Prologue: Arrival in Everett & Test Ride

Saturday, July 6, 2013
Test ride to Monroe, Washington
35 miles

In the spirit of the Tour de France, I will call today "the Prologue" of our Northern Transcontinental tour.  Also in the spirit of the rules of the Tour de France, I will be riding this tour without the use of performance enhancing drugs.  We arrived at our hotel, the Best Western Cascadia, well after 1:00 a.m.  Fortunately, with the west coast time zone working in our favor, we were able to rise and shine by 6:30.  As we planned, we retrieved our bike boxes, which we shipped to the hotel, and assembled our bikes.  If I do say so myself, I am becoming quite the bike assembler.  I can put my own bike together . . . and it actually works!  This never ceases to amaze me.  This is all to the credit of Art, my wonderful husband who is a great teacher and has the patience of a saint.  After our bikes were ready to ride, we got ourselves ready and, together with our friend and fellow rider, Tim Law, we went on a relatively flat 35-mile test ride.  It was an out-and-back course through historic Snohomish to Monroe.  The weather was sunny and warm, around 75 degrees - a welcome change from the heat & humidity we left behind in NY.  On the way back, we stopped for lunch in Snohomish, which is a cute little town with lots of little shops and cafes.  Later in the day, we had our "rider meeting" where Lon & Susan of PAC Tour talked to us about how the tour would operate on a daily basis.  It was great to meet everyone and reunite with the people we've ridden with before.

After a fantastic group dinner of salad, veggie lasagna, chicken and the biggest chocolate cake I've ever seen, we headed back to our room to prepare for the first "stage"  of our Tour.  Tomorrow, we'll be riding 95 miles to Sedro Woolley.  The first of many enjoyable days where the only item on my "to-do" list is to ride my bike all day.  : )   

Master bike mechanic Art Hewig assembling his Moots.

 Art & crew member and friend, Jim H.

The illustrious map of our journey.

Art at the registration table with crew member, Steve.

Downtown Snohomish

Tim & Art enjoying coffee "americana" at Rock City Cafe in Snohomish.