Seattle to Shelton (Garmin File 1, Garmin File 2)
We flew into Seattle a day early so we had plenty of time to reassemble our bikes and make sure we were ready to ride on Day 1. We arrived a few hours later than the international flights coming in from Europe and they were waiting for us in the hotel lobby. As we checked into our hotel, the lobby was empty. I texted the gang and asked, where are you? We are in the lobby. They replied, you are not in the same lobby as us! Yes, we booked our first night at the Comfort Inn instead of the Country Inn. Luckily, these hotels are only a 5 minute walk away from each other. After changing hotels the next morning we took our bikes for a quick spin around the parking lot and everything worked as expected, so we put them and ourselves to bed.
A local Parkinson’s Disease Support Group met us at the hotel so it was after 9 before we rolled out. Within the first 5 minutes my shifting quit working, I have SRAM electronic shifting and the left front shifter stopped working. After some roadside troubleshooting I deduced it had a dead coin battery. If I was smart I would have figured that out the prior day and fixed it, instead of walking around Pike Place looking at fish on ice.
Wrong hotel room, bike won’t shift. What a way to make a first impression. Unfortunately, we had a ferry schedule to keep so I rode the hills of Seattle, using my phone to reprogram the right shifter to go up and down and the the little manual button on the front shifter to change from the big to small chain ring. At least I am ingenious. Nonetheless I spent the first half of the day in the wrong gear. The Matlin’s were making a great first impression.
We arrived at the ferry with a few minutes to spare, bought tickets to Southworth and got loaded on the ferry. Minutes before departure they rescheduled the ferry to go to Vashon Island. So we had to offload the ferry. After watching a second, unscheduled ferry depart with a lone fuel truck, the correct ferry arrived. In all it delayed us by an hour. Between a late start and the hour delay we were well into the afternoon before we left Southworth. About 20 miles further I found a hardware store and bought a coin battery for my shifter. The shifting crisis was averted just in time, since the last half of the day was filled with short steep, punchy hills and a stiff headwind.
It was a hard day and to be honest, I laid in bed that night thinking, if these guys don’t slow down I am going to be riding in the van to Phoenix.
