Cycling the Palouse to Cascades Trail - Friday, October 13 - Getting Ready

 Sally has her 50th high school class reunion this weekend.  It starts with a get together of her middle school classmates tonight.  She is leaving at noon today, I suspect to do a little last minute shopping before arriving at 4:00pm for the start at a bar/restaurant somewhere in Tacoma.

I plan to leave about 3:00pm for the long drive to Vantage. Before we both leave I cleaned out her car and the truck.  I drove her Prius up onto the yard to wash the outside. Didn’t want her to be seen as a country hick driving a dirty car. I simple vacuumed mine and cleaned out all the trash.

I put the bike rack from the Vanagon in the back of the pickup, beneath the two bikes. The plan is to drive to Vantage and meet Andy there, me in my pickup, he in his Tesla Y. Put the bike rack into his receiver, mount the bikes on the rack, leave the truck until we cycle to it on Sunday afternoon and drive his Tesla back to his place for the night.

Gas is about $4.85 a gallon, yet when I drove through Packwood last weekend following the ski patrol refresher I saw it for $4.39 a gallon. As I left the house and headed up Hwy 12 toward White Pass I wondered if the price was still that low. It was $4.89 in Onalaska as I drove through. I listened to Micheal Lewis’ new book on Sam Bankman Freis as I drove. In Packwood the price was still $4.39 so I stopped to top up. From there it was up over White Pass, down to Yakima and then north to Ellensburg. Andy called and said he was charging his car in Ellensburg. I was only about 10 minutes away. He texted me his position and I navigated to him. As I turned right on Canyon Drive I saw him walking to a coffee shop. I pulled in to the Tesla charging station and unloaded the bike rack, figuring it would be easier to install it on his car in the daylight and on dry pavement rather than in the dark on gravel at the terminus of our ride. With rack mounted we continued our drive to where the bike route crosses Huntsinger Rd and parked the truck. Andy arrived a few minutes later as he side tripped in Ellensburg for a Subway sandwich. With all the gear transferred to his car we drove back to Kirkland, arriving about 10pm. I went to bed. Super tired.