On the road again...days 1, 2 and 3

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It has taken a few days to get this first entry up but later is better than never.

We set out as planned on Wednesday morning from Princeton, BC, after spending a few days visiting with friends and getting our motorcycle up and running and licensed. As expected, our Chinese work visas were not ready to be picked up on our way through Vancouver that day because of the Olympic backlog. But it would not be a problem getting into the states the next day, we said to ourselves, since we had brought along our birth certificates.

After visiting my son Philip in Victoria and dining on oysters that night at a great little oyster bar, we woke up bright and early the next day to catch the ferry to Port Angeles in Washington. As we waited in line to go through the customs before we could board the ferry from Victoria, we took out our birth certificates. Oops...a little problem. We had Nancy's birth certificate and driving license so she was in. But...we had grabbed our official marriage certificate instead of my birth certificate by mistake while throwing stuff in the envelope during packing. When the officer asked where my birth certificate was, we responded, "China." So we proceeded to explain that we were living and working in China but traveling around North America for the summer, etc, etc. Our carefully laid plans of handing over our passports and/or birth certificates and not mentioning anything else went out the window. Anyway, she managed to make sense of our story and actually let us cross the border. At least we had brought our official BC marriage certificate which has our birthplaces on it.

We wound our way down Route 101 on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington to the city of Olympia. This was a beautiful ride through small, picturesque, "coastal" towns dotted with B & Bs and lots of restaurants advertising fish and oysters. From there, we headed Southeast to Yakima, where we spent the night at the Days Inn. We hit a great little BBQ place called Smokin' Bones where we feasted on smoked BBQ chicken and ribs. This is not something easy to come by in Wuhan!!

Today, Friday, we travelled through the scenic countryside of Southeast Washington and Oregon. We are staying in Baker City, Oregon, and had dinner at the wonderful, restored 1889 Geiser Grand Hotel. The town has put a lot of effort into authentically restoring many of its heritage downtown buildings. Tomorrow we head for Twin Falls, Idaho.

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Photos

A furry passenger!!
We ran into a guy and his side car dog on the ferry to Victoria. He had purchased the bike outside of Beijing!