Last night was pretty chilly. The best part of last night was when we heard the kid across the way yell "ye, ye, ye, ye, ye Live Action!" (Call of the Wildman on Animal Planet; you should watch it if you are unfamiliar). We got up quickly this morning and packed up quick. The KOA we were at wasn't ideal. There were a lot of families (not a problem) and the bathroom was far away (more of a problem). We are on pacific time now but it hasn't seemed to throw us off. We woke up around 8:30. We were in a full sun spot so the inside of the tent got hot really quickly. We packed up and were gone by 9:45. The first section of riding was nice, until Devin took a huge bee to the forehead. When he looked back he had a big black goo mark right where it hit. It wasn't long after that incident that a yellow jacket somehow swooped into Devin and bit him (or stung him) on his arm. Of course he moved to get it off, and within a few seconds he saw that the thing was riding in between his legs on the seat. He swatted again and it finally got swept out.
It was still pretty mundane until we stopped for gas and Devin picked the leaky gas pump that leaked all over the bike. Not a biggie but there isn't much to tell up to this point. We drove another 45 miles before stopping for lunch. We agreed on Subway and after seeing and exit I said 'no' because I didn't see the Subway logo on the Food interstate sign. About 1/2 mi later it was there. So we took the next exit but couldn't find a way back. I tried to Mapquest it but it wasn't doing the job so we just decided to stop at McDonalds. It was starting to get hot anyway. It was the nicest McD's I'd been to... faux marble and mahogany, with a couch sitting area in front of a fake fireplace....crazy...
It was pretty warm but we were headed to the mountains. We were lucky to get away early and be riding away from the sun. The further we went towards and in the mountains the more clouds and the more it cooled down. We had excellent riding on great roads. Eventually we came to a lookout point for Mount Ranier.
I had been to Tacoma before and saw Mt. Ranier everywhere I went. I was still as awed today as I was then. It is truly a spectacular sight and the picture doesn't even capture an inkling of that. It is so picturesque and majestic.
We had more great riding all the way down the mountain and through the National Parks we were in. We hit a little bit of rain but nothing bad. We stopped and put on our leather for it but it didn't last long. It was really uneventful all the way to our campground. We are staying at the Mount Saint Helens KOA, just south of the Mt. St. Helens volcano. We'll go see it tomorrow; it was a hair too late by the time we made it here. The people here at the KOA are really nice.
We went into town and got a small diner dinner, went to the grocery to get hot chocolate mix and came back. We started a fire and made coffee & hot chocolate and sat around the fire while I did some work. Devin talked with a biker from Ohio who just came from So. Cal. and said the ride along the coast was amazing. We'll start that tomorrow too. Eventually it started to mist so we took our showers and went to bed.
Today we rode 318.2 miles for a total of 5581.3 miles across America
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