I love Port Townsend. It is one of my favorite Washington towns. It is super tourist-oriented, but it also has things like the incredible Rose Theater, and the boat yard with scattered little restaurants like the famous Blue Moose Cafe. It has many historic buildings, and little museums.
It also has a paper mill. A really stinky paper mill. It doesn’t usually bother me (I worked on a p8g farm as a teenager!), but it was powerful this morning. It was also really foggy, and there was no wind, so it seemed like the air was just… thick.
Today’s ride started off on the gorgeous Larry Scott Trail. It isn’t paved, but it is the smoothest unpaved trail imaginable. Maybe smoother than pavement! It was really beautiful and quiet. I saw only two cyclists, both commuting into Port Townsend. It was the highlight of the day!
The rest of the day was on mix of quiet side roads and busy highways, generally with nice shoulders. The Hood Canal Bridge can be really harrowing to cross when it is windy, but it was fine today.
I had my first road-raging angry motorist, honking at me furiously and then screaming at me as he passed, while I went through a traffic circle. I was going uphill, so someone had time to come out of their home to see what was going on. When he saw me, he said, “Oh, I guess they were mad at you.” Sensing he was an ally, I said, “Yeah, some people just don’t like bicyclists.” The way he grunted suggested he was probably one of those people, but I just smiled said something nice. Ironically, the angry driver’s SUV had a “Blue Lives Matter” bumper sticker.
I have decided to just be honest with myself. I don’t mind camping, but I am just happier in a cheap motel with plenty of electrical outlets and a bathtub. Sometimes you have to camp, and I am OK with that, but I am going to pick a motel first if I have a choice. So I still haven’t camped yet.
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