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| Thursday, October 19 - Empire Builder to Seattle to Sweet Home Well....Amtrak was right......most of us were awake around 5:30 Pacific time this morning because the bodies thought it was 6:30 Mountain time or, more likely, 7:30 Central time. We were at breakfast by 6:00 and shared it with a couple from Port Angeles that are also on their way home. We are somewhere west of Leavenworth, Washington as the sun comes up. |
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| One of the first things we noticed was the intensity of the fall colors here in the Northwest. This was true for the rest of the day.......some of the best we have ever seen here. |
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| We are really enjoying the mountain scenery but are glad we aren't riding in this rain. |
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| Skykomish |
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| The South Fork of the Skykomish River. It looks like it has been getting a lot of rain lately. |
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| Puget Sound is gray from clouds this time. When we were here in early August, it was gray from smoke. This is much better. |
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| We arrived in Seattle 20 minutes early! |
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| We retrieved our two checked bags and are getting ready to brave the Seattle traffic. |
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| Cindy, Donna's walking partner in Minot, is on her way to meet her 1st grandchild in Bellingham. She was so excited to be almost there. |
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| We donned all our rain gear and headed up 4th Ave. towards the Budget Car Rental place. We want to get home by this evening because Donna has a meeting tomorrow morning. The Amtrak Cascades would get us to Albany after dark and too late to ride our bikes back to Sweet Home. |
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| It was only a mile but it took awhile between traffic lights and an ambulance running full lights and sirens. |
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| The amazing thing was that it didn't rain one drop until we reached our destination. |
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| The van we rented had seats that folded into the floor so it was totally flat, perfect for the bikes. |
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| It poured rain the rest of the day. It always feels a little weird to be in a car in the middle of traffic after all those weeks on the bikes. We made it home without incident and returned the rental car to Eugene after dropping off the bikes at home. It was a wonderful trip for us but it is really good to be back home too. We hope that you have enjoyed the journey too! |
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| We rode at least a mile in 7 states Total miles = 1,361 52 days on the road that includes: 38 days on the bikes, 5 days off the bikes for weather and other stuff, 3 days with family, and 6 days on the train. AND LOTS OF ICE CREAM! |
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| Map 1 Fargo, North Dakota to St. Paul, Minnesota |
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| Map 2 St. Paul, Minnesota to Manitowoc, Wisconsin |
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| Map 3 Ludington, Michigan to Grosse Ile, Michigan |
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| Map 4 Toledo, Ohio to Seattle Washington by train |
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| Map 5 Our route is covered in blue (snow) on November 3rd, 2 weeks after we returned home. Our timing couldn't have been better! |
