Seattle, Registration and Welcome

Hank Al Vanderhart and I leaving Grand Rapids airport Friday morning early.






















Seattle skyline driving in from the airport





















Spiritual Support meeting Dave, Marcus, Mike, Len and myself





Hank unpacking my bike Out in Golden Beach Park viewing Olympic Mountains in the distance
Turtles and ducks sunning on a log in Golden Beach Park
Registration line


Cyclists putting bikes back together

Pictures of the Welcome and greeting evening.

Seattle is absolutely beautiful today. It was sunny, and in the high 80"s. Very rare apparently for Seattle. As we flew in on Friday we saw Mount St Helen, Mt Rainier. They were both spectcular. Snow covered and just stand out majestically. I could not get a good picture from the plane so there is none here right now. I have asked a fellow cyclists who said he got a good shot the send me one for my blog.

Hank and I unpacked our bikes, put them back together and than took a 17 mile ride out to Golden Beach Park where we will be dipping in our tires Monday morning.

One sad part of today is that seven cyclists did not arrive with their bikes. Apparently they were not put onto the plane when they left Vancouver and they are still waiting to hear where they are. We will pray they arrive tomorrow.

There is overall a high level of excitement here inspite of a few challenges. Yesterday Ed Witvoet our tour and logistics manager and some crew worked on the gear truck as the gas and cooling systems were not working on the kitchen. By the end of the day, the problems were solved, but it kept Ed busy all day.

The gear and kitchen truck are both parked down a steep hill from the dorms. As there is little parking room on the road way, it was decided that the gear truck would not be parked in front of the dorm where registration is taking place. So the cyclists who put their bikes and gear on the truck in Grand Rapids, including Hank and I had to go down the hill and haul all the stuff up to the dorms for two nights. We will also be hauling everything back down tomorrow and Monday. We are both getting into shape just hauling heavy gear around.

Cyclists warmly greeting each other and looking forward to getting started after all the months of fundraising and training.

It feels really good to be here. Lots of great people we are meeting and looking forward to getting to know many of them better. Everyone seems to be excited about sharing the message of hope across the country over the next nine weeks.

With the perfect weather we feel blessed to have such a beginning to the tour.

Blessings to everyone,

Hank and Claire