Good morning said the marmot (at least that's what I think it was.)
The hotel breakfast offered a wide variety of fresh (not canned!) fruit, and made for a good start into the day.
Our last leg of the journey would sum up to about 400km through the North Cascades, heading West towards the coast, and then straight up North to the border.
While we were climbing up the mountain road it got colder by the minute. Down from 20C to 7C. We bundled up good, even making use of our rain gear as wind breakers.
As we were getting closer to the We(s)t Coast, guess what happened... it started drizzling.
The roads were awfully slippery from oil and diesel spills left by countless motor homes and cars. We had to be careful.
Not much of a view today, so we pressed on.
Leaving the coast mountains behind, we stopped for lunch at the Panino Cafe, which we accidentally found as there happened to be a Starbucks located adjacent to it. The eatery was promoting gluten free wraps and pizza. Talk about destiny.
A delicious veggie pizza on gluten-free crust for me.
A split pea soup with a BLT sandwich for the spouse.
We avoided the I-5 and decided to ride the Chuckanut Drive instead. It is always worth the detour.
And while we positioned the bikes for a final picture a truck stopped, a gentlemen got out and immediately peppered questions to Roland asking about the Burgy. He was a 650cc Burgman rider himself and planning his first major road trip to Wisconsin for a family thing.
His colleague was kind of antsy to get back on the road again, so he left with our best wishes for the road trip. Then it was over... after a five minute wait at the border, we were back on home soil again. What a journey.
Brrrr. You guys really hit some cold weather going home.
ReplyDeleteSo happy you had an uneventful ride home and made it safely.
Thanks again for taking the time to join us. We enjoyed seeing you again and getting to ride with you two too.
I hope there will be many more occasions to meet and ride and eat and chat.
DeleteWow 7°C weather in the middle of summer. Glad I don't live there in winter.
DeleteI've been enjoying your ride report. It was interesting to see you rode the other half of the Cascade Loop Highway on the way back. I remembere those mountains. They were quite high and impressive. I imagine it was quite cold. You sure had the full gamut of weather!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised how could it still could get this time of the year. I was missing my longjohns for that stretch over the Cascades.
DeleteAawww...the trip is wrapping up!! (yes, I know it is really already done, but still sad to read about.)
ReplyDeleteI am glad you had fun!
Thank you, maybe next time we'll meet.
DeleteNice Ride Report.....:-). When did you take this trip? We just came through the North Cascades last week and didn't run into all of that snow! BUt it was COLD... that's for sure. It went from 12c to 26c in 30 minutes on our way down to Winthrop. The day before in Penticton was 33c.
ReplyDeleteI'm gettin some long Johns! ha
Hi Patricia, thanks for stopping by. The trip happened not even a month ago in the time from 18th to 23rd July.
DeleteWOW....that was a lot of snow still on the banks of the road like that. I'm getting some long johns for my next camping trip as I almost froze the first night in the camp. Thanks for the list of what worked and what didn't. It will be very useful in the future....:-).
ReplyDelete