It Has Begun!

So here's the story -- a three month bike trip across America.
here's the cast -- four Oles and a couple of old men.

Elizabeth White
Kelly Fulton
Caleb Buecksler
Mark Kingsbury (to appear somewhere in Montana)
Angus Fulton (wise man (for the first three weeks (to pay for an occasional drink)))
Larry White (wise man (to appear sporadically))

Sunday, May 14th, Anacortes WA

The first three and the bottom two of the cast kicked things off by dipping their rear wheel in the Pacific Ocean. It was a bit of a stressful morning -- getting piles of gear squeezed into fourteen (gradeschool backpack size) panniers, all while a croud of loved ones cheered us on (then waited) all while anxiously sipping on their seattle-style mochas. It was a glorious day and the first repair popped up only three blocks out from the parking lot. shoot.
Lunch was great (crab sandwiches(thanks, dad, larry, wise one)) and then we pushed on for the most beautiful campground in the world, only sixty miles from the coast. Rockport State Park is the name and biblical proportioned trees were the game. Check it out sometime.
The White family met us all at the campground. They all cheered as we rolled into the park. Larry promptly got into the back seat of the car, rolled down the window and had his daughter, in the front seat also roll down her window. Each grabbed a wheel off to the camp site they drove. What a stellar finish for the wise man. The crab sandwich-eating Larry threw in the towel for now but plans on reappearing sometime, somewhere in New York for another tour.

Moving west, on the second and third day we headed into the Northen Cascade National Park on Highway 20. As early arrivals to the freshly opened park, we had two amazing nights in some of the most breathtaking mountains ever. It was pretty sweet to have the whole campground to our selves -- two nights in a row. First at the Colonial Campground on the Ross Lake and then the Early Winter's Campground, just west of Mazama, WA. Inbetween these sweet campgrounds were two monstrous passes -- Rainy Pass and Washington Pass, both over 5,000 feet. On top of the passes, five feet of snow lined the road. Good thing it was a warm day-- perfect for a snowball fight. Record setting warmth created a melting winter wonderland with a pleathora of waterfalls. While we kicked it in the snow on top, waters of flood proportions rushed down from the mountains. All morning long we sweat bullets in the mountain air going up hill with the glorious snow melt streams as our AC stops. On the way down the other side, however, we had to use ear muffs, jackets, and gloves to keep us from freezing. A real change from one extreme to the other.



Loup Loup Pass was a real wing-dinger. Only 92 degrees of fresh sunshine and NO wind helped us up the 4,800' pass as we rolled over freshly laid asphalt. Sweet. And just when we thought the day was done and we had landed at the perfect campground; the lack of water offered a ten mile bonus ride for the day. Not Cool. The extra salt on dinner's french fries tasted extra good that night as the four of us sat in our salt-stained jersey's at the local cafe. That day, all in all, we went through 12 gallons of water between the four of us.

Which brings us to the present. Outside, in Tonasket, WA, it is 98 degrees and dry. Inside, in the Tonasket Public Library, it is a refreshing 76 degrees, where we will call it a day, 20 miles shy of the planned stop. We have a lovely, shady, spot just outside an icecream shop, (Angus does love his chocolate malts) to camp for the evening. $2 per person and calming trickle of the local irrigation ditch to make it too nice to pass up.

Over and out --