May 6th 2005 Today was just a short ride from Portland to Seattle to meet up with some friends.  Once we got to Seattle we met up with Scotty and Claudine for Cocktails.  I could tell Scotty had a long week when we sat down and he took charge and promptly ordered us both Long Island Ice Teas.  Well 5 of those later we stumbled back to Claudines apt. and we all fell asleep.  By the way Claudine be careful and watch out for those street signs.   May 7th 2005 This morning we woke up on Claudine’s couch which I will say was very comfortable and trust me I have slept on many a couch or maybe it was just the Long Islands that made it so comfortable.  To Claudine and Scotty’s amazement we were able to pack all our gear (which was occupying half of her living room) back on the bike.  After saying our goodbyes we were on the road again.  This time I had my GPS  with me which Scotty brought up for me since I had a slight electrical problem with the first one.  As I learned the hard way the Quest operates on 5 volts not 12 volts, but fortunately Garmin replaced it so once again life seemed to work out. Well first on the agenda was to go have brunch with my high school mentor and close friend who I hadn’t seen in years.    After a wonderful havarti egg scramble and waffles we relaxed and caught up on old times and even had an interesting discussion on the tumultuous election of 1800, oh the Adams and Jefferson era what good times those were. After catching up we hit the road once again, this time the GPS was set for my sisters house in Bellingham.  Once at my sisters house we got down to the important stuff food, irish whiskey, and a whole lot of gear talk.  First - food - order a potato burrito from CASA QUE PASA (see sponsor page). Second - Irish Whiskey - go to the store for a bottle of Jamesons.  Third - Gear - sit down with the brother in law and go over all my gear and his gear . My camp stove was quickly scoffed at even more quickly replaced with an MSR stove than runs off any type of fuel from diesel to white gas to motorcycle gas.    Since both of us are gear sluts we easily spent hours reviewing gear, infact I think the Jamesons whiskey may have had a hand in that and we may have even looked at some of the same stuff a couple times.  Well after  a long night it was time to fill up the air mattress and call it a night.