Stats: Today - 61 miles: 64 miles to date
Elevation climbed: 912 ft
Temp. Low: upper 40's: High: mid 60s
No wind, cloudy, two hours of light rain
Everett, WA to Guemes Island, WA
The day has come to head out on our trip. Our first day was a 61 mile bike ride to Guemes Island. Before we left we said good bye to our hosts, Phil and Barb. They were excellent hosts. Thank you for making us feel very welcomed.
Dr. Philip Smith, whom we stayed with
in Everett. His wife, Barb, is in the picture
with the group at Puget Sound from
yesterday's post. She's the shorter woman
wearing purple.
We were up and started our trek at 7:15. Our day was pretty much without incident. We had a cloudy day with about two hours of light rain in the late morning. Oh yea, there was one small incident.
(Mary) "What's the most challenging part about riding with so much gear?" Our hostess Barb asked me the night before our ride. Unhesitatingly, I answered, "Keeping your balance while mounting." ...You know where this is going, don't you?
About two hours into our ride, we were on a dangerous highway with lots of traffic and no shoulder. I stopped Ron to see if we were on the wrong route. He rode away after saying no, and I went to mount my bike, putting my left foot into the toe clip as usual. I usually have to balance my bike on my right toe when I do that. I put my right foot down, but there was squishy grass, no pavement, and my foot sank down. I was in trouble, immediately losing my balance. The bike did a complete slow motion flip down into a 15 foot deep ditch! I landed with both feet firmly planted in the mud next to a stream and my bike on top of me!! I yelled for help and two cars had stopped. When the woman who stopped leaned over the tall grass and saw me, she was shocked. By that time, Ron had come back, he and another guy holding his hand helped me pull my 75+ lb bike out of the ditch. The rest of the ride, my feet were treated to a cold mud bath, not to mention my clothes and gear, but I'm so grateful that my angels were once again working overtime and nothing is injured and my bike's fine too. Hallelujah! Thank you for all of your prayers!
The rest of the day went well. We arrived at our destination on Guemes Island about 5:00. On this evening we stayed with a friend of a friend of a friend. Sally Jo's friend Phil called his friend Dick who invited us to use their yard to set up our tent. So to Guemes Island we went.
Waiting for the ferry.
Our tent on the deck at Dick
and Sally's house on
Guemes Island.
We also had our own heated bath house
that we set the tent next to.
glad you're ok! and that you made it to Guemes fine. Looks like a cool place.
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