Dispatch #5, Rise of the Sub-Mariner

No. Not that Sub-Mariner. I'll get to the real Sub-mariner in a minute. Business stuff first. Also: I'm having trouble uploading images so there'll have to be another addundum I guess. Sorry.

June 13th was a rest day. After crossing the Northern Cascades I deserved it. Nevertheless, I did do some biking.

Mazama to Twisp (rhymes with crisp)
time in the saddle: 2:07:07
td: 30.53 miles
as: 14.4 mph
max: 35.4
odo: 319

I woke up at 8:30 and put a small load of laundry in the wash (free). I took a short soak in the tub and then loaded the bike. I headed down Goat Run Road. Guess who I meet on my way out of town? Cody and Tom are headed down from off of Washington Pass. Turns out they decided to camp on the side of the road before getting to Washington Pass. As I stood there, with my achey legs, it didn't sound like a good idea. I left them and wandered on down to Winthrop about 13 miles away. Winthrop is a real, honest to gosh cow town and I was told there was an internet cafe there. Alas and woe-is-me, no internet cafe was still in operation. I found a library and updated the journal.

I left and biked another 10 miles down the road to Twisp. About 5 miles into the ride, I had an awful feeling that I had read the map wrong and was headed in the wrong direction. I stopped to talk to a lovely pig-tailed lady working in her garden. She let me know that I was actually on the right road and that I should stop at the Twisp Pub where her boyfriend tends bar and where there would be live jazz later that night.

I hit Twisp around 5:30, stopped at the Visitor Center, which has just opened it's new library and this new thing called the Internet. Vicky, the Visitor Center Lady extraordinaire, helped me with lots of useful information, including where to stay the night. I stayed at the Riverbend RV park just up the road from downtown Twisp. At the Riverbend on this particular night were some geese, some mosquitoes and Chris and Carol. C-squared, as I'll refer to them on out are a fantastic couple. They had RV'd up to Twisp from Mission, Texas and were on their way to Vancouver and then loop back down (eventually) to Texas. Chris actually approached me as I was setting up my tent and when he learned what I was up to invited me over to have a seat in a comfortable chair and have a Mike's Hard Lemonade.

After I get settled in, I head over and Chris is finishing up a cigar and having a martini. He tells me that he's a retired submarine sailor (Sub-Mariner, y'all!) and that he was self employed when he mustered out of the service in 1977. Retiring last year, he and his wife Carol, who has a heck of a time convincing me that 1) she's 60+ years old and 2) that she's a great-grandmother.

C-squared ask me to join them for dinner. We have vegetarian lasagne and excellent conversation. Turns out that they used to ride Harleys to Sturgis and other rallys (they think they may have been to the one in Maggie Valley, NC but aren't sure) but have since switched to 4-wheelin' and RV'n after an accident. Great folk and I don't have the time to actually go into great detail.

After dinner, I biked back to downtown Twisp for a couple of pints and some food for the next day's ride--to Tonasket...over Loup Loup pass. I'll get to that tale next time. Now I've got to get going. Thanks for the positive feedback on Kromwell. He'll be back as soon as I can convince him to tolerate my presence for more than 5 minutes.