My second attempt at escape from Seattle was successful and so by the evening of Valentine’s day I was snug in the bushes outside a little row of shops. I don’t yet have a map of the region and so was traveling to Bellingham on notes I made from the web. The route I chose was up through Whidbey Island and the Anacortes. I was on the ferry over to Whidbey Island fairly late on the second day, not really looking forward to pitching my tent in the rain that had just started. And that’s when I met Mary Ann, who offered me a place to stay on the island. It was a harsh 15 mile ride from the port – at one point I was coming down a hill straight into torrential rain with my eyes squinting so tightly I couldn’t see. Not that I could see anyway as it was dark and the batteries in my light were fading. Due to luck I made it safely to the bottom and the rain eased off just as I reached my destination for the night.
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Mary Ann and Sydney had set up a spare bedroom for me and cooked spaghetti ready for my arrival. My only job was to select my beers for the evening, it was a fantastic moment of unexpected luxury. Mary Ann is also a keen cyclist and will be celebrating her birthday this year with a 7-week cycle trip across the USA. So as I left their house in the morning she joined me for the first 15 miles. She asked at one point if she was holding me up and I simply said no because I was too proud at the time to admit she was killing me with the pace. I arrived in Bellingham that afternoon after a beautiful ride up the coast, tired from my first 75-mile day since Japan.
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I really love Bellingham, I think it’s my favourite town on the trip so far, it has a mellow atmosphere, it’s surrounded by mountains and the ocean and is also home to Katie and Khale, my hosts for the next few days. It was great fun again hanging out with them and their housemates: playing frisbee, getting baked in the sun and going for hikes. I stayed for about a week before getting back on the saddle and heading to Canada.
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At the Canadian border I was interrogated about my financial situation, I told them I was flush with money but had no evidence to prove it. The guy was quite cross about it but let me though anyway. The truth is I’m really not all that flush. It’s pretty hard to spend money around either Katie or Khale and I was also given food, beer etc. by Courtney and Mike and their other housemates. Nevertheless, I managed to spend my last few dollars of cash (borrowed from Tom) in Bellingham. I think I do have some money left somewhere (although I definitely have more debt) but I don’t seem to be able to access it in any way at the moment. I have three cards, one of which was helpfully sent to Southampton after my wallet was stolen, and the other two just keep saying no. So when I reached the border I had just 16 dollars to my name, which was in my pocket, which was from Katie.
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Through the border and five miles into Canada I had my first collision. As I was approaching a set of lights, a woman in a convertible overtook me, cut infront of me to turn right, realised she couldn’t make it, panicked, slammed on her brakes, turned round, watched me ride into the back of her and shouted “watch where you’re going”. I then explained at length how she was being ridiculous, she eventually apologised, I admired my tyre mark on her car and cycled off undamaged.
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Five miles later, as I headed towards central Vancouver my attention must have been distracted because I realised just too late that I was cycling off a curb, which isn’t smart when you’re carrying a lot of weight. Soon after I heard a spoke snap.
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So here I am, I walked into Vancouver two days ago and have been camping in the park. I managed to get a new spoke for a dollar and have replaced the broken one. Then, as I was contemplating the best way to make the last 10 dollars last I (disappointingly for everybody I’m sure) finally got access to some money. So I am applying for jobs and looking for somewhere to live and things look like they’ll be OK.