The main/only advantage of being all over the place sleep-wise, was being awake by 5am and able to start pedalling at last...well, at least as soon as sunrise anyway!
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| Can't put this off any longer! |
It was an eye-opener cycling with the panniers loaded again: not least because Seattle ain't flat, hah-hah! Anyway, it was good to get on with this at last and leave Sea Tac and Condé Nasty's Crossroads Motel behind.
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| Today's tour opener! |
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| The weather can change quick like you wouldn't believe. |
The other bonus of starting early on a Sunday was that the roads were a lot quieter: I still got my first shout of encouragement though, from some bloke in a SUV. Cheers! I had forgotten how something so trivial can give you a wee boost: got a few more today too.
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| Not unhappy to get through Tacoma with only a minor nav-pfaff... |
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| Bob: perhaps if you hadn't have used a tea-pot things might've turned out differently. |
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| Good old creepy perv-bear, hah-hah! |
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| I had to do a double-take. |
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| "Naa-naa-naa, na-na-na-naa!" |
And after 25 miles I spied those welcoming golden arches and thus it was breakfast time. Excellent!
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| Other fast food outlets are available. But I wouldn't bother! |
Part of the route called for a few miles on the interstate before getting to and through Olympus: it was okay and no flats were caused by the inevitable debris. Believe it or not, there were the remnants of a fridge on the shoulder. Incredable scenes!
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| Was okay, to be fair... |
Onwards through Olympia, crossing Capitol Lake and then onto Highway 101 and all points west! Well, except when it morphed into Highway 8, then 12, then 107 and then 101, but you get the gist.
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| As seen in Olympia. |
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| Capitol Lake. |
There were a few stretches of up-and-down nonsense too but the best bit was that I had some kind of shoulder of proper bike lane all to myself: takes away a ton of stress!
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| Water never far away. |
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| That's about 5 episodes at the rate I pedal. Sorry! |
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| Diggin' my unintentional colour-coordination. |
At about 70 miles in, I stopped for a sandwich and a tin of Starbucks' finest chilled Mocha: you need a bit of a pick-me-up sometimes. Then this gem rumbled in...ace!
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| Made a terrific racket- looked in great condition too. |
That left around 45 miles to go and there was a lovely flat section: I definitely zoned-out a couple of times but it wasn't long before quite a few slow drags did their damage towards the end. Nothing above 7% and all doable but just slooooow...
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| Never saw any elk, but would a couple of deer do the trick instead? |
Bit of a coincidence after seeing that immaculate SS396 Chevelle, as there were around 50 custom cars cruising along over the course of the nest 30 mins or so: they looked and sounded the business!
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| Cool as... |
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| Sure, it's no Focus Tdci but pretty stylish nonetheless. |
My final stop at 95 miles was just to slap-on a bit more suntan stuff: it was beautiful now and *almost* a pleasure to be out there, hah-hah!
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| A short break at 90 miles to put a bit more sunblock on, and snaffle a McDs porridge! |
From there it was a case of just seeing out the last few drags of climbs before a decent downhill to Raymond and then to South Bend. I also saw my first pair of cyclists doing the same thing as me, only in the opposite direction: a big hello was shouted!
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| A) top of the climb, hurrah B) cool sounding county, yesh? |
I found tonight's acco no problem and wow, what a difference from last night's dump! Nice one, South Bend...
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| Oh alright then, if you insist. |
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| That's about all there is to the place. |
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| Must be true, right? |
Dinner was at a Chinese restaurant and was fine: well, I'm not hungry yet, at any rate...
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| And goodnight to you too, South Bend! |
As tour openers go, that wasn't too bad: maybe not quite at the standards of The Stones who opened their latest cash-grab tour in Hamburg last night. Played a blinder too, apparently...right Mike? Right!
Okay, so we're up-and-running..the donations have passed £1K which is fantastic. If you want to help Bloodwise and The Royal British Legion, then please click below:
Now it seems that I can't get a YouTube vid for today's incendiary live number, *but* this will do alright!
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