It is another lovely sunny morning. Bella and I went out for our little walk and encountered a tent and vehicle right on our trail. Hmmm. We took a different loop and came back around and met one of the gals staying in the tent. she said they came in last night and the park was full and they told her people often camp out in the field for the night, so that's what they did.
They packed up pretty quickly and left.
Bella and I sat outside and enjoyed the morning and all the passers-by.
Rob got up and joined us for our coffee.
We decided we were going to go to Wenatchee and do that 10-mile Apple Capital Recreation Loop Trail and then perhaps the hunt for Gnomes in Cashmere.
We loaded up the bikes and Bella's basket and headed out. It is a lovely day. The ride was fun. It followed the Columbia river on both sides.
We crossed over three bridges, crossing the Columbia twice and the Wenatchee once. We rode through the Sculpture Garden that Bella and I had walked through on the previous day. We rode through the Confluence Park and the Walla Walla River Park and finally ended up where we started.
We continued to ride to the Public Market and stopped in for lunch at the Columbia Cafe. I had a really good Corned Beef sandwich and Rob had a mediocre Tuna Melt.
After lunch we loaded Bella back into her basket and rode up a couple blocks to Historic Wenatchee. This is where it got expensive!
We came across a bike shop and naturally, we had to stop in. Rob loves bike shops and usually wants to know all about mountain bike trails in the area.
The shop had three sections. Road bike stuff, mountain bike stuff, and a third area that looked like it had a track or something in it. It did't, but I asked what was over there. He said "those are our E-bikes" I said what are they. "Oh", he says, "come see". So we did. We came, we saw, we bought!
An E-Bike is an electric assist. You still have to pedal, but an electric motor kicks in to help. In his words, "It takes the hill out of the ride".
I took it out for a test ride. He said go up that hill, but first I rode it through an alley just to get used to it. It has 4 settings. Eco+, Eco, Standard and High. Oh my god! Each one gives a little boost to your pedaling, but high zooms you. I came back to Rob with a huge smile on my face and said you have got to try this. And he did.
Then we took it up the hill...what hill. Then Rob took it into a parking garage and climbed the spiral. I did as well.
I came back to him and he said, "ya know this bike changes everything, we can ride together again and not worry about the climbs." So we bought it.
Then the problem was what to do with my old bike (I have had it since we first moved to Tahoe in 2000). We don't have room on the bike rack for another bike and we don't have anyplace to store it. Josh, said we have a program here where we take in bikes, refurbish them and give them to members in the community who can't afford a car and need transportation. I said great! Let's do that. So we did.
Soon, that also changed any plans for the rest of the day. Now we have to go for a ride.
We came back to the RV, dropped off Bella, changed into riding clothes, grabbed camelbacks and rode off.
We did the same ride that I could not do a couple days ago. The Freund Trail, but we rode it from here. 3.5 miles to the trail head, 4 mile climb, 4 mile descent and 3.5 miles back.
The bike is amazing. I tried to keep it in the lowest assist so that I still had to work, but when I did put it in the higher modes it zoomed me up the hill. I would have left poor Rob in the dust if I'd really kept in in high mode.
We got back to the rig and sat out with an adult beverage and enjoyed the evening.
We sat out until about 10 pm and then went to bed.
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