Friday, August 8, 2008

The trip starts here!

Friday, 8. August 2008.
So, this is to be considered the first day of my trip. The trip that will take me from Seattle through Washington, Oregon and California all the way to Los Angeles. By the time I reach Los Angeles I estimate I will have biked a total of over 2,000 kilometers, which is the distance between Rome, Italy and Olso, Norway.
Debra wakes me up around 6 am on her way to work to say goodbye. It was great seeing her again and spending time with her. She said she's sorry because she had to work and study all the time I was there, but nevertheless I was really happy to be with her because she's a truly amazing friend.
I get up a few hours later and get ready for the trip. I load my bike, hit the road and then about a mile in the trip I realize I forgot the helmet at Debra's apartment. Oh well.
At least I can say goodbye to Lisa. So I call her up and she's there in about half an hour.
We say goodbyes and once again I get on the road. This time for real.
I start navigating through the streets of Seattle using that Tom Tom I got a couple of days ago, but just as I get out of town the Tom Tom dies and I'm left with a really approximative map to figure my way down to Olympia.


Less than an hour into my ride I run by chance into my favourite publishing company, home of "Love And Rockets" by Jaime Hernandez. Go figure!


I just decide to ride towards the airport and then luckily run into a guy who was biking all the way to Tacoma, so I join him for the ride.
Scott has lived virtually everywhere, including lots of places in California, Oregon, Washington, and even Japan. Now he lives in Tacoma and works in Auburn at a residential place for elderly people. And he had his bike made especially for him by an Italian retired bike builder. It even has a little Italian flag on it.
We share the ride, the food and drinks and quite a few stories. He's the first person I've run into on this biking trip and I'm excited.
The biking to Tacoma takes over 5 hours. We get to a small place called Puyallup and I opt for Taco Bell over biking more without stopping. Scott tells me how to proceed for Olympia and hurries up to get to Tacoma.


Scott and I. He's the first biker I ran into. Notice the matching colors of our clothes and the poster in the back! ; )


By the time I climb up the hill I'm pretty tired and seriously consider hitting a motel for the night, hence leaving Olympia for tomorrow. The first motel I run into costs 50 dollars and it looks it should cost nowhere near 50 dollars. Hell, it looks cheaper than the 37 dollar motel in Ritzville!
So I keep going until the next one, several miles down the road and in a different town. This one's 60 dollars. Hell no. I'll rather keep on going and see what the next town offers. It's about 9 pm and it's getting quite dark. The next place is 8 miles away (12 km) and is called Roy. When I get there, people just shrug their shoulders and say there are no motels in this place. So I bike some more to McKenna. Same story, only this place's even smaller. Finally, more miles down the road I get to a town called Yelm. This place is fairly big (considering the previous two) and it does have a motel. By this time I'm so tired that I don't care about the price.
Well, to my dismay, the place is full. Shit. When the receptionist tells me it's over 20 kilometers to the next town I feel like crying. 20 kilometers on a dark road in the woods doesn't sound like the most appealing thing on earth. However, at that point I just decide to bite it and bike all the way to Olympia.
I get to Olympia at half past midnight. My hosts Danielle and Ross aren't asleep yet and they give me directions how to reach them. By the time I reach their little cottage I'm half dead.

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