Category: Washington

I rolled into town right about dinnertime last night and met Atom for the first time face-to-face. We’d known each other in the Bay Area in somewhat distant circles but never connected face-to-face in the big metropolis. We’d exchange hellos online every few months to years, but we never met up for whatever reason. Simply…

Starting a vacation without plans means being agile throughout your trip. In professional circles, I call this my vacation backlog. The backlog contains all of the things I could potentially ever do with some consideration of constraining factors like time and cost, but I know there is no way I can do everything in the…

The time on my trip seemed to be flying by. I felt a bit of twinge as I crossed into the United States knowing that I was on the southbound leg of my journey. I felt like I was going home. I wasn’t, however, ready to fully commit that I was over the hill on…

After being chased around by fires for three weeks, the smoke finally caught up with me. Remember, I had no real destination or itinerary for this trip. Each day, I looked at the weather, reached out to my community, and scoured the local area for opportunities. The winds shifted from the east, so now all…

Over the past few days, I’ve highlighted numerous challenges with borders. Let’s take another look. What if borders opened access and provided opportunities? Some friends and I in Seattle had the opportunity to see the Ballard Locks, the border between Puget Sound and Lake Washington. Let’s take a look at the geography: Lake Washington is…

Today was my first day on my own in Canada. Randy went back to work (it is Monday, after all), and I had the day free (as I’m on vacation 😀). What was on tap for today? Going back to the United States of course! I’ve always been a big fan of Americana – in…

This post is different than just about every post on my blog. I don’t have any pictures to describe such an intensely intimate experience. I don’t think littering this blog with pictures of everybody I saw would do the kindness of Seattle justice. I saw so many people from so many parts of my life.…

I’m learning a pattern. Many of the national parks in this area have several entrances, none of which connect, and each has exciting things to see. It makes it hard to traverse the park, so the approach needs to commit to one area in doing that area well. Paradise was the popular entrance with the…

It’s hard to believe how fast the time goes. It’s now time to return home for real. I need to leave today to make it to San Jose by Thursday. I’d like a few days to chill out before heading back to work. Like the other days I’m headed out for a major adventure, the…

I’ve got the weekend to chill out in Seattle before heading back to San Francisco. I’m not sure at this point which day I’m leaving as the weather is true Seattle: rain. Andy and I were planning on camping, but sitting in a tent with rain is not my idea of fun nor is it…

While I’m still having a ton of fun out here on the road, my mind set has changed about the trip. I’m going home now. I’ve been through much of northern Idaho and just a touch of Montana and it’s time to turn the bike west and head back to Seattle. I’m trying to avoid…

After three weeks of traveling around the south and days in Seattle where I was not riding, it was time to put miles on the bike again. This leg of the trip is the real meat of the riding where I’m going to see what I’ve ridden so far to get to: the back country…

Originally I was thinking of making today a motorcycle travel day, but after spending 13 hours on planes and airports, that was not going to happen. I needed to get the rear tire replaced, so I spent most of the morning over at EastSide Moto sitting at a desk with my laptop reading and responding…

On the way back from Seattle, the bike picked up a staple in the rear tire. I took it down to CycleWorks in Renton as they said they could patch it. I ride about 20 miles down the freeway. The shop seemed really disorganized as it took over 20 minutes to get one of the…

Tuesday was great. I planned to ride out to Snoqualmie Falls, a huge waterfall in more rural Seattle. Snoqualmie Falls is only about 30 miles from Seattle so I wanted to go a bit further into the east part of the state to see what was up there. I decided to take Interstate 90 east…

Today was day number two off the bike. Both Andy and Raissa work in Downtown Seattle, so I went into town with them. To my amusement, their commute is similar to mine, just on the King County Metro versus the CalTrain. We both live in the ‘burbs and commute into the city via public transit.…

Today it was time to head back to Seattle. I packed the suit in the saddle bags (that was the reason I went to Seattle in the first place). I could not fit the suit in the first 140 liters of space, so Chris brought it up for me. Since I needed it in Atlanta…

Each day seems to be different on the journey. Today was going to be a short day, just shy of 200 miles down the I-5 freeway from Seattle to Portland. What started out to be a three hour tour turned into a six hour grind. I made the mistake of leaving at three which I…

Today was a late start… yep, I’m finding that I like to sleep in. At first I thought the 400 mile day to Crescent City would have been the hardest day, but the ride through Oregon was the toughest I think. Although it was a full 100 miles less, the ride was much slower going.…

Got into Seattle today. I’m exhausted, but it’s been great to see Andy and Raissa again! Will write more and post pics in the am.