A few pounds lighter

Dear friends and family,

Its been a couple of days so let me give you a quick run down of the developments over the past few days. You may notice that this post is lacking pictures. That's because after a rather greulling day on our way into Brementown, WA we decided to shed a few pounds. Seven and a half to be exact. The obvious first choice was Tim's little laptop. A luxury to be sure, and Tim decided to heed the advice of Lonestar to "Take only what you need to survive." We ditched some rechargeable batteries (sorry environmentalists), the tarp for our bikes (we'll get a hotel if it rains), and a few extra items of clothing. This means that my blog posts will likely be fewer, and depending on the degree of access at libraries, will likely exclude pictures. I'll still keep ya'll posted on what's going on, and if you're really curious and haven't heard from me for a while, give me a call. I'll be glad to talk to someone other than Tim (j/k if you're reading this)!

So here's what's been going on:

On our third night we camped at Deception Pass state park. There we met some other cyclists that reminded us that we're not the only idiots attempting crazy shit like this. The park itself was gorgeous, but the traffic was crazy leading in and out of it, plus it was like a camping hotel, with 300 some odd spots for campers. Getting to the park was an amazing journey. We passed through Chuckanut (hehe) ridge with some spectacular views of the ocean (i'll post pics in the future) and descended into a rather boring coastal plain. There we stopped in for some espresso (rather abundant in WA), and local treats at a sweet spot called Tweets in a town called Bow. We started the first of our island hopping and rode over a seriously windy bridge to Whidbey Island, where Deception Pass is located. The gusts were strong enough to stop us in our tracks! The combination of wind and hills was almost unberable, but the killer views made it worthwhile. I kept pestering Tim to give me a $100 for some hold em in the Indian Casino, but he did not acquiesce.

The next day we rode off on some rather uneventful roads. We did get a chance to stop in at a produce stand on the side of the road, and devoured a couple ice cream cones and a pint of fresh rasberries. If you're wondering how fresh is fresh; they had "day-old" berries on sale! Awesome. We ate a quick PB+H(oney) lunch and rode to catch our ferry to Port Townsend. While waiting for the ferry we chatted with some other cyclists who offered us a chance to stay at their yurt near Port Hadlock when they heard we were planning on camping in the shitty Jefferson County park. They were really cool people and even fed us some leftovers. The yurt was awesome, and I'll certainly post pics of that soon. We also met a couple of younger cyclers from Brooklyn who were sadly going the other way. The chick was riding a long haul trucker too so we obviously bonded.

I already mentioned the shitty hills to Brementown, which even "American-sized" portions at Olive Garden could not help us conquer easily. A miserable hovel of a Navy town, we were glad when the last insane hill out of it was behind us. Since there was no good camping for a few miles, we decided to grab a hotel in Shelton, near Olympia, and do some laundry. I've got precious few minutes on the internet left at this library, so I'll wrap things up (need to check the news). We should hit Oregon in 3-4 days, and hopefully will get a night or two of rest in Portland with Zach and Scott (friends from Vandy). I'm seriously looking forward to Oregon beer, but dreading Oregon hills. Till then, be excellent to each other.

Day 2: God Bless America

We awoke in our outrageously expensive campsite, and made off for the US. We didn't really know the best way to go in border crossing, with signs directing commercial and passenger traffic, but (obviously) no bike traffic. We asked a canuck which way to go, and he directed us around the back of the border office. We came up on the office, much to the surprise of the officers, who directed us inside the building. The guy who checked us made the same comment the guy on the Canadian border did, "man you guys are boring." Interestingly enough, if we didn't stop and ask the officers where we should go, we could have gotten across with no check whatsover. A small whole in border security. Considering how many explosives or tons of drugs we could have fit in our trailers, this may be something worth fixing.


It was great to be back in the states, with rolling hills, quiet towns, and beautiful scenery. Tim thinks that the mountain in the backroung is Mt. Baker with a record snowfall of 95ft!
It was a super sunny day, and stubborn old Tim "Sunscreen is for Losers" Bowles got the worst of it.

On the Road Again/Blame Canada

In order to get our bikes out to the West Coast we had to break them down and box them. Tim had to box his trailer too. It was a bitch moving around with all that baggage, but we made it to Seattle on the train, ate lunch and boarded the bus to Vancouver.
Once in Vancouver we decided the best plan would be to rebuild our bikes and bike to our hotel: the (surprisingly expensive) YWCA.
With our bikes assembled, and spirits high we were ready to get back on the road.
My mom would never let me leave the house with clothes this wrinkly. :) Good thing she's a couple thousand miles away (and being missed dearly by her son).
Vancouver is an awesome futuristic looking city. It looks like a Mon Calamari cruiser landed smack dab in the middle of the city. (yes that's a Star Wars reference, but I did have to look up the name of the ship)
All the buildings are very cool looking, with rounded edges. It almost reminds me of a more densely populated Tel Aviv.
The mountains in the background make it all that more pristine.
Although quite beautiful, Vancouver, and Canada for that matter, left me something to be desired. The people were quite rude (more likely a result of the big city mannerisms), everything was brutally expensive (I'd say that's big city stuff again, but the campsite charged $0.50 per five minutes of the shower), and they don't sell beer or wine in grocery stores! And I thought Tennessee was bad. Seriously this is my interaction in the grocery store:
Me: Excuse me sir, but where do you keep the beer?
Grocery dude: You must be from America.
Me: yeah (in my head: the land of the free)
Grocery dude: we don't sell beer in grocery stores in Canada, we sell them in bars with liquor stores attached to them.
Me: (speechless)
It was still worth a visit, but I don't think I'll be back.


The route officially starts in front of yet another giant phallic symbol, this one is Native American though, so naturally its bigger.
Much bigger.
Tim was full of PMA, how long before that turns to PMS remains to be seen ($13 Coors light for a sixer certainly sped that change up a bit)

Vancouver was a far cry from rural Virginia where last we left our tour. It was about 30 miles before we were in the countryside.

Traffic was crazy, and the map was insanely confusing. We went down one of the most terrifying stretches of road I've ever been on. Going down a highway shoulder into traffic scared the crap out of me.
At least we had nice bike lanes on the bridges across the river. The bridge shook with traffic though, which was slightly disconcerting and a bit nauseating (mime vomit not real).