Day 1: The Cascades (567 km)

I was up early, as always, and got the last few things in order before hitting the road. Saying goodbye is always hard, for me anyways, even if it's for a relatively short time. Seeing Adele so choked up was almost too much for me. But in the end, she booted me out and came down to the garage for a couple of last hugs and pictures.

When I got to Colin's place, he was nearly ready, too, and Glenda took a couple more pictures for us before we set out. It was cold in the suburbs, and I had to switch on my heated grips for a while as we wound our way through eastern Maple Ridge, Mission and finally Abbotsford, where we lined up for the border.

We thought we'd been smart crossing at Sumas, which is usually hardly used at all, but today it was nearly an hour in the queue. Once we finally got to the front, the border guard gave us and hour passports a quick look and then we were on our way.

We rode down Hwy 9 to Sedro-Woolley. My map showed the junction with Hwy 20 a ways further on, and Colin's GPS was frantically trying to convince us to reroute onto the I-5. Luckily we can both read signs, so after coffee (for me) and breakfast (for Colin), we turned east.

Hwy 20 cuts through the Northern Cascades, and is a phenomenal ride. We made a couple of pitstops for fuel and 'scenic overlooks', but didn't really stop for long until we reached the town of Twisp in the late afternoon. We had lunch at The Twisp River Pub, sadly forced to limit our beverages to the non-alcoholic variety. The caesar salad was merely ok, but the fish tacos were excellent.

We continued along the highway, twisting and winding our way through the ever changing landscape, until we ended up here, in Republic, Washington. A tiny little hamlet that is celebrating some kind of cowboy fair this weekend. Soon I'll get cleaned up and we'll head out to see what they have in the way of a pub. Then tomorrow we'll be back on the road, heading to Montana.