Henry, thanks for the alternate route suggestion.  Prior to my recent retirement, I worked as a Geologist and Engineer, so your alternate does peek my geological interest.  And as an aside, in 1982 I inspected some of the mud flow debris damage done by Mt. St. Helens (I worked for the Army Corps of Engineers).   Anacortes is an inconvenient ending spot (similar to ending in Astoria, OR for the Transam), but it gives you the pseudo bragging rights of having a "coast-to-coast" adventure, so it does have that appeal.   Thanks for taking the effort to post that alternate route.

Buddy

The water at Seattle is just as salty as the water at Anacortes, so dipping your wheel in Seattle will count just as much. Plus, when you're trying to impress your friends with your epic ride and you say "We rode all the way to Anacortes," they're going to ask where that is, and you're going to say "It's 90 miles north of Seattle"; you might as well save yourself the trouble and ride to Seattle.

A few other thoughts prompted by your thread. 

In North Dakota (I am told), every county seat has a hotel. This is to allow jurors a place to stay during trials. County seats aren't necessarily on the route but I know some folks who used them all the way across the state.

As for the end of the line, Anacortes isn't quite on the Pacific. It's kinda sorta on a strait that connects to a sea that connects to the ocean.  The San Juans and Vancouver Island lie to the immediate west. Similarly, Astoria is to the east of the ocean along the Columbia River. I rode an additional ten miles to Fort Stevens State Park to do my wheel dip. I brought half the beach back to my hotel with me. (Left a sizable tip for the housekeeping folks.)\

If you decided to go through Canada, make sure you have a real ID (or passport). Also, Canada tends to be a lot stricter about Covid precautions. So check on that before you commit. Either way, a visit to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls is interesting. (The contrast between the US side and the Canadian side is pretty interesting in and of itself.)

Happy planning.

Thanks for the additional info John.  My riding partner and I will opt to stay inside as much as we can, so the ND hotel info may prove to be very helpful.  Hotels, especially cheap hotels, are oftentimes a good deal for a touring cyclist as compared to campgrounds that (sometimes) charge as much for a cyclist as they do for an RV needing an electrical hookup - and a cheap hotel split 2 ways is an especially good deal.   I had been thinking about the Canadian border crossing issues - will bring my vaccine card as well as a passport.    I'm not a stickler for necessarily ending up at Anacortes - on my Transam crossing, I ended up at Tillamook (made a short run to the beach near Seaside for the wheel dip) because of transportation issues - we will either ride the "official" route more or less, or we will deviate and still get a wheel dip for the record.  It's all good, and any way you get across the continent on a bike is a notable accomplishment.  And I certainly don't take it for granted that we will make it - the Transam taught me that a lot of things can go wrong - that's why they call it an adventure!  

Planning is proceeding.

I totally agree about the motel/camping thing. If a campground charges $30 or more and a motel charges $60 and provides something approximating a free breakfast, I take the motel. If you share a room, it can be cheaper.

I chose a hotel in Sauk Center MN on my crossing. Could have camped in the park for free. After I checked in a terrifying thunderstorm tore through town. Glad I was inside.