Days 74 & 75 – Bike Across America

Day #74

Elizabeth arrived after 10:30pm, because her flight was delayed by weather in Charlotte. At least she arrived before the Crowdstrike computer glitch that shut down everything the following day.

It was great to see her and we stayed up late talking. I still got up early and went to breakfast while Elizabeth slept.

Most of the day was spent visiting with Elizabeth’s uncle Ben and aunt Nancy. We had a wonderful visit. They treated us to a fabulous lunch at Arnie’s Restaurant right on the Puget Sound. Then we had a nice walk on the waterfront.

We collected some good advice from Ben & Nancy on logistics and things to do the next two days. They also gave us some excellent baked goods to eat over the next two days.

It was a one meal day for Elizabeth, but I went out and got some dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. We turned in early, to get an early start the next day.

Day #75

Woke up at 5:30 and we both got ready to go. I was biking by 6:15. It was a 5 mile bike ride to the ferry terminal. We were able to catch the 7:10 ferry from Edmonds to Kingston. It was $11 for a round trip ticket, and there wasn’t a discount because I was only going one way.

They let bicycles board the ferry first, followed by motorcycles, and then everyone else. I got to meet Ken & Donna, who were two cyclists who were riding a day trip. They helped me manage the ferry crossing and we sat together in the lounge during the crossing and chatted.

They also let the bicyclists exit the ferry first, which led to a lot of traffic passing me shortly after exiting the ferry. I was biking on highway 104, and I thought that the traffic wouldn’t be bad after the ferry traffic got past me, but I was wrong. The traffic continued the whole way until I got onto the Olympic Discovery Trail. That was 25 miles of biking on highway 104. Fortunately, there was a great shoulder on this road – 4 feet to start, but 8 feet for most of it.

I stopped in Port Gamble, which was about halfway through my time on highway 104, and got a breakfast sandwich for second breakfast. Right after Port Gamble is the Hood Canal Floating Bridge, which provided some great scenery.

I had several views of the Olympic mountains during my ride. Here is another one from a side road I took to avoid some road work on highway 104.

Eventually, I got onto the Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT). The ODT was paved and was in excellent shape. In some places it shared a country road, but those roads had very few cars. The signage was very good and it was easy to stay on the trail, even though there were a lot of turns.

The last few miles to Port Angeles, which was my finishing town for the day, were along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I could see Vancouver Island across the strait.

I biked into Port Angeles at 2:30, and checked in to our hotel. It was only 68 degrees. Such nice weather for biking. For the day, I biked 71 miles and climbed 3,500 feet. It was a rather hilly day.

God willing, tomorrow will be the last day of this bike adventure. It’s 75 miles from Port Angeles to the Pacific Ocean. I’ll be continuing on the ODT. I’m very excited to successfully complete this epic adventure.