July 6

July 6--Everett, WA 10 hours from now the ride begins. Sunday should be a gorgeous day/ride. We ride 7 miles to the Mulkiteo ferry, cross over to Whidbey Island, which goes 60-70 miles north with views of Puget Sound, Olympic Peninsula, and other typical amazing Pacific Northwest natural attractions. At the north end of Whidbey, we take a bridge back over the mainland with the first night at Sedro Woolley. Today was spent packing and re-packing (trying to determine the necessary nutrition, and other essentials for a destination ride, rather than knowing that one is coming back home at the end, while at the same time minimizing unnecessary weight), taking a ride down to tomorrow's ferry and back to see if the legs still work, meeting new people, some of whom are very serious riders. Had dinner with a guy who rode tandem with Bob Breedlove in Paris-Brest-Paris in 2003. I have with me the 1999 PBP jersey that Bob gave me when he could not do PBP, the year I did it with Jim and Matt Aldeman.