Mind.Of.Melanie: Riding 200 Miles on a Bike in One Weekend is Normal, Right?

Hardly. Well, it depends what you consider 'normal.' To my husband and a handful, well, actually a lot, of his friends this seems quite a reasonable thing. If you think to yourself 'Hey self, why don't we get on our bikes in Seattle and ride so far north that we need a passport' then I've got the ride for you! It's called the RSVP [Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party], put on by the Cascade Bicycle Club https://shop.cascade.org/ and it sells out every year. You heard me right, it's so popular that it sells out! Meaning that if you were number 4,001 you would not have gotten to ride your bike 200 miles and pay to do so. Sorry, better sign up earlier next time. But don't feel too bad, we all decided that the 'p' for 'party' should definitely be a footnote... they need to work on the party in a major way.

But really, it was quite fun for me. Our friends from Dallas, Rich and Matthew, flew up to do the ride with Will while I served as support crew. Day one of the ride was from Seattle to Bellingham, WA and then day two of the ride was from Bellingham to Vancouver, BC. I served as the sherpa and made sure the luggage and transportation made it to each stop. According to the boys, it wasn't bad and had a lot of nice scenery. I enjoyed getting to eat at cute restaurants in Fairhaven, WA (near Bellingham) and in Vancouver. I have also had the urge to eat lots of ice cream lately, so I had that just about every day, as did Matthew. I think Matthew put it best when he said 'Ice cream is really just like water, it just kind of smooths and melts around everything', exactly, Matthew. Zero calories because it just sort of dissolves once it gets inside your belly :) Another very high point of the weekend was staying at the luxurious Bay City Motor Inn. Let me tell you, the name is about as nice as it sounds. The website can be deceiving...if you define 'newly renovated' as something that was done within the last 20 years. It was a charming little hotel (enter, irony) that was right by the stop after day one in Bellingham (think... everything sold out in town and ridiculously overpriced). It reminded me of Will's apartment in law school in Waco, TX... with the kind of carpet where I wouldn't walk around without shoes on. You get the picture.

I digress. The ride was great and we all made it through the border just fine, well except Matthew, who apparently got a lot of questioning. Apparently there's a fugitive on the run in Arizona named Matthew... different one though! But he finally made it into Canada and finished the ride :) The weekend was really nice and it was great to see our friends from Dallas.

Here are the much anticipated shots from the weekend on the bike.