Mile 7415

 I'm getting up this morning and it rather chilly out there.  Today is definitely double layer under the riding gear.  There are still low hanging clouds in the mountains here in Roseburg, OR and it looks like that I might be in for a shower here and there.  I like this area, as many others in Oregon, the mountains, the ocean air coming up the coastal range, and forests with their diverse trees.  And with the mist and the daylight breaking only here and there through, Tolkin would have liked this place too.  But all the fun is over when I hit Eugene, OR, as those lovely clouds open their gates.  I slip into my rain gear, as there is no easing in sight and drive on.  By the time I reach Portland, OR I know that also rain gear is not water tight, and diverse body parts are getting soaked.  By the time I hit Tacoma, WA I don't care anymore about the rain, and when I reach Seattle, WA the weather man was right on, 11:00 AM rain was the forecast, I was there, it started to rain.  I wonder how they do that, down to the hour?  Anyway, my target is another 110 miles further North, Blaine, WA to get my last check mark.  And once again, the weather man said it would stop at 12, and so it did.  Finding the post office was not difficult in this town of 4,000 something, and with that I concluded the four corners of the lower USA.  I took me exactly 6,624 miles to connect those four points, a bit more than 7,100 miles considering riding to the start point as well.

Last check-in, Blaine, WA

But there is no time to waste, as the black clouds are rolling in from the South.  I turn my bike East and change my plans and skip riding through the Northern Cascades, which I always wanted to do, but also this time I have to detour and follow the lighter pattern in the clouds.  I backtrack on I-5 south to about Everet, WA and join Hwy-2, my all time favorite going over the Stevens Pass (a monument of him is at Hwy-2 at the summit of Marias Pass) on the South side of the Cascades.  

John Frank Stevens - American Civil Engineer
(Great Northern Railway & Panama Canal)

This is now the third time that I follow this road, and I have done both directions, and still thinks it is one of the best in the US.  My decision to take this route is rewarded with the sun breaking the clouds and shining in to the valley and onto the mountains.  What a great picture to finish the day.  I stop in Leavenworth, WA, the Bavarian Alpine Village, a town which reinvented itself when the wood industry declined, and now a major tourist attraction in this region.  I celebrate the day with a Mass Bier and a Bratwurst at one of the Bavarian sausage places.

"I still have a long way to go, but I'm already so far from where I used to be, and I'm proud of that." - unknown