Saturday, June 26, I MADE IT TO SEATTLE,

Tom had marked my map of Washington state with a scenic route. I was to leave Spokane and head to the Coulee Dam and from there go over the North Cascade mountain range, which is a national park, and then head South on to the I-5 towards Seattle.

The ride would take around 8 hours.

We had an early breakfast. Wende still gave me a bag of fruit and snacks, I packed my bike and left in sunny weather, around 65 F.

I think the area of Spokane has a very high quality of life. The town is well planned, the river runs right through it, there are many parks and nice residential areas. The humidity is low and and there is very little rainfall. In winter , there are ski areas very close, lakes are everywhere for boating enthousiasts and the hunters can bag elk, deer and even bear, like the fur that was gracing the floor in my room.

The ride to the Coulee Dam took me through rolling field where wheat and alfalfa coloured the landscape vividly green.

Then I passed a stretch of wilderness which Tom had explained as part of the Great American Desert and approached the Coulee Dam, the largest concrete structure in the USA.

There is a good tour about all the technical aspects of the dam. What impressed me was that everything that gets trapped in the trash racks (wooden logs, garbage ) is totally pulverized by the force of the water.

It is a big dam, but its volume is one sixth of the volume of the Three Gorges in China, a monster dam we visited a few years ago.

I met a family that I had also sen in the Yellowstone park. They were also on their way west.

When i got ready to leave, my GPS hung up. There was no way to get it working again. I spent half an hour on this, but it was no use.

So I rode on without GPS and promptly lost my way. Deep in the Colville reservation I realized my mistake and returned. It was very difficult to find my way on the map because I confused the Columbia river with the Banks lake.

I was started worrying about the duration of the ride, because it was close to noon and someone told me that trip would take another 7 hours.

The best thing would be to shorten the ride and take the southern route, along the Columbia river to Wenatchee, and then take the 97 over the Blewitt Pass to reach the I-90 to Seattle.

But how to find my way in Seattle without GPS?

In Bridgeport I went to the municipal library to see if I could download and reinstall the GPS software, but no luck. The TomTom remained static. So I got on Google Maps and printed out the directions to Jeff and Rosario’s house. It really seemed quite straightforward, so I rode on.

In Orondo, I had a salad in a Subway stop, together with Mexican farm workers who were picking cherries. I enjoyed speaking Spanish with them.

It was a nice ride West , but the temperature soon reached the 90 F and the sun bothered me. So off came the full face helmet and on went the other with the newly repaired visor. It worked like a charm, I could see very well. I wish had done this before.

The road along the Columbia river offers great views of the river and the valleys. There is important agriculture along the river, mainly fruit trees, cherry and berry farms, as well as large trout packing plants.

As I neared the Wenatchee mountains, I began to realize I would soon reach Seattle and with that have completed the Trans America ride. I felt really good about it.

After riding in the Rocky Mountains so long, I was now nearing the last mountain pass I had to traverse to reach the Pacific. I would had crossed America from coast to coast!

And there it was, the Blewitt Pass, 4100 ft. I stopped and took pictures of myself and the bike. It would have been better with champagne, but I did not even have a beer on me.

Then it was all downhill towards the I-90.

The weather became cooler as I neared Seattle and finally I was on Lake Sammamish and into Seattle.

I got off at Exit 3-B, as indicated on the map, and worked my way Northeast. suddenly I was on Lk Washington Blvd and I knew i was close. I called Jeff who directed me to turn around and after 500 yards I saw him waving.

We parked the bike and greeted Rosario. It was so good to see them again!

Before I knew it, Jeff had the beers out, this time beers from Asia, to commemorate our time in Japan!

I had a Singha and then a Thai beer, Chang which I did not know until then. Excellent, because the hot ride had made me very thirsty.

They had prepared a dinner table in the garden outside their condo, which has direct access to the lake and its own dock. A gorgeous setting indeed, and the setting sun gave a very special ambiance. We took my picture in front of Mount Rainier to prove that I was there and ate an excellent wild Alaskan salmon. We chatted about the ride, Guatemala, Japan and our families. It felt so good to be with friends again.

I had completed the TRANS AMERICA RIDE !

I had ridden 22 days and logged 4564 miles from Washington, DC to Seattle, Washington.

Jean, the Riding Dutchman