Shelton Valley Road

Greetings blog readers! First off, sorry for the lapse in communication-- it turns out there are very few computers in Southwestern Washington.

Anyhow, below is the description of our first day.

Saturday, 8/18:



They say you meet lots of very interesting people who are also touring, which this early on has proven to be very true-- on the Seattle ferry dock to Bremerton, Chad and I met a very nice German couple, Frank and Reke, who are doing the same ride. We had not even left Seattle and already we had friends to ride with. We decided to stick together for the first day, as none of knew exactly where we were going once we left Bremerton. The ferry ride over was really pleasant, and we took off down the road towards Shelton, where we decided we might stay if we didn't feel strong enough to push on to Montesano.

However, we had left pretty late and arrived in Shelton around 5 pm, so we decided to call it a night. We had some difficulty finding a place to camp, so we tried to get a hotel, but every hotel in Shelton was sold out. So, at Mom's suggestion, we called a very dear friend of hers, Edie Llarsen, who lives on Shelton Valley Road up the street from Gramma Nita's old house. Edie welcomed us with open arms and allowed the four of us to stay in her barn-- she and I stayed up after the others had gone to bed and caught up. What a way to start the trip!

Today's stats: 46.8 miles, 10.8 mph avg speed, 1896 ft of climbing.