Sunday, June 15th: After a wonderful couple of
days traveling together we said goodbye to Bob and Graham, as they were heading east into
the Rockies and us heading north to Washington.
While we were at the rally we met several interesting people including Nelson Philips
from Vashon Island near Seattle. Nelson has been communicating with us for some time now
on email and he took the opportunity to come to the rally to meet us. Nelson, having a
deep knowledge of this area of the country gave us a wonderful and scenic escort over two
days up to Seattle. Leaving the high desert of John Day we traveled through rolling plains
of wheat fields towards the dramatic Columbia River Gorge, which is also the dividing line
for the two states. After crossing the river and into Washington State we quickly rose
again into the Cascade Mountains and pine forests that smelt strongly of Christmas!
After stopping for the best huckleberry pie (a la mode!) I’ve ever had in the
little village of Trout Lake, Nelson took us to one of his favorite camping spots, on a
lake at the base of Mt. Adams. The mountain reflected perfectly off the lake and made for
a wonderful spot to stop and rest for the night.
Monday, June 16th: After a lazy morning sleeping late and making breakfast,
we headed out to see the infamous Mt. St. Helen’s. The ride was twisty and turny the
whole way, all the way up to the vista point at Windy Ridge. The landscape is incredibly
dramatic with miles of barren surrounding hills, rotting tree trunks all blown down in the
same direction lay down like a blanket. When Mt. St. Helen’s erupted back in May of
1980 she blew about of mile of earth and ash out of her side (not upward like most
volcanoes) and down the mountain into nearby Spirit Lake. The shock wave from the
explosion blew down every tree for a few miles in the direction of the blast. Every living
thing in the path of the blast was killed --- plant, animal and human life included. More
than 50 people died including Harry R. Truman (owner of the Spirit Lake Lodge), hikers and
campers in the area and geologists studying the imminent eruption. Today you can get
remarkably close to the volcano and the crater to see its destruction.
We spent so much time here just gazing at the bareness of the land that we didn’t
have enough time to make a run through Mt. Rainier National Park just below Seattle. We
did however get commanding views of that volcano from many points along the road north.
After a late lunch we said goodbye to Nelson and made plans to see him again in a few days
at his home on Vashon Island.
It took us another 4 hours to reach our final destination, Snohomish, Washington about
40 miles north of Seattle. There we were warmly greeted by our old friend Don Siewert.
Don has been looking after Chris' R100PD, which we sent back from New Zealand 2
years ago. His wife Joni was away visiting Europe, so bad timing for us.
However, we got to meet fellow bikeshare
member Ted Scott from England -- Ted had just completed his holiday on a borrowed bike.
Don made a delicious roast dinner complete with roasted veggies and real gravy (i.e.
not from a can!) We talked late into the night swapping our India stories and sharing
about places each other had seen in the last few years.
The next morning we slept in late and woke to a huge breakfast----the Siewert famous
egg-scramble (a.k.a. "the kitchen sink scramble"). The boys worked on the bikes
all day, cleaning them and tinkering around. I spent the day working on this story and
catching up on emails!
Wednesday, Jun 18th: Time to fix the seal on Chris’ front fork. He had
blown the seal while on the GS ride at the rally in Oregon. After pulling the fork,
we headed out to Ride West BMW in Seattle -- Chris took the R100PD and was happy as a kid
with a new toy on Christmas. We got to the shop and were able to borrow the special
tool needed to make replacing the seal it easier. It took surprisingly no time at all and
we had extra time in the afternoon to play a bit. Nelson met us at the shop and brought us
to his home on Vashon Island, a short ferry ride across the harbor. He invited us over to
his island to meet his wife, Charlotte and son Eric. The family obviously loves animals.
Charlotte raises and trains guide dogs; they have 3 horses and 2 cats besides. The island
is only 15 miles long and 3 miles wide, so everyone knows everyone. By coincidence, a good
friend of mine from New York, Nina Segal, happened to be on Vashon Island at this time as
well. Her husband Wil is a native of Washington and spent his childhood summers and
weekends on Vashon. Now they were back visiting relatives and brought their 4-year-old
daughter Isabel with them. We had a nice but too short visit, trying to catch up on 4
years of news and happenings over a 2-hour coffee.
Thursday, June 19th: Returned to the mainland and met up with Don downtown.
Seattle is home to REI, a well-known outdoor store----so we had to make a stop! Like candy
to a child, stores like this suck us in. We managed to get out with spending only a little
money.
One of Seattle's famous landmarks is Pike’s Place Market, where you can see the
fish mongers hurling fish through the air and chanting to entertain the tourists. We made
a stop here to take it all in. Its a lively place full of butchers, fish sellers and
flower merchants.
Later that night we planned to attend a rehearsal presentation by Helge Pederson
(famous rider who traveled around the world for 10 years on his motorcycle) for an
upcoming event he is doing at the rally for BMW’s 80th anniversary in Lake
Tahoe. Nearby to the rehearsal location is the International District, which has loads of
Asian restaurants. We found a little hole-in-the-wall place and settled down to some good
cheap Chinese food for dinner.
The informal presentation was hosted by the American distributors of Touratech
products, and attended by friends and family. The show consisted of Helge’s photos
from international tours (like Africa and Mexico) from the recent past, as well as a video
presentation by his friend Sterling about their trip to Iceland. As happens at these type
of presentations, we became motivated to see new places like Africa and Iceland.
Seattle’s famous rainy weather reared its head that night as we nervously
navigated our way home in pitch-black rainy weather. At one point we even saw a car do a
360 degree spin in the fast lane on the highway. Thank goodness it didn’t turn into a
multi-car pileup.
Friday, June 20th: There was still work to do before getting on the road
again. Since we were only going about 100 miles north to Vancouver, we took our time doing
the preparations to leave. We also wanted to spend a little more time with Don. It
didn’t matter how long we waited though it poured all day and all the way to
Vancouver...
Old & New Friends in
Seattle 
