Day 4

Yesterday I went from Port Townsend, WA to Belfair, WA. It was a pretty uneventful day. I left my hotel at 8:30-a good, early start since I knew the day would be around 60 miles. I waved good bye to the Indian man who worked at the hotel and was on my way. Pedal pedal pedal...listen to music...pedal some more...put on rain coat...take off rain coat...pedal some more. That's pretty much how the day went. It was sunny for most of the day with some off and on rain. There were lots of small hills, which were a pain, but I know they are nothing compared to the hills I'll face in Oregon and northern California.

Most of the ride wasn't really photo worthy, so I took no photos. Port Ludlow was a very pretty town though. There's lots of homes right on the beach in a secluded inlet. Some of the homes were ridiculously cool. I should have taken pictures.

I crossed over the Hood Canal onto the peninsula. There was a sign at the beginning of the bridge that said, "Severe Cross Winds When Flashing" and next to the sign were two lights that were not flashing. I figured I'd be good. Sure didn't want to get caught on that bridge during a severe cross wind. Turns out the wind is horrible all the time and "severe" just means it's extra horrible. The wind was blowing north, pushing me toward the traffic. The shoulder was a good 8 feet wide, but it didn't feel like enough with how strong the wind was. I made it across the 2 mile bridge safely though.

Did some more pedaling and rain coat swapping for another 23 miles and arrived in Bremerton, pop. 37,259. My trip odometer told me that I may have missed my turn onto Harlow Dr. but I wanted to go a bit further, just to make sure. I went down a fast hill and was probably going about 20-25 mph when I heard something start rattling my front spokes. I looked down and saw that my front rack had partially fallen off and was bumping up against my spokes. I slammed on my breaks and pulled over. No damaged spokes, thank God. The screw that holds the rack in place was completely broken. Half was in the rack, half was in the bike. Great. Luckily I had just arrived in Bremerton, so I figured it would be at least possible to get a new screw. But would I have to hitch hike? How would I find a screw? I went across the street to a flooring company to ask if they knew where the nearest hardware store was. (There was a funeral home on the side of the street I was already on, but figured that'd be a bad call). The man inside the store told me, "Well what exactly do you need?" "Just a machine screw for my bike" "Well you're in luck. There's a screw shop, just a quarter mile from here." Awesome. I walked my bike up to the shop and the friendly man gave me the screw and a washer for free and also directed me back to my route, since I had in fact missed my turn a while back.

Back on track, I did some more pedaling. I realized that I hate cities that are built on hills. If Golden was on my bike route, I would hate it. Anyways, after an uneventful 13 miles I made it to Belfair. Right next to a car mechanic's shop I got a flat tire. Something sharp on the road punctured the tire, so I just patched it real quick and went down the street to my hotel since it was supposed to be rainy that night. I'm such a wimp when it comes to rain.