On my own and heading south!

Sorry, it’s been too long… It’s Sunday, September 13th.

Can I blame it on family, friends, and funerals???? If not, I’ll just say I have been really busy. After leaving Rick and Sue’s place (5 weeks ago) I have put over 6,000 km on the bike, been to 2 funerals, 1 stag party, 1 wedding, and one heckova labour day party. The only problem is that I have only traveled as far as Keslo Washington. I am already losing track of the date and I have a sense that I need to be putting on some miles. I’ll have to be careful not to spend too much time on the interstates in my mad dash south.

My Aunt Edith on my dad’s side and my Aunt Kay on my mom’s side both passed away recently and I was fortunate to still be in Canada so I could attend the funerals and see a lot of family that I haven’t for a while. It seems the deaths in the family have been coming far too frequently lately and it re-enforces my desire to ‘do it while I can’. I have completed three overnight bike trips included a loop via Grand Prairie, blasted all around the Kootneys in B.C., and took a leisurely trip to Montana’s ‘Road to the Sun’. Most of my time the past few weeks has been spent in Alberta with my Dad camping, fishing, and generally hanging out. Despite what Dad may say, I out-fished him by a lot. Did I say a lot… I mean a whole lot J. Sorry Dad, I have to rub it in!
Now that I am on my own it has given me the sense that my trip has truly started. Living in the van is like being in a space capsule. While it can be quite efficient, there is a place for everything and just a little laziness can lead to chaos and disarray. I have done a fairly good job prepping as everything I need I seem to have, and I haven’t had to throw out much stuff yet.

I have met some nice people with my most interesting experience being in Vancouver… I was hanging out at Starbucks while I waited for a major service to be completed on my bike. I sat at a table with a couple of extra chairs and pulled out my book. Two attractive young ladies sat down at a nearby table that only had 1 chair and they fumbled while trying to move another chair. I took a spare chair next to me and handed over the rail and sat it down for them. The flirting immediately started in earnest… ‘’ You are such a gentleman.’ I just smiled and replied ‘Thanks’ and went back to my book. It continued, ‘That was really nice. Are you from around here?’ I decide to play the game and told a little about myself and the adventure I was on. It continued ‘Are you going to be around this weekend because me and some of my friends are going to a fetish party and I sure would like you to come.’ I had to chuckle a bit. Out came the camera phone ‘Do you want to see some pictures of me in my latex batwomen outfit that I wore to the last party?’ It’s frustrating! This sounds great I am sure, but damn; this type of thing has happened to me before… two pretty girls sit down near to me, and it has to be the gay guy at the next table that flirts with me! I don’t get it???? He even gave me his email address incase I should ‘make it back this way’, and I swear he tried to wiggle as he walked away. There may be some hope yet as he did say he was going with a group of girls. I am not sure what that meant. What would I do if he was the prettiest one? I didn’t want to think about it so I picked up the bike and left town.

Tomorrow I will ride up the West side road going up Mt. Saint Helens. I will stay one more night and head towards Astoria on the Oregon border. From there I will explore the area on my bike for a couple of days before heading south on the 101. I have decided to put off getting a new phone until I get to Mexico as I think the phone + the fees for my time in the USA would exceed the roaming costs on my existing phone.

An older couple in the next camp site has asked me to join them by their fire tonight so I think I will sign off for now. I sure hope they are normal.