Tuesday, June 5, 2012

NW Tour

Sorry for the long delay but we've been busy riding, and lately enjoying American beers!!!

We left Tacoma about 3 weeks ago I think and rode up the Hood Canal to Port Angeles visiting friends along the way and then onto Vancouver Island where we spent a week -10 day visiting more friends and enjoying wonderful sunshine and company.  Naturally the day we left it was raining as we left Doug & Evelyns for the ferry.  By the time we got to the ferry terminal on the mainland it was pouring down all the way into Vancouver where it finally let up.  Spend a nice evening in Vancouver and headed out to cross BC via the Crows Nest Highway.  Seems like we forgot that the mtns run north-south and we were riding west to east so again we had lots of passes to cross.  Finally got across all but the last one and found out we could ride north from Nelson for 30km and take a ferry across the lake and then ride south along the lake to Creston an bypass the biggest pass of all.  No real decision to make there!!  So we hit Creston and headed south to the good ol' USA and are know in Sandpoint, ID.

Beautiful spot and real estate prices are a lot less than what we expected to see but as nice as the area is it's not probably the place for us:  a bit too tame!  Seems like we have hit the area in the peak of their rainy season and as we plan to head out tomorrow for WA there is another big rain storm predicted for tonight and tomorrow.

Right now we'll head west on Hwy 2 then a quick loop to the north before going back south to 2 again then to 25 before heading towards Wenatchee and finally Tacoma near the end of the month.  After BC it's good to be back where prices for everything are much cheaper.  We have started to try to cut down the mileage per day to enjoy the riding and scenery a bit more and make it a more relaxing end of the journes.

Sally picked my up a really good book about China and what it is "really going thru" these days - not all the roses that one often hears in the mainstream media.  "Out of Mao's Shadow" is a very realistic book and the stories that are told, while we don't have first hand knowledge of the stories, we did experience the general tone of the book on our trip.  Not a pleasant experience for the bulk of the Chinese people who don't have the means or the connections or the will (fortunately) to trod on their fellow citizens.

We are so blessed to live in the country we do, even including Canada.  As much as we'd like to change some things there is no where else we'd prefer to be.  Clean air, clean water and mostly open government!!

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