Climbing Today; 1,387 ft                              Climbing to Date;  114,229 ft

I was happy to be leaving Sand Point.  There was hardly nothing open at 06:30, but a convenience store had breakfast sandwiches and there was a coffee shop where Doc got a sweet roll.  Unfortunately, Doc discovered he had left his credit card at the brewery last night; in order to run a tab they had to keep the card until he was finished, and he forgot to retrieve the card when he left.  The brewery didn't open until 11:30, so he stayed behind while I rolled on towards Newport, WA.

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It's strange how people behave.  We have encountered the most impolite drivers of the entire trip in western Montana and Idaho - not all drivers, of course, but a small percentage who insist on blowing their horn because you are on "their road" I suppose.  And yet I have also met some of the nicest folks of all in this part of the country. Go figure.   I know from years of cycling that people behave their worst when it gets hot - it heats up the inside of the steel cage they drive and that makes them irritable.  Perhaps that explains it, as this part of the country has undergone record heat waves this summer.  

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I located the Antler motel and checked in.  I have the farthest room from the office (the motel has 13 rooms) and they said I might not get WIFI at all, but it has been fine.  As I was walking to my room, in drove Allane (see Day 72 for a refresher).  She and Steve were also staying here, and when Doc arrived we all went across the street to the Mexican restaurant for dinner. 

Unfortunately, we have learned that the fires have shut down our route to Anacortes!  Northern Washington has a lot of rugged wilderness, and there are only a couple of highways going east to west.  Our route is Highway 20, but there is a 12-mile section of it that is closed at a point 6 days ahead of here.  There is a number you can call for updates, and they tell you that the road is closed "indefinitely" and that there is no way it will reopen in a week.  But this is obviously an estimate, and they may be coming down on the side of caution to keep folks away.  Doc managed to get the number of the guy who is the main decision maker about the road closure, and he says the same thing.  Still, I think there is a chance that it will reopen within a week.  Steve has a friend who lives near the road closure, and he believes it will reopen soon.  My experience in riding through the fires in 2015 was that you couldn't get good information on road closures.  All in all, I'm betting there is about a 50% chance the road will reopen within a week. 

We are on a time schedule, and we can't wait around indefinitely for the road to reopen.  And there is no way to get "around" this road closure easily.  Steve plans to ride as far as he can until he is stopped by a road blockade, and then Allane will load him and the bike into the pickup and they will drive south and circumnavigate the closure and come back as far as they can to reach the other side of the closure and Steve will resume riding.  It will take them a full day of driving to get around the closure this way.  

Doc weighed everything and decided to abort from our route now and take a Google bike routing to reach Seattle. Seattle is as much "on the ocean" as Anacortes, so if he rides to the water he will have ridden "coast to coast."  He has to be back at work August 2nd and would like to be home a few days earlier to get prepared, so his decision is to deadhead it to the Seattle area. 

I'm going to continue on the ACA route for as long as I can in the hope that the road will reopen.  I also have a deadline in that I have a flight home on July 31st.  Both Doc and I need to get somewhere with a bike shop that can pack and ship our bikes, then we need to find a UPS store to ship home the panniers and other gear, then we need to arrange transportation to the airport.  Seattle is a huge metropolis and it isn't simple to do these things while riding in on a bicycle.  So we both will need a day after reaching Seattle to make it all happen.  

I can continue through next Saturday, at which time I should arrive in Twisp, WA.  If the road is still closed, Twisp will be the last point where I could divert south.  If I do so, I will be using Google bike routing which takes me on parts of highways 153, 97, and 2 to eventually reach the I-90 corridor and follow it into Seattle.  I don't like to have to rely on my cell phone all day for directions, but that will be necessary to keep me on the back roads and not actually have to ride the highways all the time.  But that's IF the road is still closed. 

So that's the plan for me and Doc now.  While I take a rest day tomorrow, Doc will head off on his new route and Steve will head off more or less on the ACA route.  Steve will be able to provide me with text updates on any news he hears about the road closure, so it's good to have him ahead of me. 

So it's all very exciting right now, and frankly it's a little bit scary as well.  I know that's part of the "adventure" game, but right now I don't like it.  I want to follow the route to the end - maybe that will happen, maybe not.  Good night all, video snippets follow...