It takes a couple days to slow down...

With the wedding settling into those left who were going to stay for the Bon fire party, we rode away. The 20 miles to South Whidbey State Park was a nice way to end an exciting day of emotion. As we were peddling up the in front of the world headquarters of The Midnight Kitchen catering company, a twang from the rear wheel told me I had busted another spoke. I nursed it along until we got to camp where repairs would be easier.

The hilly 36 miles to Deception Pass State Park was filled with many wonderful people. We met Tom as waited at the noisy intersection of 525 and 20 to make sure that we took 20 to Coupeville. Tom was once the owner of a bicycle shop in the Bay View area where our friends David and Melinda have theirs today.

Then as we were entering Coupville and looking for a place for lunch, a young family on bikes was coming the other direction. We takes about bikes with the two boys then asked for a suggestion for a place to get a sandwich. The led us to Ciao, an Itallian sandwich shop. As soon as we pulled up a woman approached us and invited us to eat with them. Paul and Sonia were in town to get their wedding license and we talked bicycling and other chit chat.

We had seen a lone rider in Coupeville coming from the ferry, but didn't see her again until we pulled into our camp at Deception Pass. Roxanne....more tomorrow.

Details, details, details! Why am I always plagued by details!?!

An organized person, I'm thinking would have all of the camp sites figured out and know where all of the confirmation emails were. They would probably have these in a nice email folder or even a hard copy folder just to make sure they had it when needed. I can only imagine that's what they'd do because I haven't achieved that level of Nirvana yet.

http://www.kayakpenderisland.com/  is where I think I made the reservations for our kayak trip on the 15th. I've asked for confirmation...

Ferry Schedules
http://www.bcferries.com/schedules/allroutes_schedulepdf.html

http://www.wsdot.com/Ferries/Schedule/ScheduleDetailByRoute.aspx?route=ana-sj

Camping
August 11--South Whidbey State Park on Whidbey Island Burn Ban
August 12--Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island Burn Ban
August 13--Moran State Park on Orcas Island Burn Ban Primitive camps closed
August 14--Inn on Pender Island (not really camping)
August 15--Inn on Pender Island
August 16--Ruckle Provincial Park on Salt Spring Island  Burn Ban
August 17--Desconso Bay Regional Park on Gabriola Island
August 18--Desconso Bay Regional Park on Gabriola Island
August 19--Birch Bay State Park--Washington (long day of riding) Burn Ban
August 20--Larrabee State Park--Washington
August 21--Bay View State Park--Washington Burn Ban
August 22--Camano Island State Park (ADA Deluxe Cabin)
August 23--Home

The significance of the burn bans is not so much that we can't have a camp fire, it's that we won't be able to use my Biolite cooking stove. This stove uses wood for fuel...and only gas or propane are allowed. This is funny, since I've been waiting to use my new stove and grill attachment!

Planning for the Summer Trip through the San Juan Islands and Southern Gulf Islands

Starting Saturday afternoon, Pam and I will be off on the biggest bicycle trip either one of us has ever done. We are pretty much packed, yet I'm sure that we will be honing it until the moment we roll down the driveway.

The best method/application to create the route and help with figuring out elevation changes was RidewithGPS.com. It cost $50 for an annual membership, but nothing else I found fit the bill. I wanted cue sheets and maps with elevation graphs. Below are links to our daily maps.

August 10--Home to Cassandra's

August 11--Cassandra's to South Whidbey SP

August 12--South Whidbey SP to Deception SP

August 13--Deception SP to Orcas Is (Moran SP)

August 14--Moran SP to Inn on Pender Is

Sea kayaking on Pender Island August 15

August 16--Inn on Pender Is to Ruckle Prov Park

August 17--Ruckle Prov Park to Crofton, BC

August 17--Crofton Ferry to Desconso Bay Prov Park

Goofing off day at Desconso Bay Provincial Park  August 18

August 19--Desconso Bay Prov Park to Tsawwassen Ferry

August 19--Tsawwassen Ferry to Birch Bay SP

August 20--Birch Bay SP to Larrabee SP

August 21--Larrabee SP to Bay View SP

August 22--Bay View SP to Camano Is SP

August 23-- Camano Is SP to Stanwood Amtrak Station

August 23--Amtrak Station Everett to Home

Where to begin...

All blogs are just records of sorts. What I did, thought or saw put down for some reason. This blog is for me, but you're welcome to participate alone the way. It's to help me remember. I don't expect much from it, as I have started and stopped more journals than I can count already. Here we go starting the next one.