The First 1,000 Miles…

As we sat in our cozy little tent in rainy Olympic National Park we were thankful for 1,000 miles safely traveled.  Primarily following Hwy 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, we have meandered our way north along the beautiful west coast.  We have had some rough spots along the road; equipment not functioning as expected, constant rain, and trying to figure out the best place to store all our gear on the motorcycles (while keeping the weight as centered and low as possible…it’s about as easy as it sounds:)..  The good news is that the motorcycles are running well and our bodies are getting accustomed to ‘life in the saddle’.

Guess we’ll start with the tough stuff first.  Rain, and lots of it! Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy an occasional thunderstorm as well as the next person, but constant rain day after day on a motorcycle is just not very enjoyable.  And things get downright miserable when you add in 42 degree weather, motorcycle wind chill and the fact that both my rain jacket and rain pants both decided to stop working at the same time!  We had to pull over on more than one occasion to warm up when my teeth started chattering! Fortunately, Sharon’s rain outfit is working flawlessly. So, one drowned rat and one cozy kitten.

Our first week of travel we focused on making up for our late start and traveled as many miles each days as possible.  At the end of that week we had traveled through northern California and Oregon and had arrived at Olympic National Park in Washington.  Here we slowed down and camped, hiked, and enjoyed the natural beauty of a beach, a rainforest, and a majestic snow capped mountain range all within the same park!  We knew it was going to be something special when about an hour after we arrived at the beach campground somebody stopped to tell us there was a pod of whales less than a half mile off shore!  We watched them for about 45 minutes as the sun went down in a gorgeous sunset. The next day Sharon spotted a bald eagle sitting in a tree as we walked down the beach. In addition, the whole campground was home to rabbits, including one baby bunny that would have easily fit in the palm of my hand – it immediately brought the cuteness factor to 11.  And the scenery at the beach, and in the whole park was just spectacular!

Our next stop was Maple Valley, WA.  It was not part of our original plan, but when we received a message from Sharon Washburn that her husband, Earl was actually visiting the United States from Honduras we certainly could not pass an opportunity to visit him.  Earl and Sharon Washburn were the administrators at the school in Honduras where I (Chris) worked for six years. We have been here for the past several days and have been enjoying spending time with Earl, Mike, Bob, Joyce, Wendy, Nathan, Jason, Katie, and many other acquaintances, many of whom we have not seen in literally a decade or more!  We are so grateful for such great friends, the kind where a decade doesn’t seem to make any difference, you just pick up from where you left off! We were also able to attend church with Earl on Sunday and enjoyed the fellowship greatly.

Tomorrow we are planning to cross the border into Canada and continue north on Highway 99.  Our first totally new country on this trip (neither of us have ever been to Canada)!!!

The adventure continues…

Chris & Sharon