Getting South

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It has now been a week since we left Whitehorse.

On the 29th of Dec we got up early, swept the snow out of the truck and from off of and between the motorcycles, loaded gear, then to Skagway to catch the ferry. Way too much good food and beer - that would be burger, fish and fries with double chocolate stout and spruce tip ale at the Alaska Brewing Company. (Sorry if I get wordy on the food aspects of our trip - I am a frustrated restaurant reviewer).

Weather: Cold -30C leaving Whse, -17F in Skagway with a biting wind.

On the ferry - Alaska Marine Highway System - M/V Malaspina we went to be so early the first night, I was awake and roaming the ship at 5 a.m. Really a relaxing trip. We’d stocked up on a wee bit of nice beer, etc. for the evenings and spent the time, reading, writing, napping, taking pictures of the scenery, watching a few movies, sleeping, snacking… and so on.

We got off in Sitka - 4 hour docking, cute little town, didn’t take long to walk it. Coffee for 90 cents, including a refill-social statement - lots of art and craftwork available, saw some beautiful glass sculptures in one gift shop, stunning.

Had only one fun and rocky night on the water - neither one of us got seasick thank goodness.

I started writing bits of stuff for my motorcycle adventure travel book., and also several pages that would be the start of a novel about a US ex military guy escaping to Alaska. It was inspired by the people watching Dainius and I have been doing … on the ferry, in Sitka, etc.

I love looking at people and then making up imaginary stories about them, The Alaskan ferry provides pretty good raw material.

Dainuis has been reading his camera manual, trying to figure out his new Canon G-10, he finally managed to figure out how to operate the mp3 player I bought him for Christmas last year.

Going down the BC coast - the change was clear, more mountainous. We went through a very tight channel, super slow, just north of Bella Bella, then by Bella Bella itself. What a cool little place. Misty, dreamlike, beautiful.

Weather: Cold biting wind on the outside deck of the ferry. Sitka was warmer, above freezing, but still a biting wind. The clouds dissipated gradually on the way to Sitka, revealing a sparkling sun.
Further south, a little warmer, but not much.

Back on land, we drove off the ferry in Bellingham into a snow and hail storm on the I-5 on Friday morning - Jan 2. There was at least one victim in the ditch on the way to Seattle. Went straight to Rich’s Custom Seats just to locate it, and he was open. We stopped in and got to drop off our bikes, he moved our seat fitting to tomorrow instead of us having to wait till Tuesday. (That means we will be in Baja sooner!) Off-loaded the bikes, then went straight to…. Wait for it, REI. $270 later we thought we’d better get out.

Seattle is a cool looking city, lots of rolling hills, funky stores, cool little houses, lakes and parks. We found a great natural food supermarket and stocked up and had a great oriental food lunch for $13 for the two of us including soup, tea and an appetizer of bbq pork.

It was great to watch Rich work, custom fitting the seats for our motorcycles. He stripped of the covers, then spent the morning adding layers of foam to our seats then carving them to fit our individual butts. As soon as they were perfect, he cut out and added a perfectly shaped gel pad. In the afternoon, while we took off for lunch and shopping, he sewed up the leather covers, installed them and made us each a vinyl rain cover to protect the leather seats when we are not travelling.

We spent all day Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday morning just driving - took the Interstate 5 mostly because the weather is still pretty crappy and there was supposed to be a big storm coming in and the plan was to outrun it by heading south.

Success… It is Tuesday now we are in …. Monterey, California! The truck is in storage, the bikes are overloaded and ready to head to San Diego. NOW it feels like a motorcycle trip. We are planning to head out tomorrow morning down the coast road.
Oh, and the weather? … maybe 68F, shirt sleeves in other words. There are palm trees, and I rode my motorcycle tonight without getting cold.

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Comments

[April Garrett]

Happy Trails
Hey you two! Happy New Year trekking - sounds like a great trip! Lots of love and blessings your way! Aloha! April