On to Albany

This day we did ride the actual tour! We were in and out of some light rain, and as you can see by Tango's sunglasses, we had periodic sun. Actually Tango is prepared for either or both.

Tango is our friends Kristi and Kristin's loyal friend.

Our route was on quiet roads with more country living. The horses, cows, goats, sheep and alpacas gave little notice as we cruised by during their lazy grazing, and the rolling hills gave just the right amount of leg and lung challenge to let us know we were pedaling bikes.

We were ready for tea and crumpets by the time we entered the town of Independence. As one might guess -- Independence is the place to be for the fourth of July.

And the 2EZ was open. It was quite something with antiques and, well, junk on the tables, lining the walls, and on any available flat surface. Our server never stopped talking to us the entire time, told us the remodeling they were in the midst of HAS to be done by Friday (by the looks of things this could never happen), and told us every detail of the remodel and history of this place and other places in town. We had difficulty getting him to stop talking and let us pay to get on our way...

Finally we got released and could ride on!

Kristi was the only one of our smaller group (the larger group started earlier than we did this morning, and had already left the winery) to take part in the wine tasting, but others did purchase a bottle or two for later.

 

The town of Jefferson held our (rather late) lunch spot.

And then we were all ready to finish the day and wheel into our luxurious Comfort Suites Inn and our group pizza dinner. The original group picnic cookout got changed with the cold evening weather and -- some rain falling again. That and a long mileage day made pizza delivered to the hotel breakfast room a lot more attractive!

Alrighty then, I am caught up.

Oregon bike touring

It's hard to catch up when I miss a day of updating here, but I will try. I may do it in two installations -- one for yesterday and one for today.

A rather mixed bag for our first day of the tour. OK, we did not actually do any of the tour. Well, we toured a bit, but not as part of the planned route, and not with our touring group.

Let me start with the pouring, cold rain we awoke to. So, it was pouring rain and cold in the morning with a promise of sun and good weather in the afternoon. No brainer -- we wanted to ride in the sunny good weather. Susan found the Salem Bike Club (our destination for the day) listing on line and saw there was a ride scheduled for 1:30. Perfect. We talked with members of our group who decided to follow the original plan and determined we would meet up at the end of the day at our motel.

When in doubt - shop. Susan had also found some good sales at Eddie Bauer, and lo! There was an outlet right close by, and on the way to Salem. We shopped (and bought things we could not live without), drove on to check in at our motel, and took off for the ride start. We arrived half an hour early, met our leader, signed the waiver, got our map and cue sheet and I took a test spin in the parking lot. No gears! Susan worked on and nearly got it fixed -- cable had pulled totally out of the gear box on the rear - but we ended up going to a bike shop and missing out on riding with the group.

Found some interesting bike racks in town. One was in front of a quilting shop.

Finally my bike was fixed, the sun was shining, and we had a map and cue sheet! We did the ride on our own and had a grand day. First we toured around town for a brief time. Last week I was at the capital building in Olympia, Washington; this week we rode around the capital building in Salem, Oregon.

With the help of Susan and her GPS skills, we found our way out of town and onto the Fairview Loop ride we had garnered from Jakie the ride leader. Bucolic country side with farm animals, Christmas tree farms, vineyards, and wide open spaces.

And fine dining in Turner before heading to our home for the night.

We began our cycling adventure at 3:00 p.m. which is quite late to begin a thirty mile ride, and we were good and tired when we finished.

Coming Home

It is so nice to have the St. Martin's campus close by as it offered more pleasant time for my early morning walk again this morning. I wandered through a few different paths and areas and came to the Church/Abbey where the (I assume) priests were going to early morning Mass.

 

A little further on I found more boatS. The old one was named "Murphy's" and the newer one was "Murphy 2". Perhaps they raced these in some year.

 

We had a leisurely morning before packing up to head home in glorious sunny, seventy degree weather! Summer has arrived -- at least for today. Riding along the trail was a delight.

This lake will some day be only a bog we think.

Even found an elephant along the way.

Needed a snack break so we pulled up a piece of pavement and enjoyed a rest as well.

This rail trail connected several communities by train back on the day. The day was so gorgeous and we had time, so we took a detour ride to Tenino for lunch.

Four cycling gentlemen were stopped at a crossing with us and suggested Scotty Bs for lunch -- actually they insisted we go there. So we did. A fifties themed restaurant where the food was ok, and Scotty seemed to do all the work -- waiter, bus boy, cashier and owner, and was very friendly.

There is a big quarry in Tenino where they once cut stone and shipped it by train to Olympia for building. In front of City Hall there is a statue commemorating the Stone Cutters.

 

At first look, we thought these were real deer. Not. They are one dimensional metal sculptures.

This was our longest mileage day and we were ready to be done by the end of it. Our frozen coffee drinks and ice cream (for me) were well deserved treats.

Our tour was short in miles but long and full in fun and adventure. Now I must pack for the next adventure which will include Susan. Come back in a couple of days and see what is happening.

 

Olympia

We did a combination of walking and cycling today. Weather forecast of 70% chance of rain until around 2:00 was not inviting good thoughts of cycling so we chose to take the public transit bus into town and explore around on foot.

 

For my family and friends who live out of state, Lacey, where we are staying, is an outskirt of our state capital city of Olympia, and is an easy hop and skip into town.

We strolled the streets, visited a few small art galleries (a favorite of Vickie's), stopped into a couple of bike shops (fortunately the jacket on sale did not fit me) and a toy store to play with a few of the toys.

The guys at the bike shop told said that the 5th Avenue Sandwich shop was the best place for lunch. Vickie and I were not very impressed (okay, we were not happy) with our veggie sandwiches, but Gerry made a better selection of a salad.

After lunch the sun was peeking in and out, and a lot more out, so we hopped the bus to come get our bikes. The bus had taken us about half an hour to get to downtown; we biked there in just under that amount of time and the distance was oh so short -- as in less than five miles!

We cycled around the Capital campus for a bit, stopped in at the gift shop at the legislative building -- Vickie thought maybe we could buy a law here, but no.

We returned to the Historic District, where we had walked earlier, for now it was coffee/tea time.

 

Our cycle route into town from Lacey was very underwhelming as it paralleled the Interstate (I-5) so closely that the trees and bushes could not hush the noise even a little. When we finally got onto a better part of the trail -- it ended. Right at the Capital building. We wanted a different route home! We used the Thurston County bike map which proved to be a good tool. The best part was following (when we could) the "popular roads used by local cyclists". Those roads meandered and wove through quiet suburban neighborhoods with little to no traffic.

 

Couldn't pass up this tree. The photo doesn't really show it well enough, but the best I could do. It has two sharp angles and the tree grows healthily.

At the end of our long and full day we walked to O'Blarney's Pub for dinner, and to our delight there is entertainment on Tuesday nights -- traditional Irish music. We were toe stomping to the tunes of the six member group for an hour before heading home for bed time. Bed time -- as in, good night ;'-)

A walk through Saint Martin's University

My tour buddies are late sleeper inners, and I am an early waker upper. I took a morning walk through campus for some photos. The road we took yesterday that kept us off of busy College Ave. and brought us to our motel.

 

 

The morning rain has stopped and I think we will be getting on our bikes soon for today's cycling adventure.

Mini bike tour Yelm-Olympia

Touring light?

Looks like so much gear! Well, we had to be prepared for the rain that was forecasted, and actually falling as we pulled out of my driveway. We fretted about that rain during our two hour drive to Yelm as we passed through several "squalls". BUT -- not only did we not have a drop of rain, the sun shone on us for most of the day. High, fluffy white clouds kept getting more distant and made room for all that blue!

I had to adjust my bike and gear as the pannier put onto the rear rack interfered with the shift box and my gearing was off. With Vickie's help and my experience with working with my friend Jim(ali), we finally got it working and I moved the panniers to the front rack. That set up worked really well. Thank you Jim, for all the teaching and tutoring you have given me that helped me to not panic when something went wrong!

With permission from Yelm City Hall, we parked in their photo secured lot for the two nights we will be gone, and after a subway lunch we were geared up and on the "Yelm to Tenino Trail".

This trail connects with the "Chehalis Western Trail" that would take us to Lacey where we had reservations at the Super 8 Motel for two nights.

 

We did a short stop at Monarch Sculpture Park for a look at some of the "odd" art work there. It is different.

When we neared Lacey we scouted out a Starbucks and lazed in the sun(!) at the outdoor table with coffee/tea and a snack. We took what the cycling map noted as "local cyclist back route" to College Ave. where our motel is located. We discovered that "College Avenue" is named such because it goes by St. Martins Univeresity/Abby/Benedictine Community. It was a delightful traffic free, tree lined road and wound its way onto and through the campus. I did not take time for a photo as we were engrossed in determining if we were on the correct road, and I hope to get back there tomorrow for at least one photo.