July and August are typically high season for cyclists. This year, we got a number of Trans-America riders headed back from the Traditional front-wheel dip in the Pacific to Seattle to fly home. And, as always, the popular north-to-south crowd on the Pacific Coast route from Vancouver or Seattle to San Francisco or Imperial Beach: a surprising number came via Vancouver Island rather than the Bellingham-Whidbey Island route. This year we had our first Olympic Peninsula Loop riders. Again, a large number of Europeans: Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium again in this second half of the season, along with Canadians and Americans.
As of 27 August, the total guest count for the year stands at 44 cyclists, including 8-month-old Leo, but not 7-year-old canine Kona, who ran uphill beside Jo’s bike, but rode downhill in her own B.O.B. trailer. This brings our total guest count for the three years we have been hosting Warm Showers members to 75, who have arrived singly, in pairs, separately, and in groups. Cyclists have ranged in age from 8 months to mid-70s and have come from 10 different countries. We’ve had to turn away quite a few more when we have been traveling ourselves or had the house in the midst of remodeling and didn’t have a warm shower to share. As of now, we are unavailable until at least mid-October while we go in search of Warm Showers hosts in the mid-west on our own bicycle tour.
Our last guests before we closed down for our own tour, Akiko and Claire rode from Providence,Rhode Island to Seattle with the Bike&Build program, stopping across the country to help build affordable housing. After riding 3900 miles across the country building houses, they are taking a vacation by riding to San Francisco.Steph, Alex, Anna, and Kathleen at breakfast. Alex and Steph, from Canada, were finishing a loop around the Olympic Peninsula and headed for Seattle; Kathleen and Anna were headed south on the ACA route.Alex and Steph. Alex had tire problems: they ended up taking the bus to Bremerton to make sure they made their train connection to Vancouver.Anna and Kathleen headed south on the ACA Pacific Coast RouteRichard, following his own route south on a fund-raising ride for awareness of childhood obesity. Richard headed to the coast and rode the Astoria-Megler Bridge, not for the faint of heart. Although his ‘Net moniker is “oldguyonabike,” at 63, Richard was the youngest of all of us at dinner that day, as we also hosted Ben and Nelleke.Nelleke and Ben, a retired couple from the Netherlands, who have put 15,000 miles on their bikes in the last three years, touring around the world. This was their last day on the road, headed for Seattle after finishing the TransAmerica route from Virginia to Oregon–5,000 miles in 107 days.Adam and Suzie, headed south with no particular goal. Adam is an Alpaca shearer who basically works April through June, and can book next season’s clients “on the road,” or from his live-aboard boat in Key West, Florida.Jo and her dog, Kona, from Utah, came from Seattle via Lacey and Olympia to meet up with friends Brad and Mary, who, with their 8-month old son, Leo, had ridden from Vancouver after a cruise from their current home in Alaska. All were headed south on the Pacific Coast route.Johanne was one month into a year-and-a-half ride from Canada to Chile with an air hop from Mexico City to Buenos Aires, to showcase Rotary International’s exchange student program.Jonathan, a graduate student from Boston, is on a summer tour down the Pacific Coast. Tire problems gained Jonathan a ride to Falcone’s Schwinn in Olympia for new shoes for the bike and a Google map to Centrailia to get back on the route.Marc and Nicolas are celebrating finishing cabinet-making school in Switzerland with a bike tour down the Pacific Coast.Margriet, Paul, and Rik were headed to Seattle for a flight home to the Netherlands after finishing the Trans-America route from Virginia to Oregon. Our first tandem team: Margriet is the captain, but stoker Paul has the shifters and brakes for a real team effort. Rik tented on the bark, as he is allergic to cats.Sage, on the homeward leg back to the Bay area after tour to Glacier Park and a train ride to Seattle. Sage broke a spoke riding the treacherous Sedgewick Road from the Southworth Ferry: this photo was taken at Falcone’s Schwinn, where we ferried her for repairs, sending her off with our favorite alternate route to Centrailia.
