Day five: June 14

Once again I am at a loss for words... Trying to put into words the traveling we are experiencing by bike is more of a challenge than the actual climb we did again today. Today we once again had the intention on leaving Winthrop KOA campsite early, but our Whistler wanted to sleep in. we know not to wake him otherwise the day May be more than go with the flow. After we finally got on the road we traveled East highway 20 towards Omak to see grammie Carol. We knew what was ahead in the sense of climbing at a slower pace and being patient with reaching of the top. We knew we needed to reach the top and from there pretty much down hill flying freely in the cold wind. Seven miles to the bottom and we continued on our way to grammies. It's funny to think that the world could every really be the same because it truly is so didn't everywhere. From our beginning point in Bellingham to here in Omak the land we have scene changes. We left Winthrop biking along a non bike shoulder road with construction taking place. There truly was not much of a shoulder today to ride in, so it was just do what we could to be safe. We got into the town Twisp, stopped at the market to get some fuel energy so we were prepared for the long haul ahead of us... Today was actually a great climbing day. The weather was overcast in the beginning which made nice for our first elevation we encountered and made nice for whistler to nap peacefully. We ended up riding almost a full 3 hours without any interruptions today. We had another pass to reach today and downhill most of way after that. We climbed for about 20 miles before reaching the pass; meanwhile being passed by more logging trucks than cars.once we reached the pass we let whistler out of course to ride his bike, although he thought he was going to ride downhill on his specialized... The view as we went downhill was so beautiful all around, it was so cold that my hands were cramping, and an adrenalin rush came over me that as we approached this next bit of climbing we didn't know we had, I felt like racing up to the top of it (not the greatest idea because after climbing all day the Achilles are feeling it)... Anyways we made it to the next town, hotter than ever! Let whistler out at the John Deere store , got back on the road to finish about seven more miles to Carols. Just before crossing the river my back tire blew. After all we have done and being almost there, did it really have to be the back tire with all the bags... We pulled over, Nick took everything of and did what he does to get us going again. Thankfully it didn't pop as I was flying downhill! I could have taken another fall (yes, two days ago my rear rack came loose and rubbed into my back tire, I tipped over (in a parking lot at least)). We are now here in Omak, going to enjoy dinner and chatting. Tomorrow we are taking a day to see the sights with grammie Carol and will get back on the road Saturday!!!