Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Day 66 - Sedro-Woolley to Orcas Island, WA















Total miles for the day: 48

Total miles to date: 3326

The finale day!

Hilary and I cooked Lindsey and Cormac a yummy breakfast as a small wedding present. They took us out for coffee and we all enjoyed a leisurely morning. I went to the bank to finally get some cash after losing my wallet from 3 days previous. The two parties wished each other well and we went our separate ways.

Hilary and Lindsey kept asking me, "How do you feel about reaching the finish line today...Are you excited?" I answered honestly that the end seemed a bit anticlimactic. As cheesy as it sounds, I felt that the trip was about the journey and not the destination. I guess Hilary was a bit disappointed to hear this and she began to plan a special surprise to make the finish line special for me. I suppose it was a bittersweet ending because I heard some bad news from back home. My mom's left side of her body had gone numb several days back and she had gone through several different tests to investigate the cause of the symptom. I would be lying if I said I was not distracted by this and a bit worried.

With only 15 miles to go to reach the west coast we were bombarded with the salty smell of the ocean and the thick humid air. The industrial coast made for a slightly unromantic last stretch of miles. Two miles before I reached the finish line Hilary said, "Go slow, I am going to go ahead!" I knew she was up to something as she asked me earlier in the day if I had some tape and she would not tell me what it was for. I turned down my final hill to see a sea of car waiting in line to get onto the ferry and off to the right surrounded by balloons and a congrats banner, Hilary stood jumping with her pom pom in hand. I gotta say I love this girl!

As much as she tried she did everything she could to make the end seem magical. We did not have much time to celebrate because we had to decide which island on the San Juan Islands we wanted to visit, buy our tickets and head to the waiting area. Since we had arrived two days early to Anacortes, we thought we would tour an island. We randomly picked Orcas island and off we went on the ferry.

One hour later we rolled off the ferry to discover we landed on what I might consider the most hilly island on the planet! The hills were extremely steep! We had 14 miles to bike to our campsite and they were 14 of the toughest hills I can remember. We celebrated by going to out to dinner to a nice Mexican restaurant. We toted some beer to our campsite to keep the celebration going.










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