Leaving from Seattle - the real trip begins

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That morning I was a little apprehensive to leave the comfort of the hostel, it was drizzling rain outside and I was really getting out into unknown territory further than I had ever been by car. I loaded all my gear and set my bike up outside the hostel, just before I left I met a man who said he was from Kenya, when he shook my hand I saw how huge and rough his own hands were. He told me he had lost all his papers and was now sleeping in a tent and wanted to find a way to get to and live in Alaska. He asked me to buy him some food from a local Chinese store, I got him some tinned sardines and other cheap stuff, then gave him $10 in Canadian that he assured me he would be able to change easily. We started off as friends but he kind of hustled me I didn't even mind because I actually liked the guy, he gave me the directions out of the city and off I went.



That first day of riding was a little scary to say the least, it was reasonably flat leaving Seattle but all the exhaust fumes from the passing cars mixed with the on and off rain plus glass all over the roads that often had no shoulder was enough to demand my constant attention, I felt neither connected to the passing cars or the pedestrians on the road and at one point turning my head to look behind made me nearly crash into a gutter going down a hill. I was able to push off myself away with my foot and saved myself, a nice shot of adrenalin to start the trip. After riding through what I couldn't help but see as urban decay for a few hours, with endless take away food places I began to worry about where I would be sleeping that night. I kept on riding to places that had a WiFi signal to look at Google maps and figure out my destination, I messaged half a dozen people on the bicycle touring host app warm showers to see if I could find somewhere warm for that night but got no immediate response.



I was about 50 miles from the city and intended to make it to a campsite 20 miles or so further when it began to get dark and I still couldn't escape the endless suburbs. I went a bit further but the rain and my muscles told me to spot a more immediate place to camp. I spotted a church that had a grassy area with a chain link fence that backed up to a street. It felt ok for me to be there so I set my tent up on the grass and locked my bike to the fence. I left my stuff and walked over to a subway that was nearby, my other reason for stopping there as I was craving some some subway cookies with a roll. I got into a conversation with two girls behind the counter who were completely tripped out about this strange Australians story. They were very friendly and kept warning me about the area saying how dangerous it was and that they lived a half hour from there. It felt nice being in that place, having caring people giving me advice,when one of the girls shifts ended though she looked at me plainly and said 'i hope you have a good night sir'.it was weird as it seemed like she was disconnecting herself from me incase I turned up dead the next day, camping in what was a Saturday night in a place that was pretty Ghetto. It made me feel pretty far from home.



The other girl was pretty nice and we chatted a little more, I began to worry about my stuff in the tent so much that I anxiously walked back to it, not before knocking on the church after seeing a light on to let them know I was camping close by but also to see if the person might let me sleep in the church. A Spanish speaking lady answered the door and didn't know what I was trying to communicate, she turned the outside light on five minutes later as I was about to go into my tent which lit up the whole area I think she did it to protect me. Once I'd crawled into my nice warm sleeping bag it really began to pour and the rain started getting through the floor of tent, all night there were voices of drunk people yelling with bottles smashing and I could imagine people coming up to try and rob me. The night did eventually quiet down and I shuffled myself out that morning after seeing that water had gotten in everywhere, all over my sleeping bag and everything. I made oatmeal in the rain that only had a little honey for flavor and was passed by a man with a fishing rod who told me he sleeps in tents every night. He was only in his mid twenties and already pretty destitute which was kind of sad to see, there was a nearby river that I guessed could feed him well enough though.



I went back to the subway to get some more cookies and the girl who was still working when I'd left the night before was back again it and I was around 7 in the morning, she had worked until 10 the night before and then basically came straight back to work after her sleep. She was happy I was ok and she gave me a bag of free cookies, she told me all about her previous failed relationship and how the man she was currently with has two kids of his own that she looks after as well as her own two. He wasn't working so she had to support the whole family with her subway hours that I'm guessing would be around 10 an hour, I felt sorry for her situation but she was resilient and told me she intended on studying to become a nurse in the coming years and was quite positive even though the conversation felt like I was talking to a prisoner. She was a good soul and I regretted not hugging her goodbye.

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Photos

Downtown Seattle
I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time here and really 'know' the city out get a feel for it this time around

On my way out of the city
This is another photo I don't really remember taking, it's a nice enough scene I suppose.

My first campsite in or close to Tacoma
This was where I set my tent up for the night, the church was up past this fence to the right. I was protected from view somewhat by the bushes to the left of me.