A year in the Planning
Serendipity
Vaccines are available, Covid is starting to get under control, we are planning with the expectation there will be a turn around by summer of 2021 and things opening up again.
When the decision was made to cycle the Northern Tier, our first task was finding a house/garden/cat sitter. Previous tours, when we were going for at least a year or more, this also meant packing up the house. This time with only plans to go for 5 months, we had hoped to not have to pack up so much. The search begins.
In February, a shoutout to friends immediately brought the suggestion of one of their friends who was going to be looking for a new place to live in June. Jeff is a local Park Ranger and has agreed to be a house/garden and cat wrangler.
By March, having been booted off the "other cycle journal site", we start connecting with the members here on Cycleblaze who offer suggestions on how to use Ride GPS for maps and the route starts to be developed.
April 9th, Patrick leaves his job (a career shift) to finish up projects around the house. Rachel retired last summer, the house sitter lined up, we are free to go. Then it's figuring out the logistics of getting from Boise to Anacortes, WA.
We decided the best way is renting a car one way and in April Patrick arranged a rental to be returned in Everett by 5pm May 31st. Seems rental cars are hard to come by these days. Next was then figuring out the route from Everett to Anacortes. In May, we've arranged a stay with a Warmshowers host in Everett who is graciously willing to help us with returning the rental car.
June 1st, we will take the Mukilteo ferry to Whidbey Island and cycle to Anacortes to pick up the ACA Northern Tier route with the goal of arriving in Bar Harbor Maine by mid-October with enough time to arrange shipping our bikes back home and catching a flight to Amsterdam on October 16. We will visit Patrick's family for two weeks and fly directly back from Amsterdam to home in Boise Idaho.
So it begins....May 31st, we will be on our way to Everett Washington, cycle to Anacortes and then turn East cycling across the county.
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An update: we were unable to replicate this photo because Going to the Sun Road was closed....so we made new ones:
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