Cross Country 2023: Day 5 Lynnwood to North Bend

Today I found a farmers market

Yesterday was a most appreciated rest day. I pretty much did nothing all day. I did some laundry. Wrote a bunch on the blogs and responded to some other emails, caught up on the day job and such.. For supper we went out ot a really cool pizza spot that was rock and roll themed.

Today started off pretty quiet. I headed out continuing along the interurban trail. Thankfully at this point we are getting closer to Seattle proper so the trail was better marked. Along the way I stopped by Trader Joes to stock up on some snacks. I had never been to a Trader Joes before. It read to me as more of a stripped down grocery store. You're going to find pretty much everything. Not as many choices though because everything is primarily the Trader Joes brand. Prices seemed very reasonable as well.

I was glad I had my Wahoo GPS to help guide the way. Having the map can be just as helpful as the turn by turn. Turn by turn says turn right but you know that you need to eventually continue straight.

We also road some in town bike infrastructure. Lots of people in this area ride bikes, so the infrastructure is pretty prevalent. Protected bike lanes and dedicated signals had me feeling like I was pretty safe rolling through this massive urban environment.

Got a message from Art and Jeff that they were stopping by a local bike manufacturer R+E cycles. They make custom steel frame cycles in house for the Rodriguez and Erickson brands. These are some beautiful bikes and you can tell they take great pride in what they do. They even gave us a tour of their manufacturing rooms downstairs where everything gets assembled and welded together. Smiley was our host and talked about how they have learned and changed over the years from how their tubes are shaped to how they have re arranged their shop as equipment and parts have been added to the process. Might be a new bike day some day........

Just down from the shop was a surprise farmers market. This market had a large emphasis on produce and other agricultural items. I saw rhubarb, herbs, cheese, meats, flowers, and more. I had a delicious pan au chocolate (chocolate croissant) and talked to a couple folks about our journey. With my large bags and South Dakota bike jersey there seems to be some hints that I'm not from around there. People generally seem very interested in our journey. Where are you starting? Where are you going? How many are with you? Haven't gotten a lot of Why? I guess the answer is why not. A chance to do this is so fleeting that when one comes up you have to take it.

After leaving the market we rolled across the Puget Sound one last time. Rather than a ferry it was a giant bridge that took us across. This bridge must have been at least 2 miles long, perhaps more, and had a large sidepath for pedestrians and bicyclists.

One trail was called the I90 trail and wove along the beginnings of Interstate 90. Sometimes we were alongside it. Other times we were in between the eastbound and westbound lanes. Interesting to think that this very same interstate is the one that rolls through Sioux Falls. In a way directly connecting me back to home.

Lunch was in the town of Issaquah at a cool sandwich joint called Chicago Pastrami. Alex had been there before I think and so we went out of our way to find it. I say it was worth it. A huge pile of awesome pastrami on a fantastic roll. Nothing fancy. Just awesome. The owner is of Armenian heritage so Manvel was excited as well. Even split a piece of homemade baklava with Jeff.

At this point we started to leave what Alex termed the Seattle bubble. The trail became more wooded though the general feelings of dampness that I had in previous days was gone. The trail also turned from pavement into crushed gravel. I could feel it roll under my tires. The soft crackle a nice change from the heavy traffic.

A true highlight of today was the view we got at Snoqualmie Falls. It was very busy there, but I just took a moment to stand and stare and marvel at the power of it. The area has served as source of hydroelectric power for 100+ years.

Had to do a little bicycle gymnastics along the way today. One of the trail heads was up a couple flights of steep stairs. Manvel and I got there at about the same time so we helped lift each others bikes up to the top.

After that it was pretty much a level journey all the way to North Bend, WA. We managed to find an Air B and B here in town, and we were very grateful for a good place to rest. Even with a rest day yesterday, today was still a good amount of work.

We had supper at a local mexican restaurant and oooo nachos are so good.