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Bainbridge to Seattle
Friday, June 24th A ferry - No more than 10 miles riding today In the morning after a good night sleep , we have breakfast with our hosts. While we get organized and pack our panniers , Rasham and Trenton go about doing their morning chores on the farm, Carmen goes off with Rasham and I go talk to Trenton who is weeding some of the vegetables, as I'm walking and talking to him , I think of the incredible amount of hours that it takes to maintain their farm. He gives me a tour of the farm starting with the pigs, then he moves over to show me his compostable toilet, I can say that I learned something different today, the toilet is nothing more than a shed with a comfortable siting seat with a 5 gallon bucket to do your thing, but there was no bad odor. He tells me that coffee grounds in the bucket covers up the odor and once the bucket is full it is emptied out somewhere in the yard and in time becomes dirt. He also shared with me that he has someone living in an Airstream trailer for free but in return the person gives them 10 hours of work on the farm.
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We walk over to the bees, he had 4-5 hives, I'm wondering were the honey is? He takes me throughout to his 6 acres, he tells me his plans for future projects. It's amazing to see what they have done in so little time. They are completely living off the farm. While drinking coffee he shows us the bee honey panels. Carmen will tell you what happens next. It is now about 9:30 am Our host have to go into town, they leave us there to finish packing, there is a wonderful trust which we have experienced with every warmshowers host which I will talk about on the last day.
We are ready and head out about 30 minutes after T&R leave, but before we leave I go back in the kitchen and leave $5 for a bar of soap, which Rasham makes. Earlier I tell her that I would like to buy a bar of soap from her to remind me of their home, she tells me how each bar of soap is different and how they get their scent and texture. I take one because it is small and she offers me another if I would like, I do want the other with her favorite goat on it, but I say that one should be enough. I keep thinking about the soap with the goat imprint and how nice it would look in our bathroom on the soap dish we recently bought in New York. Once they leave, I go back and leave payment for another soap which will complete the memory, I hope I have left enough money for my thievery. Rasham also sells her soaps in the community website, where people can make an order and then she leaves the soaps in a box in front of the house and people leave payment in an envelope in a box. Please visit Trenton and Rasham's website www.freelifebybike.com
About 30 minutes after T&R leave, but before we leave I go back in the kitchen and leave $5 for a bar of soap which Rasham makes, earlier I tell her that I would like to buy a bar of soap from her to remind me of their home, she tells me how each bar of soap is different and how they get their scent and texture, I take one because of the small and she offers me another if I would like, I do want the other with her favorite goat on it, but I say that one should be enough. But I keep thinking about the soap and how nice it would look in our bathroom on the soap dish we recently bought in New York. Once they leave I go back and leave payment for another soap which will complete the memory, I hope I left enough money for my thievery. Rasham also sells her soaps on the community website, where people can make an order and then she leaves the soaps in a box in front of the house and people leave payment in an envelope in a box. Please visit Trenton and Rasham's website www.freelifebybike.com
Once we leave the farm we ride a few short miles to the town of Bainbridge, what a wonderful surprise the town is! Lots of small restaurants, shops , galleries and Museums. We lock up our bikes just across the street from the visitors center and spend a couple of hours in the town. One of the highlights was visiting the museum which covers what happened to all the Japanese once World War 2 started, this was the first town in the USA to have their Japanese community taken out of their homes and moved to the internment camps in California. With many never coming home, losing business and homes.
AT about 1 pm it started raining again, we had decided to go ahead and head to the ferry to get back to Seattle. It was nice to know that once you pay to get on an island then you do not have to pay to get off using the ferry.
Back in Seattle now, we ride around a little and have lunch just off Pikes Market. Tired now, we decide at first to ride our bikes to Queen Anne to our final stay in Seattle with our first hosts Kristi and Stephen and where our bike cases are stored.
As we began on this our final ride, Carmen's pannier rack snaps off on the right side and gets caught on the tire if she tries to ride, so I have to unpack the panniers to get some tools to fix it. I tried to tape it together when Carmen sees the bus that will take us to their home. To make sure I go and ask the bus driven,he confirms, now for the first time I have to place the bikes on the front bus rack. The bus driver gets out and shows me how. With the panniers in our hands we get on the bus and head to Queen Anne. Once there, we walk our bikes to their house which is just a couple of blocks and after showering start to take the bikes apart and pack up the cases to get ready for the morning Uber ride to the train Station. As I'm packing up, I realize that I can not find my white sweater , I dig desperately for it but can not find it. Somehow between the unpacking to fix the bike and the bus ride we must have left the sweeter behind, I was very disappointed.
A little later we walk up to town to get a light dinner, but I have the idea of seeing if my bus driver will come by, so I can ask if my sweater is on the bus, but 30 minutes and 4 buses later, I finally give in. All this time I'm eating my Salted Caramel Ice Cream Pint I had just bought for dessert. I return to the house where Carmen is waiting since she did not want to spend her time waiting for the buses. Now all packed up and ready for the morning I catch up on a few days writing in my journal.
Carmen - Our adventure is coming to an end and we could not have picked a better last day of discovery and riding. This morning we woke and discovered what we had not been able to see the evening of our arrival. The ground outside was wet from the rains, a perfect day to tour a farm! I was so amazed at all that Trenton and Rasham have done .... a labor of love. When she had said the night before -" we decided to pause our travels and put all our learning into a place of our own." I was so impressed, I am more impressed by actually seeing all that they have done together. The pictures of course will help to tell the story. My words are inadequate to detail the love that is between the couple for each other as well as for the Earth, their future with their new baby.
Over dinner last night Trenton had shared about his bees, and how the winter before they had hung the panels of honey over their woodstove to get the honey to drip out. Today over coffee as he is sharing more about the bees and how there is a machine that helps to get the honey out. I begin to share my love for all that they are doing and about my family. My grandfather was a farmer and also a bee keeper. I share about how he used to smoke the bees out then take the honey combs out. He would then wrap the combs in a thin sheet and "milk" the honey out. He would put the honey in jars and add a piece of the comb back in the jar for keeping the honey from turning into sugar. When Rasham comes in from doing some of her chores, he excitedly tells her that he is going to get his honey out. He gets some cheesecloth and wraps his honey comb in. Very soon he had a full mason jar of pure golden honey. We put the honey in our coffee then walked outside for a tour. I heard the story of the beautiful goat that gives a gallon of milk a day. Robert heard the story of the beehives and why they are up where they can get full sun.
What an inspiration they are....travelers, artists, writers, entrepreneurs,kind, positive, caring for others and our Earth.
The ride is a good one today - I feel great at being able to see places we have been before - especially being able to see the area where the big trucks are loaded with the cut pine trees driving past me. I am reminded of the day we rode on this road and how I feared the trucks. I know they are experts at driving if I stay on my side of the road all will be ok. I feel such happiness as I ride up the hills. I feel stronger, full of life.
Over dinner last night Trenton had shared about his bees, and how the winter before they had hung the panels of honey over their woodstove to get the honey to drip out. Today over coffee as he is sharing more about the bees and how there is a machine that helps to get the honey out. I begin to share my love for all that they are doing and about my family. My grandfather was a farmer and also a bee keeper. I share about how he used to smoke the bees out then take the honey combs out. He would then wrap the combs in a thin sheet and "milk" the honey out. He would put the honey in jars and add a piece of the comb back in the jar for keeping the honey from turning into sugar. When Rasham comes in from doing some of her chores, he excitedly tells her that he is going to get his honey out. He gets some cheesecloth and wraps his honey comb in. Very soon he had a full mason jar of pure golden honey. We put the honey in our coffee then walked outside for a tour. I heard the story of the beautiful goat that gives a gallon of milk a day. Robert heard the story of the beehives and why they are up where they can get full sun.
What an inspiration they are....travelers, artists, writers, entrepreneurs,kind, positive, caring for others and our Earth.
The ride is a good one today - I feel great at being able to see places we have been before - especially being able to see the area where the big trucks are loaded with the cut pine trees driving past me. I am reminded of the day we rode on this road and how I feared the trucks. I know they are experts at driving if I stay on my side of the road all will be ok. I feel such happiness as I ride up the hills. I feel stronger, full of life.