August 6 Seattle to Winthrop

So today was the start of the bike trip. Last night we had the meet and greet with all of our travelling companions. It was off to one of the local restaurants to swap stories while enjoying a nice meal and a glass of wine or two. This place was called the Tap House and had a 160 different beers on tap. Colin thought he was ordering a scotch  up what he was really ordering was a Scottish ale.Consequently there was a full glass of beer still sitting on the table at the end of the night. No sign of any australian beer or wine at all except for the Yellow Tail brand.
Next morning we left our hotel with all the luggage in one vehicle and a us took us out to Eagle Riders to pick up our bikes. Very excited till we got there to discover that neither of the BMW's had a back rest for either Shelley or myself.  Very disappointing considering that there had been several emails and follow up phone call to the USA to confirm that was the case.  Our guides Laura and Ken couldn't have been more hel pul trying to rig up some sort of backrest using some of our garbage.  The staff at the bike hire were totally uninterested in assisting.  Anyway sorted something,  got on the bikes and headed off on our first day.
First stop was Snoqualmie Falls which is part of the hydro system  and is named after the local people who have a strong spiritual connection to this area.Weaved our way through some beautiful Douglas Fir forests so big and very green. Spent the first half of the day getting used to the bikes and then it was onto the Northern Cascade Highway including the National park You will see photos but I just can't describe how majestic the scenery is here and it is only the first day. It's a bit like the area around Mt.Beauty and Myrtleford except on a much much grander scale. We got into Winthorpe quite late so it's 10PM on Thursday night and I am sitting beside the open door of our hotel unit listening to the sound of the river flowing by.  Just spending
dig a few minutes getting the blog up to date and recharging everything to use tomorrow. The photos come from a lot of different cameras so forgive if they are all different sizes. You get the idea.