I finally have found a place to blog about my trip. Please bear with me while I catch up.
On Friday 6/15/2012 I left Sacramento by train heading for Seattle and the Start of the Big Ride Across America. On Saturday I met several other riders and we rode around town running last minute errands. Just by luck the University of Washington was celebrating the Summer Solstice by having a goofy parade. The highlight of the parade was 350 naked people walking and riding thier bikes. They were covered in body paint and nothing else. Actually the body paint looked awsome and the effect was hillarious. I considered biking across America this way but was told by the Lung Association that I could not.
Monday we rode out of Seattle at 7:30 am  on a 94 mile trek up the Cascade Mountains. In true Seattle fashion it was raining and continued to do so all day. We rode through some beautiful country and finally made camp where it was still raining.
Tuesday was overcast but no rain. We rode 78 miles from Easton Wa. to Vantage Wa. it was still a climbing day but without the rain it was more relaxing. We arrived in Vantage and set up camp on the banks of the Columbia River. The sun had come out and it was a beautiful afternoon. Around 7pm the wind started blowing and continued to blow harder.Some time around 9pm a gust of wind caught my tent so hard it inverted the poles so instead of beeing a dome it became a bowl on top of me. Some one came to help and I had them pull the poles out so that the tent collasped down on me. I slept that way until around 3am when the wind died and I put my tent back together.
Wednesday was a mental test. We had a 78 mile ride with a 20 mph headwind. All we could do was put our heads down and grind it  out.At the end of the day I knew that I was both mentally and physically ready for the challenge.
 Thursday we had another windy day but it was not as bad as the day before so we rode or 86 miles into Spokane and our first day off. We stayed in Spokane at Gonzaga University and had time to do laundry, clean our bikes after the rain and just relax. All in all it was a great first week.