BAC Seattle to San Francisco

20100706 – Shelton to South Bend

Things were really rocking at the Little Creek Casino last night. There was so much to do that I did not get to bed until 9:00. It promises to be less busy at Chen’s Motel in South Bend tonight.

I was up at 6:20 this morning and had breakfast at 7:00 with Bill Kiess in the Island Grille – scrambled protein and a fried pork product. After packing up, I left the hotel at 8:20. No one was around. Where did everybody go? I must have been the last one to leave.

The first part of the ride seemed to be down hill although there was some climbing at the start. The last part of the ride had several moderate pitches. It became more difficult as the ride progressed because it was heating up. When I finished in South Bend at 12:45, it was over 90.

I made a stop in Montesano for ice coffee at a little coffee shop and later at the side of the road for a PB&J sandwich. (Rich Gallo, our ride director supplies makings for PB&J at Happy Hour).  I did not stop often because I wanted to get to the motel before it got too hot.

I passed several people in our group and got passed right back when I stopped.

Here is a link to today's route.

Chen's Motel and Restaurant is an oddity in the middle of lumber country. It is run by a Chinese family – an elderly couple (grandparents), a younger couple (parents) and a girl (6) and boy (5). My room is average size and a little spartan. but it is clean, has hot water and free internet. (Does this sound like a recurring theme)? The restaurant has both Chinese and American food. After cleaning up, I went to the restaurant for my second lunch. Even though the weather was very hot, I had a huge bowl of noodle soup that had a ton of vegetables, pork, chicken, shrimp, dumplings, etc. I couldn’t eat it all so I have the leftovers in my room refrigerator. The kids were playing an internet game at the counter while I was eating.

I managed to waste away the afternoon on the internet and reading. We had Happy Hour at 5:30 again. All of us were crammed into one of the rooms. We were sweltering because there was no air conditioning and the temperature had risen to the high 90’s. We cut Happy Hour short and bailed out to eat dinner. I joined eleven others at Chens where we enjoyed some decent Chinese food. I had shrimp in lobster sauce. This might be the last of my shell fish for a while.

I am back in my room and it is approaching 8:00. It is still hot with the sun low on the horizon. We are at the end of an inlet from Willapa Harbor. The sun promises to sneak behind a hill to our west pretty soon. We can cool off then and get ready for bed.

I haven’t taken many photos on this part of the trip. This will change soon and I’ll put some onto this blog.