Tuesday September 11, 2007, 72 miles (116 km) – Total so far: 4,715 miles (7,588 km)
## map87 ## 72.07 miles 5:58 27 max 12 avg
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We got up pretty damn early. Kris kept us company while we packed our bags and got ready to hit the road. We thanked her over and over for hosting us while we had a relaxing visit to Seattle.
A few days ago we got the PDF with the maps for the STP ride http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_to_Portland but we just needed to print them out. We went to the library but the library was closed so we went to some print shop and said ‘Here print this pdf’ the dumb lady working there, thought she was doing us a favor by flipping around the orientation, adjusting the scale of our maps and then charging us an arm and a leg. Being the uptight architect that I am, I flipped out but decided not to say anything, she was just trying to be nice and I just wanted my maps and to get the hell outta there. In the meantime I ate all the Hershey chocolate outta the candy jar, so I didn’t feel that bad.
Riding outta Seattle was kind of a nightmare. It was rough getting ourselves on the STP route. When we finally found the STP route, it put us right next to this beautiful lake. For a little while. We stopped at some grocery store and the general manager came out because he was really excited to hear about our trip.
After the grocery store things got a little rough following the STP route. The road that STP used was some pretty high traffic. Basically unrideable, they must close a lane or something when the have the STP ride. We found ourselves riding about 10 miles on sidewalks along some pretty busy roads.
The rest of the day we had a miniature shoulder on high-traffic roads. It made for a stressful day of riding. But at least we were able to see Mount Rainier http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Ranier in the distance.
We had about an hour left of daylight. We decided to try to book it 12 miles to the next town before the sun went down. Suddenly I felt something in my rear wheel. We found a parking lot and fixed the flat in record time. And got back on the road.
It was dark when we got into town. We weren’t that hungry so stopped in at the bar to grab a beer. It turns out tonight was karaoke night. Jamie belted out a few songs and we both drank several pitchers of beer.
We hung out with all the cowboys at the bar. The kept the bar opens a little later, so the cowboys and us could have an extra beer. We talked with some guy for a while who is 30 years old and has been divorced 3 times. As he told us his story, it just got more painful the more he talked; eventually we couldn’t take it anymore so we went to the bar next door.
The second bar was filled with a rowdy group of 20 year olds and a beautiful bartender. As we walked in Jamie reminded me about how we don’t have a place to sleep tonight. We started chatting with the rowdy boys and it got out how we just rode our bikes here from Maine and all hell broke loose in the bar.
Some kid told us we had a place to stay in Portland and made some calls, but then he never gave us any info. All those kids were so rowdy they started to get on our nerves. The night ended with the bartender telling us all her annoying problems and how her boyfriend wants to get married and she won’t have it. Eventually we got the hell outta there and found the town park where we crashed on top of picnic tables.
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