Sleeping Amongst Zombies

I'm staying at an RV park tonight that is full of zombies and runners.

That's what the lady running the park told me when I got here, explaining that normally there's more tent room and that the bathrooms are cleaner, but "there's a big bumch here. Half of them are zombies and the other half are runners."

I talked to one of them while I was setting up my tent, and asked her, "are you a runner or a zombie?"

"Both," she said.

So apparently it's not as simple a world as the lady running the RV park thought.

Here's the view from my hotel room this morning. I slept as late as I could, trying to get on west coast time, but went ahead and got up about 5:30 am. After an hour of rearranging things on the bike, I took my shower, checked out of the hotel, and went off to the Family Pancake House for breakfast.

In the course of unpacking stuff, I found that I had left part of the mount for my Vis 180 helmet light. As the above shows, you can overcome almost anything with zip ties.

It took me an hour to get out of Bremerton proper -- partly due to a couple of missed turns. One of those turns had me climbing a really long hill ... just to find that I missed the turn at the bottom of said hill. Once back at the bottom, I think that I climbeed the same hill again, but in a steeper way.

Soon I was riding along either the Hood Canal, which was lined with nice houses. It was still chilly and overcast, and the sky was threatening some rain, but that rain never did fall on me.

About 20 miles into the day, I stopped at a store for some Gatorade and a snack. It had warmed up enough and spots of blue were showing in the sky, so I took off my jacket and knee warmers. Some guys in a truck pulled in at the store and asked how far I was going. One of them was also a cyclist, and he got a big kick out of my Shimano sandals. They also told me that the store was famous for their breakfast burritos. Maybe next time ...

Just past this spot at the lake I turned left and went up a bodacious hill. The guy at the store had warned me about it, and I'd said that I would walk if if  that was what it took to get up. Somehow, I managed to avoid walking, but it was close.

Things were more dry on this road, and I kept noticing how much of the fern undergrowth was dying. I felt a little guilty for being happy that I wasn't getting rained on, with the problems that they are having up here with fires.

Eventually, I got to Shelton. The Adventure Cycling route had me going through town, but my GPS wanted me to go around it via some weird way. It had done this earlier, so I had to go "old school" and pull out the route sheet again. It took another five bonus miles, but I eventually found downtown and explored it. This gave me a chance to find what seemed like the best lunch place in town. I got a burger that was more than acceptable.

I took another wrong turn on the way out of Shelton, so I got to climb another hill that I shouldn't have. Eventually, I got to Cloquallam Road for the last long stretch of the day.

The wind had come up, and was mostly in my face, so this part of the route took longer than I would have liked. I was so happy to see this sign.

I've been re-reading "Sometimes a Great Notion" on this trip, so this road -- which was the roundabout way into Elma -- was  really cool. Of course, they had put down a bunch of fresh gravel and had signs warning motorcyclists to be careful (Hey! What about me?!). But it was easy to ride over, except for the few times that it got caught by a wheel and made a horrible scraping sound as it went by on the fender.

A turn off of this road made me miss RandoGirl.

Soon, I was exploring Elma. It was a nice town, with a good grocery store. I bought some tomato soup and Cheez-Its, plus some stuff to fix tomorrow for breakfast, and then made my way to the RV park and the zombies.

I just cooked my dinner while doing laundry (this is a NICE RV park ... although their wifi isn't too great) and chatted with the zombies while writing this blog. They told me that if you want more information, you can go to www.runforyourlives.com. A couple of them said that they are neither zombies or runners, but were just spectators.

Just goes to show that there is more to this world than is dreamt of in the RV lady's philosophy.

The Trip to the Trip

For a day where I biked so few miles, I am very tired.

It's usually this way, of course. Getting to the start of the ride is often more difficult than the ride itself ... or so it seems. It's probably because riding a bike is, of course, more fun than sitting in an airplane.

Friday started really early, with RandoGirl driving me to the airport for my 7:25 am flight (thanks, honey!). That flight to Chicago went fine, with a two-hour layover (I like that, however, ever since I've had shorter layovers that left me stranded at some airport overnight) followed by a longer flight to Seattle. After collecting my luggage -- two cardboard boxes with my panniers, tent, and so forth -- I caught a cab to Aaron's bike shop.

By this time, it was after 2:30 in Seattle, and the shop folks were at lunch. They had warned me that this would be the case, so I went to the place next door and get a Vietnamese sandwich. At first, I was reluctant to do this, having never eaten a Vietnamese sandwich before. But then I decided, "Hey! This is an adventure, right? Get outside of the comfort zone."

Soon after lunch, Aaron and his crew returned. They quickly got everything good on the bike, tweaking a few things here and there, and I had bags on the bike and was out the door just before 5 pm. I headed down to the Fauntleroy ferry across Puget Sound.

On the boat, I met a fellow who was biking home with his daughter. He was envious of my trip, and I got some tips on the route to Bremerton. I needed to pick up a fuel cell for my stove, and he recommended a sporting goods store on my route.

When the ferry docked, we all went our separate ways and I rode quickly to Port Orchard, stopping for my fuel on the way. The lady at the sporting goods store wasn't sure how late the foot ferry to Bremerton ran, so I was sweating it when I finally got to the dock. Fortunately, the ferry runs until 8:30 pm on weeknights, so I had plenty of time.

Twenty minutes later, the ferry came and I paid my two dollars. It was a very nice little ferry, with only three of use on board.

On the Bremerton side, I met a fellow who used to work at the Navy yard and he told me about some of the ships there. As I started off for my hotel, night was quickly approaching. I saw a pizza place advertising calzones, so I stopped and got a quick dinner to quiet my growling stomach. It was full dark by the time I left, but traffic was light and well-behaved on the last five miles to my hotel.

If you find yourself staying in Bremerton, I must recommend the Flagship Inn. The view out my back window is really nice, even though it is now dark out. The staff was really nice when I got here, and the price is excellent.

Tomorrow is the first "real" day of my tour, and I'm looking forward to getting out in the country. Sparkeltini feels good, although heavy ... as you might imagine. Right now, however, I'm exhausted and going to bed.