Me and My 1972 Yamaha XS650

I believe the year was 1979 and I had somehow come upon a nice Yamaha XS650, my second 650. I rode around checking out where the gang was, but everybody was busy. I checked my wallet and found enough for a ride south into the states, so I grabbed some essentials and headed south.

Being across the border at noon, I cruised down Interstate 5 (I5) to Bellingham where I got off the Interstate and followed the Chuckanut Drive past the Oyster Bar and onto Widbey Island.

Sure was nice that earlier in my riding career I belonged to a group of riders that met every Sunday Morning for a ride somewhere cool. We explored both sides of the border from: Aggasizz, Chilliwack, Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler, Pemberton, in Canada to Mount Baker, Everett, Widbey Island and Bellingham in the US. We used major highways as little as possible and explored and discovered some amazing rides.

As I came off the Mukilteo Ferry near Everett I had to stop at the Boing facility for a quick picture. After a quick time check I realized that I dropped myself into Seattle rush hour traffic. I'm sure it's a lot worse now, but I remember to this day that was a busy ride through seattle and it was good to get to Tacoma, where I stopped to take a picture off an overpass above Inerstate 5.

After grabbing a quick bite, I headed south with no particular destination in mind and ended up in a Motel in Hoquiam Washington, west of Olympia on the coast. Watched a few movies and realized I only had enough cash to ride home tomorrow so I had to be thrifty that night.

Well, the next morning I woke up to some of the hardest rain i've ever seen. Oh well, I packed up and got the raingear on and headed out of town. I was soaked through my raingear within 5 minutes. This is going to be a long ride I said to myself and plowed on through the persistant rain. Once you're soaked and it not being stupid cold, you do get used to it and start to enjoy the ride. Somewhere along the 101 I stopped for some pics, but I generally high tailed it for the ferry at Port Townsend.

After a short wait, in the rain, the ferry started to board and I took my spot at the front which was uncovered from the driving rain. There was a cafeteria on board and I poured myself a coffee and went right back down to where the bike was and hung out in the cold. My thought process was why would I get all warm and cozy on a 20 minute ferry ride only to have to get back on the bike and get cold and wet all over again for the next couple of hours till I'm home.

I must say, getting home, having a hot shower never felt so good.