Adventures on the way to Vancouver

- Drive to Bend, Oregon. Long drive, similar to other drives in and out of the deserts.

- Trek mountain bike demo. Rode the killer Fuel Ex 9.9 and Gary Fisher HiFi Pro. Gorgeous forest trails. Could spend many days in Bend.

- Spend the night north of Bend, Oregon. At one point I decided to turn on a skinny logging road which climbed steeply for what felt like forever. We were committed as there was nowhere to turn around. We finally came up to a dirt road, decided to back into the dirt road to turn around and go back down, then, well, just stayed there at the top of the world. Beautiful scenery, extremely dense forest, not one person all night.

- Ride in Tacoma, Washington. This began as a lovely ride on the shorelines of Dash Point down to the Port of Tacoma where I came upon a bridge with a metal grated surface. Not interested in riding on that, so I'll just hop up to the sidewalk and cause myself a pinch flat. Duh. Repair flat, get going again and find myself on the road we had previously been with the coolest - ok, maybe the most ominous - road sign I have seen: 25% grade! I HAVE to try that!

Half way up the grade my chain breaks. This isn't fun anymore. Two mechanicals in just a few miles means it's time to head back. On the way back I find myself at the end of a road with a "right turn only" sign, follow that road for awhile, realize it is following a river and there is no way to cross it for a few miles, look on my GPS and find no reasonable way to cross it for quite awhile, and decide to turn around.

Now it's really time to get back...so I get to a point where I can retrace my steps and find I rode on a one-way street on the way there. K, I'll just ride the wrong way on this one-way road for a moment and cross the first chance I get. That was nerve-racking. Mental note: don't do that again.

The climb back to Dash Point was awesome. The ride turned out good although very urban.

- Space needle in Seattle, Washington. Cool views, misleading parking lot owned by crooks (Impark) that feel they need a few hundred dollars for me to park my rv. Wrong.

- Border crossing. The most dreaded part of the trip. Took 5 minutes. We were nervous for no reason.

- Vancouver! More stories to come.