Leaving Vancouver and my short stay in Seattle

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Time to catch up...I left on this trip over two months ago now and here is how the story began.



After doing some gutter cleaning around Vancouver, BC with my buddy Shiraz for a few weeks, my van being sold and putting everything I own in Canada into storage I got my tour bike sorted at a small store in downtown Vancouver called Ride on again who gave me a pretty good deal. Compared to the prices and availability at other stores I saved a bundle, I didn't need to have the best tour bike on the market for my first trip I don't want to spoil myself, possibly because I'm a glutton for punishment I don't know...Riding a bike loaded with your life for thousands of miles is big investment looking back I wonder now how it would be if I'd had a more expensive bike. No regrets though I like my Fuji 64cm XXL size badass ride.



I stayed at Shiraz's new place in Richmond, the area of Vancouver populated by Chinese people with it's own unique vibe. My buddy's new room mate, a crazy Persian guy in his late forties kept us busy with his stories for the three days I stayed there. He told us about his travels to 76 countries and looked upon my upcoming trip with a healthy balance of both negativity and positivity. I'm glad that my internal reaction to his lack of belief in my ability to take a bicycle all the way into Latin America was fire, it lit a fire inside me. Naysayers serve their purpose in life well at times like this. Why some of us feed off negativity so well at all could be questionable in itself, but whatever I'm on my path to self discovery so I can't feel too bad about that. So I got my bike stuffed into the back of Shiraz's van and we took off to central station where my greyhound bus was due to leave from to Seattle 1 hour later.



I often just think things will work out with little foresight because they often do, my bike however needed to be taken apart, pedals, front wheel, handlebars and stuffed into a cardboard box. This process with Shiraz's help took nearly the whole hour to complete due to how big my bike is. I nearly just decided to cycle down to Vancouver thinking we wouldn't make the time. So once I'd dragged my 4 pannier bags octopus strapped to my backpack onto the huge luggage pile the bus attendant called everyone onto the bus, the small older man who was handling my heavy, tangled up mess of baggage said this was nothing compared to all the years he had been doing the job. Once we got on the bus Shiraz in his crazy confident manner informed all the women on the bus that I needed a seat and was single, none of them offered. We hugged and said farewell and it was a cool start to the trip, I had a lot to thank Shiraz for with helping me get started for this journey and was appreciative of having such a good friend.



The bus ride was good and I had a very friendly official going through customs, though they always seem to ask me financial questions that make me feel uncomfortable but I suppose it's part of the process for getting into the US. When I got to the bus terminal I unloaded my bike and it was a nightmare putting it all back together, the brake system on the front especially just wouldn't go back the same way. I used my Garmin bike GPS I'd bought off craigslist a week before for the first time to make my way to the hostel I had booked. It's amazing how much we rely on technology and how uncomfortable I was without google maps on my phone, still getting navigated in an unfamiliar city to the safety of a hostel when it's getting dark made me convinced it was $440 well spent. The hostel was in a cool area, right near Chinatown and the very friendly staff greeted me with warmth, a young guy behind the counter helped me get my bike into the basement down a heap of stairs as the elevator wasn't working. It was very heavy and we left it in a quiet area past all the washing machines where Mexican people were working. I took some essentials from my bags, found my room, grabbed some Chinese from down the street and settled back to my 4 bed dorm that had two of the other occupants, both from Taiwan, hanging out in the room. One of them was quite talkative and had recently completed a degree in electrical engineering, he seemed a bit awkward and must have been trying to practice his English with me. I remember thinking the conversation was boring but it kept on rolling with little investment on my part. I wondered if the world in 2015 had become so small amongst developed countries that conversation in hostels had become cheap. Everyone knows the same things and the story people have had to get them to that point is the really interesting part. It can take a long time to get to know someone so rarely will idle conversation allow you to glimpse someones soul. This is why I'm riding to Central America I'm trying to lose myself.
*I don't actually believe this it was just me speculating at the time of writing, I believe in the magic of life and you don't need to know someone to see the truth of who they are



I spent the next day riding through Seattle unloaded and it felt great harnessing the power of my decisions, a trip to a bike store with a champion guy who ran the store that day sparked my inspiration even more he was all about doing 150 mile days in south America and loved riding at night, he sold me an a very useful bag that sites on the frame of my bike that has been one of those things I've used so much I feel like I couldn't do without. I 5 star google reviewed his shop as he fixed my brakes for hardly anything even though it took a bit of time plus he had given me a ton of useful advice. I felt like I was in the global bicycle club, I went back to the hostel and had a quiet night and descent sleep.

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Photos

Outside Seattle's famous Pike Place markets
I found this area to be really thriving with amazing food and art directly from the producers to customer. When bicycle touring you save money as you can't even fit anything new into your bags even with all the temptation.