Farm animal we saw

Keenan spent the night in the hall. No, he was not being shunned, just taking the opportunity to NOT sleep in the same room as his parents. The airbnb place turned out to be just a bedroom in a condo. Keenan got an air bed on the floor. However, the owner was not home, so Keenan dragged the air bed out into the hallway. That would have been a surprise if she had come early!

The day dawned on the much anticipated and much feared ride that would take us up Chuckanut drive to Bellingham. We left Mt Vernon on quiet farm roads and enjoyed the lack of traffic and the pastoral views. This part of the ride was flat as a pancake. We saw a lot more potato fields and Tami found many more cows to moo to. Made a lot of cows turn their heads! Keenan calls her the cow whisperer.

Another farm animal

It did not seem to take long at all before we were hitting the bottom of the hill on Chuckanut so away we went. Slowly. Steadily. With a number of stops to check out the beautiful views, oh, and to catch our breathe.

Nice place to stop and catch our breathe

Gooners

Mike had ridden up the route previously on RSVP, but Tami and Keenan had never done it before. Mike told of going up and down multiple hills, but the worst was the last hill and it was called Lemonade Hill because there was always a lemonade stand to replenish the liquids of the RSVP riders after that last horrendous hill. So we did a lot of up and down and could tell from the mileage that we were nearing the end. We climbed one long hill and Tami was thinking, oh no, we still have to do Lemonade Hill, but as she reached Mike and Keenan at the crest of the hill, Mike said, with surprise in his voice, “That was Lemonade Hill!”

We did it! He said it was not as bad as he remembered, but then, he did it before at the end of a 100 mile day. But we were shlepping panniers up the hill so we still felt pretty good about ourselves. It was an easy peasy finish to get into Fairhaven and find a good pub where we spent a very leisurely lunch relishing our great ride and conquering Chuckanut Drive.

Tami and Keenan also did a little shopping while Mike sat outside watching the bikes.

And a little ice cream!

Mike and Tami have offered to let Keenan write a guest post so he can get back at us, and he says he just might, so just putting a warning out there…