To the North Country

August 2, 2025 to August 3, 2025

Saturday

Thoughts of getting some last-minute miles in were sensibly shuttled aside when we got our priorities straight and dedicated most of the day to departure preparations. After a last visit to Caffe Umbria I headed home and dedicated most of the day to the same thing Rachael was focused on: finalized packing decisions such as which pills needed to go with us for the coming month and which could stay behind in the storage unit as our restock inventory, together with items like overseas current adapters, extra first aid supplies, winter clothing, and the like. At the end of the day we've ended up exactly where we want to be: we're all but packed, and everything that won't be carried on the bikes with us tomorrow is across the street in storage, organized well enough that it should be easy to restock and prepare for moving further south when we return to Portland next month.

And going through our belongings one last time deciding what stays and what goes, I found a delightful surprise: two post cards I mailed back to Carol from my ride from Indiana to Montana. They provide the only real narrative to the journal I created mostly from memory, and remind me of some details I'd misremembered or forgotten about.

We end the day by continuing our movie binge, tonight viewing another old favorite we'd both all but forgotten about: Kolya. Were charmed anew by this touching film, and reminded of how lucky we were to bike through Czechia (at that time the Czech Republic) back in the spring of 1996, not so long really after it won its independence from its Russian occupiers in the Velvet Revolution.

Sunday

We get an anxious start to the morning when I open up the iPad and find an email from Amtrak about our reservation:

Well, great. After all this careful preparation are we to be undone at the last minute? Is there space for use and more importantly for the bikes?

I've got some time on my hands waiting for the coffee shop to open up, so I bike down to the Amtrak station to find out what this means to us. I come away reassured. It sounds like this is a fairly routine procedure - they've oversold the train and are trying to drive people out so there will be enough seats. The agent says this happens often, and the normal outcome is that there are enough cancellations to free up space for the rest. In any case though, we're fine. Space for the bikes is guaranteed, and if they need more seating capacity they'll break out a bus.

With that potential crisis behind us, I call Rachael to let her know and then head up to Lovejoy Bakery to enjoy a new treat I've never noticed in their display case - an excellent bacon, cheese and green onion strada, something I enjoy well enough that it will be worth a trip back over here even if we aren't staying in the neighborhood next time.

After all this time, I'm trying something new at Lovejoy Bakery: a bacon, cheese and green onion strada. It's great, but I hpjust never noticed it in the display case before.

As promised, I'm back at the apartment at nine for final departure preparations. There's plenty of time: we have to vacate the apartment at 11, we have a brunch reservation at noon, and the train departs at 2. And, there's time for a last quick trip to the storage unit when it opens at 10 for those last items that somehow were missed yesterday. Easy!

We didn't use up much space with yesterday's news, so I feel free to lard things up with shots from our trip north. First, we made it out of our apartment by checkout time of eleven, as far as we know without leaving anything behind. After that we sat around the lobby downstairs for the next half hour until it was time to leave for our noontime lunch reservation. Our restaurant is only seven blocks away, so Rachael decided to push her bike rather than change into her biking shoes.

The restaurant, Il Piatino, worked well for us because we could sit outside and keep an eye on our loaded bicycles rather than locking them up and unloading the panniers to take inside with us.

Should be enough gear for the next month.

Does she get credit for walking her bike?

Perfect! And it would be even more perfect if it were five degrees warmer and less breezy.

I wow my partner with my impressive bike handling technique.

Or maybe she's just amazed that I haven't lost my Pendleton yet.

We have company while we wait to board. The woman on the left, whose name I've forgotten, is on her first bike adventure - four days in Vancouver, BC while her twins are away at summer camp. Alex is returning to Seattle from an epic cycling event that skirts the east side of Mount Rainier. If I heard him right, he put in 135 miles with 14,000' of climbing yesterday, getting in about two in the morning.

The Kelso train station. On three occasions Rachael and I caught the train here from Portland and biked home over two days via the Longview Bridge and Vernonia.

Looking across Puget Sound toward the Olympic Peninsula.

A view to the east. On a clear day we'd be looking at Mount Baker here.

We can find no fault with this train ride - scenic the whole way, on time, easy to manage. Well, there's always something that could be improved. According to Rachael, toward the end the toilet started to really reek; and for myself it was a disappointment that the dining car doesn't stock NA beer.

We arrived in Bellingham right on time at 8:05, happy to see so much day left in the sky. It's only a mile and a half from the station to our new home for the next four weeks % a quiet, easy shot except for the steepish climb for the first half mile up through Fairhaven. I was thinking we'd be walking it but Rachael decided to see how she'd do riding with a bike shoe on her good foot and a hiking shoe on the injured one. She did fine, including with the climb.

Our house for the next four weeks looks as idyllic inside as it does when we first bike up, but we can wait another day to open that box.

In Happy Valley. Looks like an idyllic spot to spend a month.

Today's ride: 9 miles (14 km)
Total: 410 miles (660 km)

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Andrea BrownHere I thought you would put 'Girl from the North Country' as your theme song for this post (hint: John Gorka's version is better than Dylan's, imho). I guess you can save it for another day since you will BE in the north country for a while.
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2 weeks ago

Scott AndersonTo Andrea BrownI did have that in mind, but I've overused Dylan lately. Thanks for the Gorka version, which I haven't heard before.
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2 weeks ago

Andrea BrownTo Scott AndersonThe YouTube video starts with a short clip of the moving shadow of a person on a bicycle, something I didn't know when I recommended that version.
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2 weeks ago