"...feels good 'cause it's early."

Day One: Anacortes to Diablo Lake, WA
88.86 miles. 6:12 in the saddle.

It's late in the day and I want to see if this Ishmael guy in my book ever finds work in his sea port town...

So let me try brevity.

First off, we have been warned to take it easy on the first day by many a touring cyclist. It was nice to run into a few today as well (one of which was celebrating her two new knees with a jaunt through the Cascades...)

7 am woke in the morning with... French press, hot cereal, cheesy photos with our back tires in the salt water. Thanks Brad for those things and leading us out of town. First 45 miles were a blur (flat, blue skies, snakes and hummingbirds). Then burgers, shakes, too many photos, coffee AND espresso.

Dave hit the blurry eyed wall around mile 68 (this means you stop, drink a liter or two, eat an energy bar and start pedaling slowly as these things kick in, hopefully within five minutes.)

6 miles later I hit that same wall. When you get to this place, and shake your head disapprovingly at the hill in front of you, you can feel your brain sloshing and lagging behind where your eyes have focused. Everyone should try ţhis.

The whole day was a slight uphill as you follow the river up to the Cascades. A lot of waterfalls to be seen, of course. The final 10 miles of today got steep enough that we were spinning at a cool 4.5 miles per hour at times. Maybe it was the 70 before them, or maybe it was the overkill of cotton shorts, 15 power bars and full size crescent wrench that I chose to carry (among other dumb items that will get sent home when we get to the post office tomorrow).


The town of Diablo has a few free plots down by the river and the folks nextflap to us had us over for some cherries and a fire. Tonight I learned about mine-proof tank construction in Qatar (great job!) and the migratory patterns of Washington's grapes and how the world thinks their fancy drinks hail from the Napa Valley.

I can tell a conversation will be worthwhile when I approach a group of older strangers who are discussing the finer points of The Big Lebowski.

See you in a couple days when I recover from the 4 (5?) gigantic hills that dwarf anything we'll see east of Montana.

Welp, I fail at brevity. If you want the cliff's notes just look at the map at the top of this blog.

Back Tire in the Water, Anacortes


Brad & Dave riding out of Anacortes towards the refinery (the one with the explosion..)


Mossy Boat:


CONCRETE, WA:


Dave's rediculous organization skills:

"Let me begin..."

Day Zero: Anacortes, WA (Mile Zero)
I hadn't planned on saying much about the night before the trip. It should have been an easy drive north, a test drive of our stove and spam in the field beyond the marina, and a solid sleep. Seeing as my dad and I have few plans beyond 'go east, eat when hungry, drink
before thirsty,' the day was unexpectedly great.

With giant burritos from Malena's in Ballard churning in our guts, we drove up Mount Erie (south of Anacortes) to see one of the prettiest views you can quickly get to north of Seattle (without a passport). I'll skip the sentimental stuff I have with this particular mount right now, but I couldn't help thinking about the 2500ish miles between here and the Lake Erie canal I get to cruise alongside in a few weeks.

After unloading the bikes at the marina, we sat down on some grass wondering if the 'will return at seven' sign at the marina office meant tonight or tomorrow. Either way, we were eyeing a great (and apparently free) patch of growth next to a late 1800s steam dredger.
Within 30 seconds of my dad throwing his arms behind his head on the grass, a fellow named Brad rolled up on his fixed-gear, visibly excited about seeing our Surlys, and their ridiculous panniers. It was quickly obvious that Brad loves cycling, whether it be touring,
cyclocross, or tris, and his probing questions initially come off as "do you have any idea what you're doing?" but I was quite wrong about Brad.

Hmmm, I fear this drawing on a tad so I'll just fast forward to me setting up my sleeping bag on the captain's bed on the bridge of a $2,000,000 yacht with a pleased stomach of mango ceviche, feta sweet potato fries and one of the finer IPAs this side of India. Iţ was a night of great conversation covering how john deere motors end up propelling ocean-worthy yachts, why a good book and energy bar is all we need to carry and perhaps why owning 17 bikes might complicate your marital status.

Brad's generosity and excitement for living, cycling, and getting conversation going with his sailing buddies and girlfriend to support FHSSA was an early jolt that we didn't see coming. The best part: it wasn't even his boat, he was just getting it prepped for it's next
voyage.

Oh also, since a few of you will ask, I couldn't find any nautical afghans, as I kept my snooping to a minimum...

_______________________
Picture Time:

With Mike & Allison at Mt. Erie Lookout, Anacortes


With Brad, and our home for the night behind us.



Sleep like a captain:

[Title Pending]

Well here we go. Our ride to Anacortes will be here in an hour, so I'll soak up as much World Cup as I can as I update this. Once again, Mike and Allison are generously making the trek to the Anacortes possible.

We'll likely sleep at the Marina in Anacortes tonight, since it's close to our official start point at the docks and warm food is a quick hop from the gravel parking lot where our tents will go up.

Dave is already making some adjustments with needle and thread to his rain booties, and his bags are about 55-60 pounds (without water).

My gear is about the same weight, and I'm fretting over which novels to take. I've been collecting light editions of some classics over the past couple months from Capote, Marquez, Dosteovsky, Forster, Melville, McCarthy, et cetera. Although they all fit, I need to throw a few out.

I also loaded a few novels as PDFs onto my itouch, but I'm not confident my eyes will approve.

Our fundraising was up to $700 after the first week of emails went out, but I have some insider information that there will be a good jump when I get an update from FHSSA next week.

We've received a few offers of food and shelter along the way from family and friends (and even a generous offer from a member of the record trading website where I frequent), which is pretty exciting.

Dave had a hard, but worthwhile day with his brothers and parents yesterday, so there's a lot on our minds beyond the difficulty of this next week: The Cascades.

I guess I'll sign off and get a shower, since there won't be too many of them this summer.


Piles of Stuff (click photos for detail)

Elevation Guide for Week One:

See you in a few days.

Less than Two Weeks...

I know donations are trickling in after talking to some family and friends, which is wonderful, thank you everyone (I'll get some totals from FHSSA soon).

The 'practice run' weekend went well. Dave's 3 day, 198 mile trip had tons of rain, a flat tire in a downpour, and a kind local offered a dry garage to fix it in, but he had no hitches with his gear, which is great. (I'll update this post with his pics/thoughts when I get them).

My ride was 2 days and totaled 162 miles, with rain for about half of it. I weighed my gear when I got home: bike without bags: 30 pounds. with bags: 65 pounds. I'll make some adjustments, but the weight will likely increase for the full ride.

The island route I posted a map of last week was gorgeous, even in the rain, but the return trip down the I-5 corridor into Everett and sprawling towns was terrible; beyond the Skagit Valley I don't recommend this route, especially due to the one foot shoulders across the 529 bridges between Marysville and Everett (a biking map suggested this route).

I was fortunate to stay at an organic farm near Mount Vernon, through an old Camp Reed connection. The stay was quite educational for me, and I encourage anyone who is into farming with a heart check out their site here. They are a newish company, and will be coming down to Seattle weekly for share deliveries. Also, their chickens get a new pen location every 8 hours, which you can't say about any other farm in our area.

I don't expect to have as hearty a breakfast throughout my trip, but I can dream of it. So a big thank you to our hosts for their backyard, discussions, breakfast, and my gigantic sandwich for the ride home. And thanks to Mike and Allison for doing the trek with me.

19 days to go...

Less than 3 weeks to go, and our donation page went live a few days ago.

Donate Here.

A few notes on donations: they are tax deductible, matching is available if your employer has it, and you have the option of donating anonymously. FHSSA will share names with me, but not dollar amounts (so we can thank you personally after the trip. Also, the site is encrypted (you'll notice it is the NHF site embedded within the FHSSA site). Questions?

Game plan for this weekend: Dave will be riding from Spokane to Sandpoint (Idaho) for a night, and return the next day to test out his gear and how much food one can eat over 200 miles in 2 days. My mom, Tammy will be meeting him there.

I will be riding from my Ballard (Seattle) to Anacortes to scope out our official starting point. Although I'm attempting to do the 180 miles "unsupported" over saturday/sunday, my good buddies Mike & Allison will join me with a bike & car, and we are sleeping at an organic farm in the area.

see below for the exciting routes.

Finally, I'm long overdue for some pictures. Here are our trainer setups that we've been using since January. (My dad chooses to just listen to music, I try to study or watch tv, based on my sweatiness). Obviously, I've been watching the Giro recap every night.

And this is the map my dad has been drawing on, day by day to emulate/imagine "the ride". I've lost my training notes from March among my lecture slides, so I can't tell who's further along at this point. I'd imagine Dave.

More on FHSSA...

My dad had suggested this trip around August, and it seemed as far-fetched as our dream of motorcycling around the Mediterranean.  By October I knew he was serious, as he had purchased guide books and researched how to do a trip of this length, unsupported. Also by October, his father was given 3 months to live, which has made for an emotional year in our family.

Over Christmas, Dave and I began discussing the idea of raising funds for a charity.  Since our family had recently seen the compassionate benefits of palliative care with the loss of Dave's brother, Larry, as well as the newly-opened discussions with his parents about their end of life care, we used this as a springboard.

When we stumbled across the FHSSA online (which began as the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa), we read through their goals, talked it over briefly, and knew it was something we wanted to support. They strive to form alliances between programs stateside to hospices in Africa that focus on community health services specific to end of life care. The FHSSA Impact Fund was developed by their affiliate, the National Hospice Foundation, to raise funds to support the programs of FHSSA.

Our experiences with hospice programs here in Washington have been excellent, and it's a topic that doesn't receive a lot of discussion day to day (at least among my friends). The severity of need in Sub-Saharan Africa, specific to end of life care, hardly needs mentioning.

We also liked the idea that a portion of the funds go on to pay for bicycles that can become integral in the delivery of palliative care in remote areas. I guess the bicycle part was the deal-breaker, because there's a myriad of funds worth supporting, but this one seemed personal on few levels.

My grandfather, Ev, is currently being assisted daily through an excellent hospice program in Spokane, and his wife of 70 years, Liz, has been using her lifelong career as a nurse to its fullest potential with him.  While he has outlived the initial prognosis of three months, his recent days have not been easy. Ev and Liz served as medical missionaries for the majority of their careers (as a doctor and nurse, respectively) in under-served populations in South America, the Middle East, and Africa. It's hard to summarize their lives, so I will likely introduce them better in another post.

If you you're interested in other funds specific to Africa such as the one we found, take a look at aidforafrica.org, which is collaborative in nature and appears to ensure our money is going into well-organized programs. 

A donation page will be created on the FHSSA website, specific to our trip, and it will allow us to 'track our progress' on donations. Also, it keeps all of the tax-deductible hoopla out of our hands (their tax code is on the site).

Five Weeks to Go.

Dave visited in Seattle two weeks ago, and we were able to finish up our shopping for the trip, minus a few power bars and snacks we'll buy the day before. 

We have been lacking in updates, but now that we're distributing our business cards, it's time.

I'll get some pictures of our trainers, and loaded bikes shortly (when I'm not in NYC). And we have a conference call next week with the the director of FHSSA. Our own donation page on their newly renovated website should happen next week. 

Here's a picture from early March, before a 65 mile trip to get smoothies in Idaho. (Also, that's Thorin, our third Springer Spaniel worthy of a Tolkien name. He was put down a few weeks after this picture. He loved jumping high into the air off of docks and resting his chin on everybody's feet.)