Travails & triumphs

It took me half an hour to figure out how to leave Olympia this morning. My first attempt, I knew almost right away I had gone wrong, so I pulled out the map and tried again. Second attempt also failed, but I asked a guy who was cutting wood at the side of the road for directions. He pointed me onto the bike path that lead to the road I was looking for. At first I turned the wrong way here, but spotted a guy across the street I asked. He told me to go back into downtown, then over a bridge and out that way. I am glad he did, the route was brilliant, other then taking me directly into a mal, but that I corrected immediately.

I discovered I really like Olympia. It is full of hippy, hipster type people, who all look very interesting. My host Kirsty informed me that the local university green state (evergreen? Something like that) is very liberal and a lot of the people who go there end up kicking around. It doesn't feel like a Washington city at all.

I also took my first spill. There are nice big shoulders at the sides of a lot of the roads. The only problem is that there was a recent ice storm and there is trees and branches down all over the shoulders. I was going downhill on a fairly nice shoulder when I saw upcoming debris. But I couldn't figure out if it was minimal or going to be a problem.when I decided I would avoid, I looked right, to notice a car, so I figured I'd be fine and make it through. I thought wrong, I went down with my bike. Three cars even stopped to see if I was okay. I was, I got a skinned elbow and tore a small hole in my cape. I am very happy I am a cape wearing cyclist, I think if I were not I would have been rather a bloody mess.

I rode from Olympia to Aberdean today, about 50 miles. I left at 10 (time after not being lost)and arrived at 2.It was easy! Finally, the exercise is starting to kick in. I was riding most of the way on a very nicely paved wide shoulder. I had a muntain pass to go through, well i am not sure how high it was. Looking at googlemaps in the terrain setting it appeared to be a valley. But there was a fair climb (all lovely low grades) and snow on the ground in the valley above. Technically it was a freeway, but seeing as how there were many small roads that lead onto it and that it wasn't very busy it seemed more like a highway to me. I will be catching the 101, the old coastal highway tomorrow. Though I don't think I will be following it too much, as I decided I may as well try for Portland. This means I will be crossing the Washington/ Oregon state boarder twice.

Tonight I am being hosted by a family, it should be interesting.