The a Fun Begins

We landed about 90 minutes late in Vancouver. Flearing customs went smoothly. After getting tickets for the rail we headed into the city.  Our hotel is in the meat of the town. A guy on the plane gave us the impression we were in the slums.  That's far from the truth.  We quickly grabbed a few beers & dinner at a pub next door. 

Later we hit the Gastown section of town. It's a lot like Lawrenceville, but along the waded.  We stopped into a pub for a bit. We met a young Irish couple on their first date. By the end I was negotiating for his second. The poor dude showed 20 minutes late. I had a hard time selling. He seemed nice enough. He's been here 4 months and is wooin Finance. She's been here 3 years.  Very pretty and dad owns a pub in Ireland. A catch for sure!

I'm having difficulty adding pictures via the iPhone. Hopefully soon.  

Cheers!

The Daily Routes

In order to give you an idea of the distances and terrain John and I will cover, I thought I'd post the routes that we plan to take.  These may be tweaked quite a bit, but you'll get a pretty good idea of where we will be travelling.  

We'll put the bikes together August 6 and tour around Vancouver.  We haven't developed a plan and just know a few things that we plan to see.  The Vancouver Seawall is very high on our list.  A few friends have given us other recommendations.  

The ride to Portland starts August 7th as we head to Anacortes, WA pretty much following this route. I'm not so sure I'm looking forward to the climbs.

Monday, August 8th: Take ferry from Anacortes to San Juan Islands. The plan is to ride up Mount Constitution which is on Orcas Island. It's nearly 20 miles to the summit and about 2400 feet of climbing.  From there we'll tour more of the island and take a ferry to Friday Harbor for the evening.  This map gives you an idea of where this is.  

We ferry back to  Anacortes  Tuesday, August 9th and head to Silverdale, WA along this route

The most challenging day will be Wednesday, August 10th as  we head to Raymond, WA.  There are some tremendous climbs and what looks to be a really fun 20 mile downhill rollercoaster of a hill. The details are here.  

The day I'm really looking forward to is Thursday, August 11th.  We head along the pacific coast to Astoria Washington.  I've been told by several people this is a beautiful area. Astoria is where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean.  Ride Details

Friday August 12th is the last day and will also be a bit challenging. We have a few options to get to Portland and it looks like this route is the likely choice.  There's no easy way into Portland and we will be able to ride a few rail trails as well as see a great deal of the Columbia River.  You'll notice a nice climb in the middle of the route.  

Saturday we tour Portland and Sunday fly back to the 'Burgh.  Stay tuned for the adventures!

R4R 2016

This blog is to keep family, friends and all those interested in helping Ryan Diviney updated on our 2016 ride.  John Maletta and I will head to Vancouver, BC August 5th to bicycle to Portland, OR.  I'll post pictures and stories of our adventure and hopefully entertain you.  

We do rides like this every year to raise funds for Ryan Diviney who has been in a coma since 2009 due to a viscous attack while a student at WVU.  If you would like to donate to his cause, all money sent will go to his care.  

Donations can be sent to:

Ryan Diviney SNT

c/o Gerry Durishan

116 Bristol Lane

Irwin, PA 15642

For every $10.00 donation received by August 31 an entry to a raffle will be awarded for 2 tickets for the Pitt - Penn State Football game to be played September 10, 2016.  The seats are in section 110 at Heinz Field.  The drawing will he held September, 1, 2016.