Day 6: June 7th, 2nd Corner, Blaine WA

In the morning I met the Boyd’s from Minnesota.  When they had departed Minnesota the temperature was 36 degrees, so they went and toured the southwest where it reached over 100!  Departing Baker City was into beautiful weather, clear skies, cool temps…perfect for a man my age J.  The Oregon hills and mountains are very different here in the eastern part of the state, they are very rolling, bulging curves.  That’s about the best I can do in describing them.  I-82 showed up and I headed north on that towards Yakima, and this is where my stress level peaked out!  The winds had been slowly picking up in intensity and when arriving in Yakima they were so intense the gusts were moving me from one side of the lane to another.  Also, it is not easy to find a name brand gas station there, unless you want Arco or 7-11, they seem to be everywhere.  Leaving the town the winds continued to be a discomfort, but at least the gust intensity had lessened somewhat.

I-84 merged onto I-90 and I headed east towards Seattle.  It had been getting chilly so I had my rain gear on until coming down west of the Shoqualmie Pass where I stopped in Issaquah to remove the gear.  Leaving the station I almost had a collision with a fast moving driver coming around a turn.  I slammed both brakes on, as did he, and Sophia’s front wheel twisted on the driveway’s 3 inch drop to the road…..and down I went.  Fortunately no collision occurred and drivers help right the bike and I was on my way.

The next frustration occurred transitioning to I-405 North.  It is Friday, 5pm, and everyone wants to get to wherever they are going before anyone else gets there.  Even the car pool lanes were stop and go..

The Mt. Vernon Bridge outing was pretty simple to navigate.  You just ride I-5 to the end and then the detour barrels take you onto the exit, right turn to the light, left at the light to go over the other bridge, left at the next light, then right onto the I-5 ramp.  Total distance of the detour may reach 2 miles.  I was lucky as there was not a huge wait.

Then off to Blaine, got a gentleman to take a photo for me, got the gas receipt and then

back to Mt. Vernon as I wanted to get back over the bridge tonight and not deal with it tomorrow.  When I arrived at the detour exit there was not traffic and I sailed through the detour and went over to a Quality Inn for the night.

Tomorrow I head back to Lebanon and hopefull will meet up with Steve for a lunch break.

C ya mañana,
Gonzo
Twitter: @GonzoCrossUSA
Email: GonzoCrossUSA@gmail.com
Cell: 949-433-0761
LiveViewGPS: 70.169.216.3/specialevent.aspx?cid=liveviewgps&login=gonzo.ronald@live.com&pwd=7082