Climbing Today; 345 ft                  Climbing to Date;  136,444 ft

I slept all the way till 05:00 this morning.  When I finally did crawl out of bed, I fussed around making coffee and having some of the garlic bread I bought last night for breakfast.  By the time I got Harvey prepped to roll it was nearly 08:00; what's gotten into me that it is taking me so long to get out the door?

There was fog on the bay, making it a moody coastal day similar to the day that Doc and I started this journey in Maine.   Wow, that seems like a lifetime ago; this has been a long journey.   I think 4,000+ miles on a bike qualifies as a "long journey" by any definition.

I rolled slowly through the downtown area which was still largely deserted, then began to skirt around the bay towards the Ferry Terminal.

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It was only 4 miles to the Ferry Terminal, and it went by quickly.  I saw a couple of cyclists ahead of me on light road bikes and for no reason I got mad that they dared to ride in front of me and I decided to pursue them - I dusted them on the first little upgrade we hit, even though I was pushing a 100+ pound bike.  Twelve weeks of cycling across mountains and plains and dealing with record heat and headwinds and forest fires has made me into some kind of wild animal on a bicycle - actually, that ain't right, the fact is that I have merged with the bicycle and evolved into some kind of hybrid machine.  My legs have become a unique alloy of titanium and kryptonite capable of explosive movement when needed.   OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I did blow past those cyclists like they were standing still.   "I love it," Harvey said, "but slow down Dude, we need to re-enter earth orbit soon or we'll miss the Ferry Terminal.  Besides, you're scaring the local cyclists."  I hauled it down just in time to arrive at the Anacortes Ferry Terminal, the official endpoint of the Northern Tier route.

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Steve HenryBud it’s really hard not to get chocked up! But that’s ok! What an experience this has been for you and Andy and all of the armchair bicyclists 🚴🏼‍♀️ along for the ride. The nice couple at the souvenir shop were the icing on the cake. Now I look forward to the last posting. Have a really well deserved rest day and a safe flight home. Once again, thank you 🙏🏾!!!!
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I have done this coast-to-coast thing before, and I know that the emotions can come unhinged when you finally make it to the end.  Even us real men can find ourselves teary-eyed after completing an endeavor like this; the fact is, there are so many things that can keep you from finishing the journey that you never know for certain that you will make it until the very end.   And so I told myself that there would be no emotional outbursts today.  And there weren't any, but as I was rolling away from the harbor I noticed that some of the fog must have gotten into my eyes and made them a bit misty.

Back in the hotel room, I unloaded all the panniers and sorted out what I needed to keep for the next couple of days and what could be shipped home. I made sure that I could fit the electronics and small amount of clothing and such into one of my small panniers, and then I began packing everything else into the 3 remaining panniers.  I packed the handlebar bag full, then packed it into one of the large panniers.  I removed the seat bag from the bike and also packed it into the panniers.  I packed my helmet into one of the large panniers and stuffed items into it as well.  When it was all done, I had everything packed into 3 panniers for shipping, and I loaded Harvey and we headed for a nearby UPS store.  The clerk was very helpful; she measured my 3 panniers and determined a box size she thought would work, and we managed to just fit them into the box.  

So then, with everything gone except for the pannier that I will use as carry-on baggage on the flight home, I headed Harvey towards a local bike shop.  It felt strange riding an unloaded bike!   The bike shop (Bikespot) gave me the dimensions of the box they would use to ship Harvey and their contact info for the UPS pickup, and I left Harvey with them and walked back to the hotel.  Once there, I went online and arranged for Bike Flights to pick Harvey up next week and ship him home.   Finally, I was able to do some personal business and went online and renewed the Certificate of Authorization for my 1-man engineering consulting business - I had only 1 day to spare to get that done.  Now, I can finally relax a bit.

There is more that I want to say, but it's late.  I will do an epilogue, and will write at least part of it tomorrow.  But for now I'm going to get some rest.  I hope you all have some rest time built into your schedule as well.  In the following amateur video, I forgot that the GoPro was running when I cycled up to the ticket house at the Ferry Terminal; so you will hear some conversation and the picture goes upside-down when I take off the helmet to pose for a photo.  Hey, did I mention that it's an amateur video?  Good night folks...