Day One - Memorial Day. Preston to Gold Bar, Washington

We were hoping for a break in the rainy Seattle weather, but alas we ended up pedaling out of Preston in a light drizzle. Our hosts, the MacDuff's, live on the top of hill so we started with a nice long downhill for the first few miles.

We stopped at the base the hill, near a cemetary, just in time for an Memorial Day military funeral and gun salute. (Glad we were stopped as the gun shots might have scared me right off the bike!) It was a nice reminder of the sacrifice our service man and women make everyday to keep us free.

After our brief stop to check our brakes, etc., we hopped on the Preston-Fall City bike path for the first few miles. It was a gorgeous path through the tall, somewhat eerie trees of the Pacific Northwest. The trees here are mossy, green monsters like something out of a sci-fi movie. Very cool!

So, I'd love to report that we had a beautiful ride for our first day out, but the rain continued to fall for the rest of our ride. It started as a mildly annoying drizzle and turned into a soaking rain that saturated our rain gear and pelted our faces. The rain did stop briefly - of course the break in the rain coincided with our lunch stop for couple burritos at Tiajuana's in Monroe.

We arrived at our destination, Gold Bar, around 1 PM. We were soaking wet and eager to hop into a hot shower. Sooo thankful that we are not camping tonight. We are staying at the Stevens Pass Motel which is about 35 miles away from the top of the pass. I chose this motel as it was the closest to the pass and I read a review that their restaurant had good pie.

Well we just got back from dinner and I have to say that the pie did not live up to the recommendation. I had a hearty slice of blackberry pie. It looked really good, but was disappointing. They served it ice cold and the crust was obviously a lard ladened and not very tasty at all. I ate a couple bites and said to the waitress "Box it up". I'll try it again in the morning. Sorry to say it was a bit disappointing first slice of pie. Oh well, 70 more days of pie to follow. They can't all be winners.