Metal cowboys, that's what we are, it's what we felt like anyway(as you see in the picture, my saddle bags off the bike). Freedom on our bikes, it's an all familiar feeling. Crossing borders, international ones even, were no obstacles. Countless people, from all ages and ethnic backgrounds met. Unfamiliar terrain discovered and conquered(so our next trip would definitely be much easier). To me, this vacation is also an accomplishment, a longtime dream, finally realized. We are done with this tour! Yay us! Because of this Friday deadline, we were not able to make it all the way to Portland [View Full Entry]

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"Go away rain! Come again another day, like tommorrow, after we're done with our tour!" I guess it was to be expected, we were very close to Seattle after all. After a late night at the gambling hall, The Tulalip Casino, waking up this morning was difficult. When we did, we headed straight for the motel's conference room. Our continental breakfast was waiting for us, good thing 'cuz we were hungry, as usual. We headed south afterwards hoping that we could find it in ourselves to pedal all the way to Portland. Ha! As if! :) Sleeping in, dinkin' around, [View Full Entry]

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Rene and I have had a fantastic time in Canada but it was time for us to go back home. We really didn't want to leave the comfort and hospitality of my kind relatives. It was great to have reunited, to have met my cousins, and to have spent quality time them. Unlike the experience we had with Canadian customs when we entered their country, the U.S. border was a much different experience. When we entered Canada, a couple of questions were asked and off we crossed(no standing in line, 2 minutes, tops), entering the U.S. however, long pedestrian line, [View Full Entry]

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Farewell Vancouver..see you next time, hopefully while I'm inside a car :) Before we left the city, we took more pictures. Honestly, there were not any good places to photograph without including construction projects (as you will see in the pictures below). We departed for my uncle and aunt's house in Surrey in time for lunch. When we arrived, it was as if we had stepped inside a restaurant, a Filipino one. Before we entered their house, the aroma of Filipino cuisine was in the air drawing us in as if we were under some spell lol..For lunch, fried Lumpia(Filipino-style [View Full Entry]

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Man, I thought Portland had a lot of high-rise cranes, almost every direction I looked, there was a crane or two(next to each other). Vancouver is beautiful and picturesque but nowadays, downtown is not very easy on the eyes. It's hard to take a good picture without having a crane in the background. The day was pretty much, uneventful. We declared today, "Rest Day". With the exception of a long walk around downtown(through Chinatown, and around False Creek, Science Expo, BC Stadium, etc.), we pretty much just ate and relaxed for most of the day, resting our sore legs and [View Full Entry]

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Ahh...a nice shower, a good night sleep on a soft bed at my uncle's and aunt's house was just what the doctor ordered! It was a great relief and to boot, I met for the first time, 3 cousins of mine.. After lounging for most of the morning and after eating authentic Filipino food, we left Surrey for our next destination, Vancouver. My uncle offered to let us stay with them again on our last night in Canada so we decided to take him up on it. The plan: Stay in Vancouver for 2 nights(Sun and Monday night) so that [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 North America » United States » Washington » Seattle » Bell Town By Team Zoic June 23rd 2007 Manny and Rene After a huge and delicious breakfast at the Hostel, we started our journey north but not until we had our morning coffee. I called it real coffee since the stuff they served at the hostel was gross!! :) Where else to get our brew? at Seattle's Best of course! For most of the day, the weather was overcast, a very good thing for us long distance cyclist :). There were a few times where we either just missed a storm(very wet pavement) or [View Full Entry]

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(For you guys who are not familiar with Washington State geography, Mt Vernon(city) is approximately 20 miles south of Bellingham.) Surprisingly, after almost 100 miles of riding and 10+ hrs of saddle time the day before, Rene and I woke up today with nothing more than sore butts, luckily! Our legs felt fresh and strong for what laid ahead, another 80 or so miles to Vancouver B.C. After Starbucks and a hearty breakfast at Denny’s, we left Mt. Vernon and headed north, to Bellingham. The roads to Bellingham were not easy, with our sore glutes, the last thing we needed [View Full Entry]

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Welcome to TEAM ZOIC TravelBlog... After a stressful morning of making sure we had everything we need for this bicycle tour, after a long drive from P-Town, and after experiencing Seattle rush-hour traffic, we're finally here! Seattle, the point my friend Rene and I both chose to start our accumulation of miles (kilometers in Canada, of course) travelling on our aluminum steeds, our bicycles, to experience multi-day touring, "roughing it" and sometimes, "hostelling" it :) Since 2000, Rene and I have ridden countless miles together including the yearly classic, Seattle to Portland ride. This year, instead of riding the "double [View Full Entry]

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