A Red Hot Finish

 Day 4: Des Moines, WA -> TACOMA!

Miles: 26.5 (181.1 total)

Elevation: 1,439' (6,832')

Pints: 11.5 (37)

We did it! Pretty emotional day for Sentimental Sammy :)

Here's a delightful before (9 years ago, right where we started), and after (today).

Have we improved?

Nope!

Today's actual ride was pretty meh but had a few nice moments. Especially when we found a handsome man named Brendie to ride with us on the gorgeous BPA Trail.

We hit up our old stomping grounds and bathed in an ocean of nostalgia - I couldn't leave campus without marking my territory in the music building one final time.

God, I hope Dr. Hutchinson finds that tag.

We then spent about 5 hours at Red Hot (our favorite bar featuring gourmet hot dogs and craft beers). between us we had 22 beers and THIRTEEN hot dogs. Hot DOG!

We earned it.

We HAD to finish our 9 year adventure exactly where we started - a good cozy-up with the one and only Mr. President, who had been the one to send us off all those years ago in 2013. Here we are 9 years later. How special is that.

:)

Sam and Pat went south.

Got heem.

Pat's nice Bellevue of my Butt

            Day 3: Snohomish -> Des Moines, WA

Miles: 47,8 (154.6 total)

Elevation: 2,051' (5,393')

Pints: 11.5 (25.5)

We woke up to a phenomenal breakfast cooked by our generous and soft-souled host, Perry, whose chickens poop out about 14 eggs a day. Man, those home laid eggs are just so much better than any eggs I've ever had before. I gotta get some fking chickens. And goats - the goats were chill AF too. 

God must have wanted to keep us cool today cus She kept spitting on us for all 50 miles - it was as if the rain cloud was following us. No complaints though, except for a couple hairy skids on some downhill blind turns. 

It was a nice ride - we don't have a ton to report except that we tried to make up some real ground on our pint count today, and sipped on some fantastic brews (the highlight being - Deschutes's Catharina Guava Sour).

Tonight we are staying with my good friend Dave Upthegrove in Des Moines, who also happens to be the Council Member for King County District 5. If you live here, vote for him - he's a great guy. His husband also just happens to be my beloved college roommate, Chad, but Chad isn't here. Chad where are you? 

Goodnight, I leave you with a nice pic of Sleepy Pat, with a mini-grand piano and a view of the Des Moines waterfront in the background. Wonderful vibes here!

Feeling Fine on Highway 9

           Day 2: Mount Vernon -> Snohomish

Miles: 50.9 (106.8 total)

Elevation: 1,407' (3,342')

Pints: 8.5 (14)

Our day started out with Pat doing some repairs on his special setup (yesterday's ever-sinking panier rack didn't look too promising) while Sam snoozed the morning away. When the rack seemed stabilized and Sam roused from his slumber, we enjoyed some incredible huckleberry pancakes and fresh squeezed juice made by our host, Annie.

Our route was pretty straightforward today-- after biking by some idyllic lakes along highway 9, we spent the rest of the day on the beautiful Centennial Trail which follows said highway all the way to Snohomish. Unfortunately, neither of us did a good job of getting pictures today. Sam's special setup made a comeback today (after a disappointingly uneventful day 1) when his sunscreen came loose not once, but twice, and Pat's panier rack lived to see another day. 

I type this post as we lie in our tent on the lawn our warm showers hosts Perry and Diane, listening to the loudest cow in the universe serenade the country side. We'll see if between her dulcet tones and Sam's epic farts (I told him the root beer float was a questionable choice) I ever get to sleep tonight.

Signing off,

PP

Tryna Chuckanut on my Sore Butt

          DAY 1: Canada -> Mount Vernon

Miles: 54.9

Elevation Climbed: 1,935'

Pints (of beer): 5.5

Our trip started out a little rocky! The design of our VERY cheap motel bathroom made it particularly difficult to lose some grams before liftoff.

Oh well, off to Canada! We quickly get across the border (about 1 mile north of motel), but promptly run into a customs agent who politely asks us for our "passports and vax cards eh", in order to legally venture any deeper into the Vancouver suburbs.

Unfortunately, my Texan companion somehow did not think to bring his vax card with him to the west coast, NOR did he have a picture of it on his phone.

So here's Freedom Pat repacking his crappy setup after being kicked out of Canada for having absolutely no proof of vaccination whatsoever. 

Elizabeth please send a pic of FPs vaxx card when you get the chance.

To make matters a little more difficult, we immediately got stuck in the middle of an EPIC small-republican-town-4th-parade and ended up accidently participating.

Problematic Pat (née Pretentious Pat), didn't quite have his stuff together in the days leading up to today, so we've been scrambling around the state to get his set up ready. MAJOR thanks to newly wed Emerson for loaning us his cool, but definitely not tour friendly bike, after Pat failed to ship HIS touring bike to the westcoast in time for dismount... So our first 4.5 miles were spent repeatedly stopping to adjust PPs rack as it kept sinking into his tire. The set up is not sustainable so we will see what happens in the coming days.

These minor setbacks aside, day 1 ended up being a beautiful ride through the rolling coastline hills of Northern Washington. The highlight was surely going through Chuckanut Mountains, and pushing though canopies of Evergreen Tree forests. Magical stuff!

Now we are SUPER comfortable (but surprisingly gassed) at our first Warm Showers host in Mount Vernon. WS is essentially the same type of experience as Couch surfing, but exclusively for Bike Touring. Our hosts Scott and Annie are unbelievably generous and, as you can imagine anyone willing to give shelter to random cyclists, quite fun and zany characters. They had 14lbs of slow cooked Pork Loin and unlimited Rainier beer waiting for us. We've been hanging out shooting the shit and watching one hell of a fireworks show from their deck.

Very at peace right now, but excited for tomorrow's ride!

Problematic Pat moment of the day:

"Wait, you carry proof of vaccination with you at all times??"

Sam and Pat Go South: Part the Third - A Happy Ending

We're BAAAACK again!!!!!
Yes, blogspot still exists

Special Sam and Pretentious Pat are back at it (again)!! 

If you are new to the adventures of SS and PP, here's a brief summary of what you've missed, and a link to the first blog posts for each of those trips!

SAM AND PAT GO SOUTH: Part the First - Seattle -> San Francisco

2013 - Immediately after receiving their Bachelors of Music degrees from the University of Puget Sound, Sam and Pat bike 1000 mi in 16 days to get back home (couldn't afford plane tickets).

SAM AND PAT GO SOUTH: Part the Second - Lower and Deeper
2019 - Six years later (and now even more poor but with Masters of Music degrees), Special Sam and Pretentious Pat are back at it!! This time edging a little further south, a little deeper and a little lower than ever before. We're picking up from where we left off (Sea --> SF), and biking from San Francisco to Mexico!! A 10 day trip, 657 mi bike ride.

And NOW (2022), we begin the last leg of the vertical line as we go BACK UP NORTH, to bike from Canada, to Red Hot (our favorite place in the world), Tacoma WA. Right back where we started NINE YEARS AGO. Why did we not bike from Seattle to Canada? Well that wouldn't work well with the title of the blog and it is WAY too late to change that shit.

The proposal begs the question - WHY?! My Poppy* (grandfather) stated it well when reacting to our first adventure: this is an "idiotic, STOOOPID idea! What's wrong with your head!". Yes perhaps it is. And there are plenty of things wrong with my head. Including this nose, but that was YOUR FAULT, Poppy! In short, the answer to that question is...

1. Why not!! For Fun!
Our last two trips were INCREDIBLE. Like seriously, our adventures each day were life-changing and magical and frustrating and humiliating, and cruel, and beautiful. And so, so dangerous. Actually, many of our routes have since been deemed illegal. I remember fondly going down HWY 101 at 40 mph from Solvang to Gaviota in the pitch black after downing two boots (one each) of Weihenstephaner Hefeweisen. Or another time when Pat and I somehow ended up on I-8 in San Deigo and nearly died when I crashed into a drainage grate. Good times. And the PEOPLE we have met along the way!! Our faithful readers will remember our first CouchSurfing experience in Centralia, WA with the host who smelled us for 5 min to make sure our sunscreen didn't have chemicals in it. And who could forget about those nudist eco farm (??) folks we accidentally met in the hot tub at Pigeon Point Hostel?! This world we live in is nothing more than the sum of its parts, and I'm starting to realize those parts are the people you meet when you're doing stupid things. 

This week our trip will be unfortunately much safer, and WAY easier. And probs for the best, as our joints have gotten considerably older. Here's the betting line for what body part is most complained about:

            Pat's Back         -210
            Sam's Knee       +110

            Pat's Gooch       +155

Here's our route (if all goes according to plan (unlikely)):

Day 1: Canada -> Mount Vernon (57.0mi / 1,345”)

Day 2: Mount Vernon -> Snohomish (50.1mi / 1,106”)

Day 3: Snohomish -> Des Moines (46.4mi / 1,749")

Day 4: Des Moines - Tacoma (Red Hot)… and back? (45.9mi / 1,529”)

2. To test the bond between two friends
Do we still like each other? Have we ever even liked each other?? Probably not. But we have a lot of the same interests so we might as well hang out and argue and do something cool together but mostly argue.

So much has changed in 9 years! 

Pat got married (May 2020, TX)

... Twice (June 2022, MI)

I'm happy (and pretty surprised), to report we are both full-time musicians. We both won (an exaggeration) GRAMMY Awards in the same year for different projects! Pretentious Patrick is a full-time choir-director at a Catholic Cathedral in Houston, TX. Its a big deal post - go Pat! Special Sam continues to perform full-time in Musical Theatre, Opera and at the San Francisco Symphony. He gets paid to travel all over the place and make mouth noises for a living, so he's pretty much living the dream.

Like every relationship, Pat and I have had our ups...

...and downs...(I think this tiff one was girl related)

but so far we've always come out in harmony.

STAY TUNED FRIENDS!

Much love, 
Sam and Pat (but mostly Sam. In fact, entirely Sam)

*Poppy is dead now. So its Pat's Grandpa. Thanks COVID!

Vamos a Tijuana!! We made it!!!

Day 11: Border --> Tijuana, Mexico

Miles: 2.87 (657.7 total)

Elev. gain: 94 ft (28,517 total)

Pint count: 6 (74.5 total)

Welp - we did it!!! Sam and Pat made it to Mexico!

After consulting with many folks, we decided not to bring our bikes into Mexico, but we did ride up to the border to take a quick pic. It was honestly an uncomfortable moment. We were proud of ourselves and of our accomplishment, but taking a smiling picture next to the border wall was a pretty chilling privilege check. It's a crass un-metaphoric symbol and it sucks. So we felt really mixed about our photo-op to the point that I don't really feel comfy posting it here.

On a brighter subject, after dropping off Pat's bike to be shipped back to Houston, PP and I had a fantastic day in Tijuana. We kind of had had our expectations tempered by many of the folks we had met along the way who had said rather disparaging things about TJ. But we were really impressed by the town - the art, the music, the cathedral (we're both church musicians), the snake tequila (??) the FOOD! We even stopped at one of TJ's micro-breweries, which was also great! Here's a few pics from our day:

TJ Gate

The Av. Revolución 

The TJ Arch

A Dope Alley

Catedral Metropolitana de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

It was neat, and the day felt like an apt celebration of our feat!

So there ya have it! What an adventure. It feels like two years since we were at the Hostel at Pigeon point. We've been commiserating about our next adventure, and we're leaning towards a completion of the American West-Coast South-bound route by going from Canada --> to Seattle/Tacoma. Maybe in another 6 years :)

Much love to our readers (Dave and Kath) for hanging with us during our trip, and our new eco farm (??) friends who kept us mellow!

Thanks for reading!!
SS

29 and feelin fine

Day 11: San Diego Hillcrest --> Border!

Miles: 24.73 (654.8 total)

Elev. gain: 485 ft (28,423 total)

Pint count: 9.5 (68.5 total)

Happy birthday Sam! Here he is in his birthday suit:

Zoom zoom.

Sam's  birthday definitely had less of a focus on biking and more of a focus on beer. I vaguely remember biking like 75 miles all uphill on my birthday a week ago, so I'm not quite sure how this worked out.

Fr. Rick, our couchsurfing host, took us to breakfast at the Original Pancake House, where I unwittingly ordered the apple pancake and ended up with this bohemoth:

(I probably should've known from the 1500 calorie indication on the menu.)

We learned even more about Fr. Rick over breakfast. I will try to quickly recount as much as I can remember:
Went to seminary
Fell in love and went to nursing school instead
Joined the navy as a nurse
Sailed all around the world
Had 2 sons
Wife died in a car accident when the boys were 8 and 10
Worked for Disney as some sort of manager of something at Disney Land
Opened a gay bar and became a bartender
Bought a bunch of properties around San Diego, including at UCSD.
Decided to go back to seminary
Became parochial vicar of the progressive catholic church in San Diego
Gets other priests mad at him because he tells people certain things aren't sinful that the church usually says is sinful
Got involved in little league as a volunteer
Umpires tons of little league games

I'm probably forgetting some things, but you're probably tired of that list anyway.

After a leisurely morning, we biked to downtown San Diego and hung out at the waterfront for a while. Big fan of this city.

We had beers at the downtown Stone brewery location (they're everywhere) and at Karl Strauss brewing. Great food there too. We're feeling very spoiled by all the great brussel sprouts we've had on this trip.
 They taste like candy! Also by the fact that everywhere we go seems to have a patio where we can watch our bikes.

Eventually we decided we better bike down to the motel on the border. Sam saw one of these motorized scooters on the bike trail (they're everywhere, too) and thought it would be a wise decision to kick it over. He slowed down to aim his perfect kick, and in so doing put us right next to each other. But the scooter was heavier than he anticipated and gave him a good ol' "equal and opposite reaction." Fortunately, I was there on the other side of him to bounce off of and right his course.  Unfortunately, that action "equal and opposite reaction"-ed me right into the fence. Ow.

Snapped my inner tube valve right in half!

We went by the baseball stadium. Here's a statue of Sam's favorite football player. Go Gulls!

See all those lights in the distance? That's Mexico! We're crossing today! Rick said to go left, not right, at the big gate to avoid the seedy part of town. Or was it right, not left? Meh.