Time to leave Seattle for our tour. We had the same breakfast buffet this morning. Then we packed our bags, loaded them into the Ryder truck and began our route north to Arlington. The weather was overcast with a real threat of rain. The Burke-Gilman Trail was busy with commuter cyclists. This tapered off by the time we reached the Sammamish trail where we made a nature stop at Blyth Park. I was riding with Roy and Helga Smith, Jon Graff, Pam Kelly, Rose Eicker, Nancy Mcaravy and Pam Kane.

We continued on the trail along the Sammanish River. Eventually our group seperated when we entered neighborhoods and open fields.

Lunch was at 30 miles in Snohomish at the Snohomish Bakery with its rolling pin woman. Some of us ate outside on the patio. Others ate inside because of the threatening rain. This is a very good bakery. I had a large turkey and provolone sandwich which was very filling. When finished, I went inside to wait with the others for a rain shower to pass. We waited for a long time. To pass the time, I had to eat a large snickerdoodle cookie.

Sammamish River

Jon and Pam at the Snohomish Bakery

Immediately after leaving Snohomish, we turned onto the Centenial Trail. We rode on the carless trail for the next 20 miles until we arrived in Arlington. Roy Smith, Pam Kelly and I practiced out pace line skills for about 10 miles cruising through the trees at a high rate of speed. This was less tiring than our regular formation. The downside was leaving Rose and Helga behind.

​ To get to the Best Western Plus/Marysville, Arlington, we had to leave the trail and ride around the airport. Making a slight route adjustment (this is a euphemism for making a wrong turn), we were able to spot some really old airplanes parked on the tarmac. Back on route, we arrived at our hotel in good shape.

​ I had an interesting event with my GPS. I was using it with the day's route enabled. This gave good turn alerts, a feature I have used many times. This time when we reached our destination, the unit played its musical number telling me that I successfully reached my destination. Then it turned off wothout saving my track that I use for statistics. The route and statistics that you see below came from Roy's GPS.

At the hotel, I got a couple of rags from the front desk and used them to clean the gunk from my bike. It got pretty dirty riding along the wet pavement. After that, we had Happy Hour in the hotel's breakfast room. Then Roy and Helga Smith, Rose Eicker, Pam Kelly, Gloria Barschdorf and Fred McDonald went to the Moose Creek BBQ for dinner. I had pork ribs, cole slaw, corn bread and a Moose Drool. Not bad!