We've learnt a good lesson this week. If you want to have a nice rest then pitch up next door to a good bakery and get to know the owner! Now that's how to burn some time until your train gets in. We've slept in a bed, taken a night train, been tucking into wild berries and reached our next state, Washington! Hey I've even returned to the village I grew up in... "Ovington"! At least in name, another week and another kick ass time we've had.

We awoke after a night of terror, at the dead of night a crazy squawking animal had been prancing around the park we were stealth camping in. Some might call it a mountain lion coming to eat us, others a small nocturnal bird... Whatever side of the fence you're on, you'd jump over to the mountain lion side if you were there that night! Anyway, happy to be packing up for the day we had our breakfast in the centre of town by a popular bakery, we could tell this from the many people driving up, realising it was closed and sulking back into their cars. We thought it was closed too, until a lovely lady called Terry came over to the tap nearby us to water her plants. Turns out she owned the bakery and had the biggest passion for baking we've ever known. This place is running 24/7 even if it's not open to the public and we managed to exchange our minimal efforts watering her flowerbeds for a constant stream of delicious leftovers! This fuelled us through the day to get some chores done and when Terry was about to leave, she gave us the run of the place and gave us some pizza dough, fresh basil and mozzarella to make some dinner with! I've never quite met a lady like Terry and she was a real inspiration to us with her openness and chitchat. We decided to stick around town till the next day despite an offer to camp on Terry's little beach on the lake in Whitefish as I needed to pick up a parcel from a town 30 miles in the wrong direction. So we hesitantly headed to the park to camp with the wildlife, the nocturnal terrors returning to spice up proceedings late on.

Today we were to part ways for the longest period in over 5 months! I had to cycle to Bigfork, about 30 miles back the way we'd came, to pick up a delivered lens cap for my camera that had arrived late. While Ruth had the pleasure of hanging out with Terry for another day. I took the chance to really dust off the cobwebs and cycle as fast as I could, making it to the post office in about an hour and a half. I then shot off to the town of Kalispell to do a quick shop (my punctured air mattress needed fixing and we had to replace a misplaced washing bowl...). However I think I pushed Mr Bikey too hard and ended up with a puncture to show for it just before reaching my destination. The first of a few I'd be experiencing this week, while Ruth basks in triumph having not had a single one during the whole trip! I made it the rest of the way on foot and then back to Ruth after sorting out the issue, to be greeted by yet more of Terry's delights! An 'almost' cream tea (with butter instead of clotted cream) still warm out the oven, recovery food! And a real treat :). We met back up with Leandro after making our way to Whitefish for a beer and on arriving at Terry and her husband Andy's house had the surprise of a bed for the night, rather than camping on the beach! Hello Mr bed... it's been a while! Thanks so much to you guys and Tay (a lovely girl who worked in the bakery also and shared her home with us).

Having the luxury of a bed made us really lazy, it was probably the afternoon by the time we got anything done but it was a fairly productive day fixing the air mattress and cooking some dinner for the train. When we finally made it downstairs we found a couple of loaves of freshly made bread waiting for us with a note. The lovely Tay had been up working her shift at the bakery until 2am and had left us a sample, it turned out she had gotten up and at 'em even before us, despite going to bed in the wee hours of the night! We spent some time together and shared a few stories of travelling, as she was a keen traveller, while making use of the kitchen. But as she had told us, no rest for the wicked in a tourist town, before long she had to go back to work on her second job and continue a month long work marathon with no days off... We only hope you get some rest soon Tay! And soon we were off to catch our train with Leandro, not before a quick tour of Terry's house, which was an amazing little log cabin on the lake with, you guessed it, a wood fired bread oven to match! So finally we boarded the train with Leandro and had a laugh in the lounge car trying to catch a glimpse of the passing landscapes as dusk slowly covered our view in darkness.

Thankfully we got a good show out the train window in the morning, as we chugged through the state of Washington and tucked into some of our final baking treats. That's right! Terry wasn't going to let us go without some breakfast pastries to get the three of us going in the morning! Yum! We got off the train just before Seattle, leaving the virus hotbeds of cities for future visits, and took the ferry straight over to the Olympic peninsula. Everything was now different once more: cars a plenty, crazy new flora akin to a tropical jungle (it was after all a temperate rainforest!) and humidity in the air. Exciting times! We cruise along and met up with a cycle path that would take us all the way west to the pacific over the next couple of days. And said path would lead us to a nice little camping spot with hiker/biker spaces and friendly company in the form of Jerry, the most Anorak cycle tourist you're likely to meet, who took an interest in every little thing we had with us. Here we also took a huge step to Mexico by purchasing some flights for Los Angeles!

Friday would bring with it sore bodies as I'd done my neck in during the night and Ruth's knee would be bothering her all day long, how old are we again? I thought we'd have another 20 years or so until we'd start to fall apart... The route was too good to be true as we were in a stunning place by the Olympic National Park, off the road on a dedicated cycle path and discovering new lands. And too good it was, as the both of us had a pretty rough day for some unexplainable reason. And this was compounded on arrival to where we had hoped to camp, as it was full and had no space for a couple of bikers. So we camped in a nearby lay-by, after being savaged by a mob of un-thankful, greedy little pests that might call themselves insects but I'd relegate to the title of 'worthless'. I've no idea what they were, all I know is that they were merciless.

Things were to improve today, we breakfasted on muesli and freshly picked blackberries in the park that had turned us away the night before. Then cruised down to a wonderful beach before ascending to the national park and the stunning Crescent Lake. It was here that my bike was once more creaking under the strain of thousands of miles of cycling with a heavy load as the chain snapped. Then, after a quick fix, we realised that we were at a dead end as all the road options were closed! So we decided on the sensible course of action of heading down one of them anyway and hoping for the best. It had worked so many times before... And we were right again, as it was Saturday the works which had closed the bike path were not going on so we could slip by unnoticed, although this did require some death defying work carrying our bikes round a cliff's edge where there was a non-existent bridge (presumably due to the work being done). This path took us round the most amazing lake I've ever seen and it felt like a tropical paradise without the uncomfortable heat... Heaven. Hell, it even had a place called "Ovington" on the shore which is the name of the village I grew up in and a friendly Brit to make me feel at home! But things were getting too good again and after the cycle path ended in a road my bike once more failed me and left me hitching a ride into the next town with a man called Hawk who's truck with some serious cracks in the windscreen, liking of loud German rock, lack of seat belts and a keenness with the accelerator that made the journey go by in no time at all was actually music to my ears! He was such a nice guy and I can't thank him enough after half an hour or so waiting on the side of the road with the sun catching up with the horizon. In town we half fixed the puncture and made it to a camping spot, having to pump the tire up every 5 mins as the life slowly leaked out of it. Anyway, the reappearance of Jerry in our lives at the campsite made everything better and he wasn't short of ideas of how to keep my bike going until the next town with a bike shop, about 100 miles down the road, thanks for the spare patches Jerry!

We needed a break from all the commotion and Bogachiel State Park was able to deliver. A quiet day hidden away in a shady spot hit the nail on the head and left us feeling brand new, let's just hope that the patches to the inner tubes hold out over the next couple of days so we can make it to Aberdeen where a more permanent fix can be made!