Where’s The WiFi?

As of late, my daily rides certainly haven’t found me in race mode. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing – or a good thing. It’s just a fact. Actually, I think the last time I was REALLY in race mode was my horrible day riding into Halifax almost a year ago. Clearly, I learned my lesson that day.

Upon consulting my travel spreadsheet (yes, I have a travel spreadsheet) I noticed that I haven’t pedalled more than 100 km in a day since riding from Hope to Mission on August 13th. While race mode may be bad, sub-100 km days are borderline embarrassing. So, I’m pleased to report that the sub-100 km streak ended today by pedalling a little more than 139 km. Perhaps more surprising is that today’s 139 km ride was my longest day in terms of distance since July 14th. And on that day I travelled about 20 km further in the same amount of time. I actually remember that day well. That was my glorious tailwind day from Red Deer to Calgary.

Anyway, that was a bit of a side note to start things off. Back to the start of the day.

When I woke up this morning, I really wasn’t sure how far I would travel today. I figured I’d ride about 100 km and see where I end up. That plan changed shortly after 7:00 am when I received a favourable Warm Showers reply from Donna in Shelton. As you may have gathered from my preamble, Shelton is about 140 km from my starting point in Sequim.

The Jared and Wendy household was active pretty early this morning. Jared started his day very early as he’s training for an upcoming 200 mile ride (in one day) and needed to do a long training ride today. Wendy and the kids were also up and about by the time I dragged myself upstairs. Ok, I really didn’t drag myself upstairs and it wasn’t THAT late. Shortly after 8:00 am. A perfectly reasonable hour to get up if you ask me.

With my goal of Shelton now established, I had a fairly long ride ahead of me today so I really wanted to be on the road by 9:00. That goal was accomplished. Also accomplished was having breakfast (Mini Wheats!), pumping up my tires to an appropriate level, and getting a group photo with my hosts, Jared and Wendy. Now, you may be thinking, “How can you take a group photo when Jared is on the road?” Well, that’s simple. Wendy grabbed a photo of Jared and voila, a group photo was born. This was the first time I had to resort to such a tactic but it was very effective and, personally, I find the photo rather amusing.

My ride started off very well if for no other reason than my tires were properly inflated and my clothes were fresh out of the dryer and smelling much better than they did yesterday at this time. Prior to leaving, I had intended to reply to Donna to confirm I would be arriving later today. As you may have guessed, that reply didn’t get sent. Fortunately, in this wonderful world of free WiFi I figured I could reply from the road. That proved more challenging than expected.

About three hours into my ride I had yet to encounter any sort of WiFi. I was beginning to think there was a moratorium on free WiFi in the state of Washington. While I was yet to find WiFi, I did find the Gear Head Deli. Despite the name, I didn’t actually eat at the deli but instead had a seat outside and enjoyed a CLIF Bar and a bagel with peanut butter. Side note: the CLIF Bar was a White Chocolate Macadamia Nut flavour which I’d never had before and it was more than a little tasty. Hmmmm … maybe CLIF Bars would be interested in sponsoring me – I certainly eat enough of them. And since a certain sandwich shop doesn’t reply to emails perhaps I should move on to something else.

About 1:00 I arrived in Brinnon. It’s a small town which I intended to pass right through until I saw the “Free WiFi Hotspot” sign at the Visitor Centre. I promptly applied my brakes and I not-so-promptly stopped – brakes on a loaded bike aren’t particularly good at quick stops. Or slow stops for that matter. That said, I slowed down enough to turn into the Visitor Centre.

The Visitor Centre was staffed by Kendra and she was also the keeper of the WiFi password. Fortunately, proper use of the magic word granted me access to their WiFi signal where I could finally update Donna on my progress. It also allowed me to update my map so I could actually find Donna’s place in Shelton. As for Kendra, she was pleasant and enthusiastic with everyone that came in and she even managed to work in a Deliverance reference – very impressive. And amusing.

After my stop at the Visitor Centre, it was time to get pedalling again. The ride so far had been a seemingly endless series of short climbs and descents. And it was very enjoyable. The climbs were big enough to work up a bit of a sweat but it only took a few minutes (okay, sometimes several minutes) to reach the top. The descents were fun but also short. As for the scenery, it was nice to pedal through but not great for photos. I’ve found that tree-lined roads don’t seem to translate well to photos. But they’re really nice to cycling along.

I returned to the road and, despite the ongoing series of climbs and descents, I made surprisingly good time and made it to Donna’s about 45 minutes earlier than expected. The last big challenge was her driveway which ended up being the steepest climb of the day. Seriously, it was steep. Fortunately, with a running start I generated enough momentum to conquer it.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, Donna was yet another very friendly and welcoming Warm Showers host. She showed me to my room to get settled and I was able to have a shower before dinner. I felt a little guilty for taking the room as her son, Lewis, and Hibiki, a Japanese exchange student were using the room for video game conquests.

Although Lewis had to leave, the rest of us (Donna, Hibiki, and I) enjoyed a great chili dinner complete with homemade bread. I won’t lie, the smell of the bread as it baked was a highlight of the day! As was the chili. The ice cream and cookies for dessert were pretty great too. Okay, it was just another great Warm Showers experience. Thanks Donna.

The day came to a close with the three of us watching a movie in the same room that would later become my bedroom. Having not watched a movie for quite a while, it was a nice way to end the day.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 139.14 km
Ride time: 6:03:55
Average speed: 22.94 km/h
Maximum speed: 55.02 km/h