Pat and Gerry

Looming

This is too weird. To have the day finally be upon us is a bit unreal.
(Joel and Nancy, I think you can relate in your long adoption process. Thanks for your encouraging words and love for us. You two are definitely jewels from our time in ID.)

It's been so rainy and dreary for the last couple days that it's hard to even get in the biking mode. We haven't ridden since Tuesday, so by the time we get on the bikes on Sunday morning it will have been four days without a ride. Ouch.

Today, we will pack ONE MORE TIME. I think this is the fifth time since the first of the month. But...we've shaved five (5) pounds off the trailer load this week by cutting back on clothing(one set for the evenings), cooking items, Bible size (pocket NT instead of the pocket OT/NT-thanks,Wayne, for the suggestion), and some smaller items. It's down to 60 pounds total now.

The impetus for the reduction? Gerry realized that our climb over Stevens Pass on day 2 is over 3000'! That's a hefty amount of energy to expend that early in the trip, so the less we're pulling up the better. The other good news is that we've both dropped about 5 pounds off our own 'load' in the past 2 weeks, so that's 10 less pounds to haul. Yahoo!

Gerry also found that Memorial Day weekend is huge for Skykomish (where we think we'll end up the first day), so that means lots and lots of traffic heading that way from Seattle. We so desire your prayer for traffic protection those first couple days. As we keep heading east on Monday, most people will be heading west back to Seattle so that will be better.

The Chronicle wanted an interview, so we did that Tuesday. Please pray that the article will be accurate and lift Jesus up. It might appear next week sometime, probably in the sports section.

We have deep gratitude to our God for His specific and loving protection of our sister-in-law, Joanne. She was at work at her church in Windsor, CO when the Spirit whispered for her to leave. She did and about five minutes later the church was demolished by the tornado that swept through Windsor. Is God good or what?!

As expected, today is a full day tying up all the little loose ends. The teacher picnic is late afternoon and then some of our church is coming this evening to pray with us. We plan to get the trailer loaded into the van and the bike rack on before falling into bed (Oh, our soft, warm bed - we're going to think of you often as we lie on the ground each night!). I already have some butterflies, so I hope I can sleep enough before our 5:00 a.m. rise tomorrow.

"Ride a bike, ride a bike, ride a bike." ~Fausto Coppi

Here we go,
Pat

Counting Down

May 24 - ready or not, here it comes. I think we're almost ready. We must be: my "to do" list has only a few items left on it.

What a gorgeous weekend we had! SW Montana skipped right from winter into summer. Saturday's 60 mile ride was perfect; Sunday's shorter ride was another fight against the wind. Oh well, we've been saying that what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger.

I'm sitting here looking at everything spread out on the floor, wondering again how we're going to fit it all in. What more can we cut out? Hmmm...

Trying to stuff it all in,
Pat

Trial Trip

First - Happy Birthday to Gerry! I love you, my sweetheart!

What a great weekend and, boy, did we learn a lot. About what to pack, what not to pack, how to pack it, how good our gear is, how much more training we need and how gracious God is.

We were able to get all of this...

into this...

But we now know that all of that will not ride like this - safely. The task at hand this week is to figure out how to get everything that's in the panniers (over the back tire) and the front pack all into a rear trunk pack and the trailer. This configuration above was just too unstable with the weight of the front pack and the panniers being too high.

We left Saturday morning and rode the 54 miles to the Lewis & Clark Caverns state park campground. Our friends, Kevin and Laura joined us later. We discovered that our tent, sleeping bags, Jetboil cookstove etc are all going to work great for us (the sleeping bag even kept me warm and it got down to about 35 degrees). We also discovered what things we need to leave home and a few items we'll need to add.

This morning dawned sunny and beautiful and we just knew it was going to be a great ride; that is, until the breezes started kicking up just as we were leaving. Then we knew we were in for a tough ride because the wind doesn't typically start that early in the day.

And it was grueling at times. A southwest wind that gave us hard gusting crosswinds. With our long profile, that gave plenty of surface to buffet us about. About 7 miles from home, we got hit with probably some of the hardest crosswinds we've ever had on the bike. We were both praying for protection.

This flagpole is indicative of what was whipping against us.

We were grateful to not only make it home safely, but to make it home before the rain came.

This week will be focused on reconfiguring the packing. That's going to take some real insight and imagination ;o) !

Thanks to all of you who were praying for us!

Pat

Check Out the New Link

Dare I say it?

It snowed again this morning.

Helloo- it's May 9!

Check out the new link up to the right - Henry's Catsup. Mmmmmmm! You've got to try it. We say this, not just because we help Matt and Sue make it, but because it's good stuff! It's the best! Henry's is helping to sponsor our ride. Thanks Matt and Sue!

We're packing everything up on the bike again tonight and heading out tomorrow to camp. Y'all pray for warmer weather now, hear?

Hope your day is blessed,

Pat

Reality Check

It was a good week last week: I got to take the aircast off and we got three rides in!

The first ride could hardly be called that as it was only 12 miles, but it felt good to at least stretch the muscles a bit. We were able to do 34 on Saturday and 35 yesterday.
"A raggedy ride beats a dressed-up walk".
~Simon Peat

The reality check came on Saturday afternoon with the "practice pack". We gathered everything we're going to need on the trip, laid it out, then tried to pack it. We weighed it all and we're fine on total weight (under 50 lbs). But the volume killed us. There was NO way (and I mean NO way!) it was all going to fit on that Bob trailer! (Keep in mind that we're talking about minimal necessities.) So I pulled it all out and started over...adding the two panniers. Well, that was getting closer. We think we can do it after we pick up one more dry bag to lash on the rack above the panniers. We were hoping to avoid panniers in order to keep the least amount of weight off the back tire (less risk of flats). But, by putting the heaviest items on the trailer and the lighter ones in the panniers, we're okay.

(Also, Gerry replaced the tire on the trailer with a heavier-duty one that we ordered from http://www.biketrailershop.com/. We found them to have the best value and great service. And did we ever mention that we got the Bob trailer from http://www.moosejaw.com/moosejaw/? Again, good price and service; and they have a great sense of humor!)

We hooked up the loaded trailer for our Sunday ride. I was a bit apprehensive, having never pulled one before (we've done only panniers in the past). With over 35 pounds, I was very pleased at how well it handled; we hardly knew it was there. The next step is adding the loaded panniers.

I sat down this morning and "mapped" out everything I need to do each day up until we leave. I've found myself tending to bounce from one thing to another without finishing anything. I think this is going to be invaluable to me now as the time is growing shorter. It will help keep me on task to accomplish what I need to in the right time frame.

Loving the Son (and the sun!),
Pat