Archive for August, 2009

People in Seattle weren’t shy telling us that Portland was a better place. We had our doubts. But in the end Portland may have won our hearts. It was US 30 that brought us over the bridge from Washington into Oregon and ultimately into Portland. It was a bustling road but it’s 2 meter shoulder [...]

The morning we left Seattle Alex was bringing our bikes outside, prepping them for departure when Rob and David’s neighbor Donna walked up. Their conversation went something like this:
Donna: My mechanic is going to be here at noon if you guys need anything done.
Alex: Mechanic? Like bike mechanic?
Donna: Yeah, he’s a mobile bike mechanic – [...]

And hip, and sunny, and friendly, and beautiful. Alex asked me the other day – “Where would you rather live – Vancouver or Seattle?”. I had no answer, I’ve developed a love for both cities; but for slightly different reason I suppose. So here goes my breakdown of Seattle:
Numero uno – it’s America. I have [...]

One of those nights at the Sheraton in Vancouver, I awoke from my sleep needing to use the restroom. I was a little groggy and couldn’t place where I was. I imagined that I was still in our tent with tall grass waving on both sides of us. I was lost somewhere between a dream [...]

Our arrival into Vancouver marked the end of Canada for us. Both Yukon Territory and British Columbia were sorta hilly slash mountainous. In fact, we averaged 2054 meters (~6700 ft) of climbing a day since starting the trip on July 5. So you might be able to imagine that we’re hoping the coast has a little [...]

The decision to take the Fraser Canyon turned out to be quite easy because wildfires blocked our way even if we had wanted to head through Whistler. Plus finding out we’d encounter smaller mountains and views almost as beautiful basically sealed the deal. What we didn’t know is that the route would provide headwinds that [...]

Most of the time Alex and I eat peanut butter and jelly for breakfast. Every once in a while we sneak in a liter of milk and a box of cereal. But when we were in Williams Lake, BC the other day we ran into a delightful surprise.
I was heating up our water for the [...]

So after John dropped us off at 15th and Central yesterday in Prince George Alex and I were sheepishly cycling back, wobbly wheel and all, to Kayle and Kelly’s home. I can’t tell you how thankful we were to have them has hosts in Prince George. They taught us all sorts of things about Canada, [...]

Receiving honks on a bike is downright confusing. The easiest ones to interpret are the 3 to 7 short bursts. Those generally mean – “Hey cyclists, pedal hard, right on!” But all others – when coming from behind – are generally impossible to decipher.
Alex and I have gotten our fair share of honks on this [...]

Last night we stayed with Kayle and Kelly – two couchsurfers in Prince George, British Columbia. I’ll detail our couchsurfing in a later post – but the ending to this experience deserves its own. Alex and I finally got out of town at 11:30 this morning. The weather finally cooled down today, so we were [...]