I arrived in Seattle on the 6th without any delays or dilemmas. When I landed it was 78 and sunny-- so NOT Seattle like! My leaders and a couple of other teammates were there to pick me up from the airport where we then headed to the church we stayed at for the next few days during training. Those few days spent at Sammamish Presbyterian Church are such a blur looking back. They were full of info sessions about how to better communicate the cause to those we meet, how to fix flat tires, and just getting to know one another. It was awkward, but that was to be expected. Our first ride on that Saturday was from the church to downtown Seattle. It was a beautiful ride which was made up mainly of bike paths, up until we neared our final destination, Queen Anne's Hill. It's a beautiful little spot that overlooks the city where we had our individual and group shots done before we headed to host homes to shower and get ready for a fun night in Seattle before we began the real biking the next day. Sunday morning came early where we attended both services at church and set our information table up in the lobby for people to check out. After the service we headed to a church member's house for lunch and then continued on to our first real destination, Sultan, Washington. That night we slept in the wrestling gym, which although it smelled a little of sweat, it was warm and had showers. So we were thankful! The Sultan community was extremely welcoming and hospitable and even welcomed us with posters and a hot dinner waiting.
The next day we woke up early to begin our 83 mile ride that included our journey across the Cascade Mountains through Steven's Pass. Honestly, I had NO idea how beautiful they'd be! That goes for the entire state of Washington, actually. It did help that we had perfect sunny and warm weather everyday though. The climb up the mountain was long and difficult, but the ride down was AWESOME. It was my first time to go 43mph, which I loved. That night we stayed at a Baptist pastor's house in Leavenworth, which was really fun. They had a sweet old dog named Gigi and a beautiful view of the mountains and creek. I, along with a few others decided to sleep out on the back deck to look at the stars. It was a great idea until I woke up at 4:30 freezing cold and had to move inside.
After the Cascades we continued our journey through Washington we brought more beautiful weather and scenery. This included our first century ride through the desert like places of the state. They were stunning and amazing in their own ways, but it was a little too brown to interest me for more than a few days. We stayed one night in Coulee City where I got to sleep on a COUCH. A HUGE treat after concrete floors for the last several days. From there we headed into Spokane, which turned out to be a pretty cool city. It has a beautiful river that runs the middle of town with a few really pretty bridges that cross it. We ended up having a day of here to recuperate for a little while which allowed our bodies to try and make sense of what exactly we were putting them through. The place we stayed there was called The Porch, which was a church, but also served as storage for a local thrift store. The thrift store was really a neat thing-- I didn't get to see it, but I talked with a couple of the people who ran it, and our team volunteered by helping them with inventory. The store was created to help refugees from all over the world who were placed in Spokane to begin a resume and have a name to put down as a referral on future applications. In the past they've even had Burmese refugees, who I would love to have met if I could! The whole mission of the thrift store was really great and inspiring to hear how other were using their creativity to help others.
From Spokane we biked into Harrison, Idaho (our first state boarder!), a tiny little lakeside town of only 320 people. It was adorable! The church there was small but very excited to host us and hear about the cause. John and his wife (I can't remember her name…) were one of my favorite things about the town. They had some really interesting stories and were just really fun to talk to.
After a night in Harrison we got back on the road and headed to Thompson Falls, Montana. The beginning of the ride was along the Couer d'Alene Trail (for about 35 miles), before we hopped back onto the roads which eventually led us to Thompson's Pass (our first climb across the continental divide). At the top was the Montana boarder and a wonderful downhill where I pretty sure I didn't even pedal for 13 miles. We arrived in Thompson Falls and were welcomed by several members of the church body from the local Lutheran church. They prepared a dinner for us before we divided up amongst different host homes. I, along with two other girls from my team were placed with Willy and Joan-- a really sweet couple who had a little house on the Clark Fork River, complete with mountain views. They were so sweet and even had a bonfire and s'mores our first night there, followed by a hot tub and plenty of space to wander/read/relax on our Sunday afternoon. I even had a real bed and shower all to myself. Seriously, I got so spoiled there it made getting back on the road today really difficult.
Now we're caught up to today. This morning we hopped on our bikes and began our 102 mile ride to Missoula, Montana, which is where I am right now. The ride was gorgeous and I even got my first view of the Rocky Mountains when we stopped to have our lunch out of the back of the trailer. We were so worried that when we turned to head south into Missoula that we would face a terrible headwind, but thankfully it wasn't that bad! We had portions all throughout the day of headwinds, but we eventually made it to our destination. Dirty, hot, and desperately in need of showers. Today was the first day it was really hot outside, which made riding a little different. I definitely consumed a lot more water (which I needed).
Anyway, I'm sitting in Kinkos with a teammate right now because it's the only place we could find wifi at. It's getting late and we're both exhausted and have a little bit of a walk back to the church we're staying at, so I should go. But, before I do, here are just a few pictures from the trip so far! :)
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