Days Two Hundred Twenty-six thru Thirty, 091012-16 - Seattle, WA

Days Two Hundred Twenty-six thru Thirty, Dates Mon-Fri, October 12-16, 2009

I hung out at Joe, Joanna, and Joshua’s (their cat) for the best part of a week. We caught up, talked about my trip, our lives, old times, the future – we watched the sci-fi movie, “The Watchmen,” They took me to REI and the local bike shop so I could get some self-sealing innertubes, a cheap poncho (still trying to figure out how to stay dry in rainy conditions), and other needed accessories. I then installed the new tires that my trike dealer, Steve, sent to this address; the rubber on my rear tire was worn thin by now, and it split right up the middle, all the way around, from the cold(?), over-inflation after getting fixed(?), I don't know (see the picture); we went to dinner at a friend of theirs, and had pizza and a fantastic, home-baked-from-scratch plum tart; I took them out to dinner at a nice Indian restaurant, and when I wasn’t doing all this other stuff, I updated my Street Atlas mapping program to show the route towards the “westernmost point in the contiguous 48 states,” and then down the Pacific Coast, back to San Francisco. I also had to do a fair bit of work to update my stealth camp locations on my computer map, and blogged, too. So, now I’m up-to-date, again, and girding myself for the final leg of my ‘fantastic journey’: out to that last extreme compass point. After more research online, and on Google Earth, I found out just exactly *where* I could find that westernmost point, as I’d found out it wasn’t where I had originally thought. I thought the westernmost point I could cycle to was the town of Ozette, BUT, it was only the westernmost *town* - not the westernmost *point*. I looked again, and indeed, I could get a bit further west by riding out to Cape Flattery, about 3.5 miles southwest of Neah Bay. Two of the other three “extreme” compass points had similar qualifiers on them, as well: "The most extreme compass points that I could get to as a public person, on a cycle." To get to the absolute real westernmost point, I’d have to do some hiking and/or boating, which wasn’t happening.

Just as I had feared, the weather for the foreseeable future (a week) was going to be some degree of rainy. Ugh. But, if Lewis and Clark could survive trekking through the wilds of Idaho and Montana, if the pioneer settlers could survive taking covered wagons through thousands of roadless miles, if Frodo and Sam could pass through darkness and danger in the land of Mordor, by god, I can face a little rain. Even a lot of rain.

Expenditures for Oct 12-16: used Stephen King book, “The Green Mile,” ($4), 3-Slime self-sealing innertubes, 4-CO2 cartridges, 2-velcro ankle bands, 2-sets of two thorn proof tire liners, one new bike pump at Gregg’s Cycles ($108), other miscellaneous food and accessory items ($62)