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Preface: I was going to attend a dinner in Kirkland, WA and had planned on meeting peeps at the US border who were coming down for the dinner as well. We all wanted to avoid the interminable traffic mess that is I5 and enjoy a nice ride down to Kirkland on secondary highways.

1st leg - North to the border.

Leaving my house in Port Orchard, I took 16 West to 3 North. This is all just commuter grind stuff so far. Plodding through Port Orchard, Bremerton and Silverdale, skirting beside Poulsbo to get to the Hood Canal Bridge.

Turning off of Hwy 3 onto 104 I was greeted by the site of the Hood Canal Bridge. Since they don't publish departure times, it's always a bit of a guess whether or not the bridge will be open for surface transit of the submarines that are stationed at Bangor. No probs this time and I was able to proceed across smartly.

Traveling west, I rode to Discovery Bay, where I turned off of 104 onto Hwy 20. This is a pretty route along the bay, and the road curves gently along the bay with good sight lines most of the way. This was my first trip of any length with the refurb'd ZZR, so I was watching temps and listening for any weird noises. Blissfully, the bike ran great and was absolutely flawless as I traveled west towards Port Townsend.

Arriving in Port Townsend, I rolled into town and parked at the Ferry Terminal. Grrr...I had arrived in time for the 10:30 ferry, but it didn't run on Fridays! Ah well, that gave me time to wander the waterfront a bit and catch the 11:15. It always pays to read the fine print on the ferryboat schedule.

As I waited, some other bikes showed up as well. FYI, motorcycles typically load and unload ahead of four wheel traffic on WA state ferries. They are considered 'commuter vehicles' and hence don't get bumped when the ferry boat reaches capacity. Kind of a win situation for motorcyclists. The other motorcyclists, like me, were looking forward to their two wheel adventures. A pair of riders were getting in one last ride before one of them went in for back surgery. They were going to do the North Cascades and make a weekend of it. A trio of HOG riders were heading up into Canada and going east on 1 before heading south and looping back through Montana, Idaho and Washington. More like a week of riding for them.

Eventually, we all loaded on the ferry and headed across the water to Keystone, WA on Whidbey Island. There were some very pretty spots as I continued on Hwy 20, and I was looking forward to making a stop at Deception Pass for sightseeing. After that stop, I continued along Hwy 20 to Fidalgo Island. It's much smaller than Whidbey and honestly, if you didn't live there you would probably think you were on the mainland as you continued west on Hwy 20.

I was looking for Bay View Road, as I wanted to explore the shoreline of Bay View and Leary, WA. Turning off onto it, I wound along the bay, enjoying the bright sunshine of early afternoon. It was warm, the bike was doing great and life couldn't have been better. I was definately looking forward to the next road, the famed Chuckanut Drive.

Eventually, Bay View Road led into Hwy 237 and 237 led into Hwy 11. Hwy 11 North is Chuckanut Drive. It's very hard to describe just how pretty this stretch of road is. It hugs the side of the mountain, with tight twists swooping and diving through it's stretch. Not a road to go fast on, but very very pretty. Google for it and check out it's beauty.

Alas, eventually all things must end, and Chuckanut faded into the distance as Bellingham, WA loomed ahead. It's very hard to avoid getting on I5 at this point, as you are pinched between the shoreline and the highway, but it is possible, using the surface streets, to skirt along and work your way north by the Lummi Indian Reservation to Ferndale, WA.

From Ferndale, I continued north on Vista Drive. Alas, it's not that close to the water and is pretty unremarkable, being a long, straight, bumpy two lane road. That got me to Custer, WA and I met up with my peeps there. Looking back, I'll have to plan in extra time to explore Birch Bay, as it's roads look quite tasty. We traveled north from Custer to Birch Bay - Lynden road which let us go directly east over I5. A very nice trick, as it would have been a horrid mess trying to go north to I5, turn around at the border then south to the first exit. Arriving in Lyden, we turned north to Badger Road (Hwy 546). Continuing east on 546, we made it to Hwy 9, where we started our southward leg.

This is a very nice stretch of pavement. Lots of good curves, adequate passing areas and a nice feel. We went by the towns of Hampton, Goshen and Strandell. Hwy 9 goes through Nugents Corner, Deming, Van Zandt and Clipper, and skirts Comar, Acme, Saxon and Mirror Lake.

After scouting Prairie and Thornwood, we decided to look for a place to eat in a bigger town and continued on south.

We stopped for a late lunch in Sedro Wooley. There's an excellent mexican cafe here, named El Gitano. Probably the best mexican food I've had since moving to Washington. It's located off of Hwy 20, so there's about a mile of backtracking on Hwy 20 to the east before you rejoin Hwy 9 south.

Once headed south, we went through Clear Lake, Big Lake, Montborne and Macmurray. Nice twisties, nothing too crazy and we were able to maintain a good pace.

Crossing over into Snohomish County, the character of Hwy 9 changed pretty dramatically. Instead of a nice twisty road with little traffic, it turned into a sort of service road that was used by all the bedroom communities in the area. By Cavalero Corner, we knew the ride was over, and headed over on Hwy 2 east towards Everett. We turned south on I5 at that point and joined the regular traffic. Happily, there was a commuter lane on that stretch to help us get through the teeming masses.

It was a relatively quick jaunt down I5 to I405 and Kirkland. I guess if I had a wish, it was that there was another alternate highway that would have got use down to the Bellevue / Kirkland area.

Cafe Veloce' is a neat place. Lots of Italian charm and ambience, with several rare italian collector race bikes placed throughout the establishment. Having ate earlier, we weren't especially hungry, but looked forward to sitting and chatting with everyone and enjoying something to drink and maybe a dessert. I had a cheesecake and a big mug of black coffee. I had brought a four pack of Kawasaki coffee mugs, and gave them away as 'dorr prizes' to some of the other riders that had shown up for the gathering.

I think it was around 9:30 or so when I decided I had better get going. Had to ride back across I405 and I5 to get to West Seattle and catch yet one more ferry from Fauntleroy, WA to Southworth, WA. Think it was 11:30 by the time I rolled the bike in the garage. Today will be maintenance, need to check bolts for tightness, clean and lube the chain and make some throttle cable adjustments. I'm treating the rebuild the same way I would with a new bike, minus the engine routine. Always a good idea and go through a new bike after the first few rides and check everything for tightness.

Hope you enjoyed the read, it sure was a fun ride!

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