Inland Cat

When I (Giovannina) graduated from College my father gave me one of his prized Inland Cats (a sailboat designed by Norm Bell and John Larimore in the mid-1950s).  There were only about 300 of these boats made in Indiana and mine is #205.  My dad was a collector of Inland cats and a friend of Mr. Federspiel  who worked with Norm and John to cast the old Ricky Dingy model and create the first molds for the Inland Cat hull. Mr Federspiel lived across the street from us at our summer cottage on Clear Lake, Indiana where I learned to sail on my grandfather's boat, #154.


There are not many Inland Cats left but the largest concentration (about 20) are found at lake George, about 15 minutes from our cottage and where Norm Bell lives and produced the boats. Lake George holds an annual Inland Cat regatta which draws about 50 boats from the area and which my father and I have raced in a few times. Anyway, after graduating college I towed my boat out to Seattle years ago and have loved sailing it on Puget Sound and in the many lakes around the area.  Maybe one day I will tow it back to the annual Lake George Regatta.

Sadly about three years ago the trailer on the my boat broke and so it sat in my backyard growing algae on the deck and grass in the cracks. As I remodeled the house - and started dating Woody - I didn't have time to spend on it. But last year my dad, my sister and her husband all worked together to fix the trailer and scrub down the boat for our wedding.  It was one of the best presents we got and although we didn't get it up to Orcas Island or even get it in the water before we left on sabbatical, we kept thinking of it and finally got it out on the water. We had a spectacular sunny (and windy) day sailing on Lake Washington and testing out our rusty sailing skills on #205.

New Adventures

Seattle welcomed us home on July 8th once again and this time we got to move back in to our house.  Our renters had taken great care of the place including Axl, our cat, during the past six months making it an exciting and stress free transition back into the house.  Both feeling a bit clucky (a word we learned in Australia meaning "nesting") we first unpacked the kitchen and bathroom, and all the modern conveniences we had not had for quite a while. Next we tackled the yard, which was beautiful but very over grown and filled three yard waist containers with weeds and cuttings.
Not wanting to get to sucked in to the home bound life yet, Woody suggested we should ride our bikes to our friends' wedding the weekend of July 28th.  Woody has always wanted to do a bike tour and this was his way of us starting out small - Although 130 miles didn't feel small to me ;-)
   
We left home at 10:30am on Friday July 27 and headed north, our destination and camp for the night the Langley Fair Grounds on Whidbey Island - 47 miles and a ferry ride away from home. We had all of our camping gear, cloths and food packed on the back of our bikes inside of panniers and dry bags that our good friends Matt H. and Matt D. had lent us for the trip. We stopped in Ballard for a snack around 1 pm and then again between a 7-11 and an Arco gas station somewhere along the Inter-Urban Bike Trail for lunch before catching the Mukilteo Ferry. 

  

We arrived at Camp at 7:00pm that night exhausted.

 
Saturday we woke up late, packed up and went for a short ride to stretch the legs and transport our stuff to a friend's house (actually our friend, Ba, was house-sitting and he said we could stay with him) where we would take a shower and get dressed before the wedding.  On the way, I started hearing a clunking noise in my front wheel which we couldn't diagnose so we stopped at a bike shop that happened to be on the way. The mechanic opened up the wheel and found several chipped and broken bearings. It was so bad I had to buy a new wheel, but it was worth it.  He also gave it a tune up helping me to change gears and was a super nice guy if you are ever biking on Whidbey stop in at Half Link Bikes shop on Bayview road.

The wedding that afternoon was beautiful, it was sunny and warm and set in the woods with lots of great music.  Rachel, the bride, and Ken, the groom, were both beaming, faces reddened from that morning's pre-nuptual kayak in Langley Harbor. We met some cool new friends, danced the night away and then crashed with Ba while watching the late-night Olympics broadcast.

 

Sunday Ba made us an amazing breakfast as we watched the Olympics. Cycling was on and pumped us up for the day. We left Langley and headed north for the Keystone - Port Townsen ferry, crossed on the ferry and then headed south across the hood canal bridge to the Kitsap peninsula.  We camped that night at Kitsap Memorial state park - 55 miles from Langley - my longest day of bicycling ever (loaded with gear.)



My knee started hurting a bit that night and the next morning it was still bugging me so we shortened our trip on the way home by riding more ferries - I liked that and we still rode 30 miles.

Arriving at home we were stinky and tiered but happy to have finished our first ever bike tour!