Day 30: South Bend, 0 miles

September 25th, 2009

First, I spent the early part of the day enjoying the B&B. This was certainly a very big upgrade from the tent, and there was a lot to take in. The B&B was a very interesting place – all done in Victorian style and little tea cups included.

Baptiste got released from hospital with a neck brace and with credit to him seemed to be in reasonable spirits and somewhat accepting of the whole thing. I don't know of I would have handled it quite as well.

We all sat down for a fantastic dinner at the end of the day with the addition of Ed, the Texan who was also staying at the B&B.

I also received a bit of good news for the day. I found out that Clare, the wife of my good friend Iain, gave birth to their baby daughter Evie!

Day 29: Ocean City – Raymond, 48.30 miles

September 24, 2009

Once again, Baptise and I set off together. While it was nice to have a companion, I tended to go slightly faster than Baptiste and often had to wait for him catch up at the break stops. He was never too far behind though, and in fairness was carrying a lot more stuff than me.

We stopped in a little cake shop in a town along the way and stuffed ourselves full of some very tasty brownies. I am sure this wasn't the diet of a pro cyclist, but it sure beat power bars. The town was also no place for a pro cyclist – or any cyclist for that matter. I think this part of the world only barely realises what cycling is; there were just no provision mades for cyclists at all.

We then carried on out of town, over the hills, where you could clearly see the effects of a hurricane that had come through the area. Large areas of trees had been ripped from the Earth.

I reached the little town of Raymond and was waiting for Baptiste when I heard sirens which I remember thinking seemed a bit out of place for a small town. Next thing I knew, a car stopped by me and the driver asked, "Are you cycling with a friend?"

"Yes", I answered hesitantly.

"He has been involved in an accident, but he is conscious and is just back on the other side of the bridge," the man informed me. The sirens I was hearing were for Baptiste.

So, I cycled back to find Baptiste lying on the pavement with fairly serious road rash, surrounded by fire engines, ambulances, policemen and paramedics. Still, he seemed in relatively good spirits (all things considered), and he had managed to set up his camcorder to record the event. Apparently, a car was making a left turn as he came down the hill and obviously didn't see him. The car hit him, and he went flying trip right over the top of it.
At the hospital several hours later, we found out that he had suffered a compression to his spine and would need to be kept overnight at the hospital for observation. It could have been a lot worse but was obviously going to put his trip on hold for a while.

However, as the saying goes: every cloud has a silver lining, and the silver lining here was the kindness of strangers. From the moment the accident happened, people went to such great lengths to help. From the policeman, James, who took our bikes to the station and gave me a lift to the hospital and then later bought our bikes to the B&B to the nurse who provided me with a packed lunch – everyone was just so great to us. With incredible kindness, Lynne, the radioographer at the hospital, even realized that we had nowhere to go, and arranged for us to be put up in his B&B. Beverley and Desiree, the innkeepers at the B&B, also went out of their ways for us, shuttling us back and forth from the hospital and town, providing us with meals and me a very much needed cold beer (it had been a very long afternoon). There were numerous other people who all offered support to us both and I really was overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of strangers.

Day 28: Quinault - Ocean City, 47.79 miles

September 23, 2009

With a mild hangover, but a much lighter bottle of Bacardi, Baptiste and I spent the earlier part of the morning trying to get our things dry after a heavy overnight dew.
Once we had packed up our stuff and set off, we made a quick stop at a salmon fishery to see lots of little fishies being bred. This trip seemed to have a general salmon theme going to it – all quite interesting though.

For this part of the ride, we decided to take the coastal route as opposed to the 101 as it looked a bit more scenic and seemed to carry less traffic. When we got to the coast, we found a massive sandy beach. Baptiste rode onto it and I happily followed along to perform – in classic style – a favourite cyclists’ maneuver. Riding on the sand quickly bought my momentum down to a speed of 0 at which point I scrambled desperately to get my feet out of the pedal clips. I failed dismally and ended up splat lying in the sand much to Baptiste's amusement.

Just a we were riding off the beach, we met a couple of ladies who were just departing their holiday cottage and gave us a big bag of food. How kind of them!

A few miles further we discovered a blackberry bush and stopped for a bit of afternoon snacking. Mid-snack, a car came by and parked directly opposite us. It seemed a bit odd but not to be deterred, we carried on with our munching only to be rudely interrupted by an amplified voice from the car.

"Move your bicycle to the other side of the fog line...thank you."

Just moments prior, Baptiste had asked me "when do we stop eating?" I guess this was our answer.

Later that day, we arrived at Ocean City campground and made a shared meal from the food we'd been given earlier. The donated fake crab certainly added a new dimension to Ragu and pasta.

Day 27: Bogachiel State Park – Quinault, 63.97 miles

September 22nd, 2009

I set off early to a good start. At the same time that I changed the battery on my speedometer, I also changed the setting so that I was able to see my average speed. For the first couple of hours, I kept challenging myself to see how good an average speed I could actually keep up and found it to be about 16 mph. Not bad for a fully loaded bike…in the heat. The only flaw was that I quickly ran out of water and was quite relieved when I finally found a place to refill my bottles.

As I reached the coast, I met up again with Baptiste, the Frenchman from the ferry. We decided to ride together as we were both heading for the same final destination for the day. There were three campsites, of which two were closed. Baptiste – ever the adventurer – suggested that we went to one of the closed ones where presumably we would get all the facilities but wouldn't have to pay. Sneaky! I liked it! (But extend sincere apologies to my parents).

It was worth it! We ended up with the best campsite right on Lake Quinault –perfect for a quick swim before we settled in for the evening.

On top of that, I just happened to have been carrying a bottle of Bacardi since the ferry crossing which I had really "sensibly" bought at Duty Free. While it wasn’t exactly what I needed to be lugging around on my bike, it was perfect for this kind of night. It seemed, to me, like the most sensible time to dispose of the extra weight, and so with that, Baptiste and I settled in for a rum and coke evening and put the world to rights.

Day 26: Port Angeles - Bogachiel State Park (just past Forks), 63.91 miles

September 21st, 2009

After a bit of messing around at the tourist office and at Safeway to buy more Kraft dinners and supplies for my new favourite cyclist breakfast of peanut butter on tortillas, I met up with an English guy called Nick who, again, was cycling from Alaska to Argentina. These people and their cross-continent rides really made my ride look like an amble round the park. Damn them!

I set off, and about 10 miles out of town had that horrible feeling that every cyclist sooner or later experiences. At first, the bike didn't feel quite right, it was slightly swaying back and forth. Initially and as every cyclist does, I ignored it hoping that it would go away. However, after another couple of pedal revolutions, I knew my worst fears had been realised... My very first puncture of the trip! Fortunately, Nick came past a few minutes later and was able to lend me a pump as mine, I discovered, had died.

One large staple now removed from the back tyre - always the blasted back tyre (which is harder to fix) - I continued along my ride. I rode past Lake Crescent, a beautifully clear lake with nice wiggly roads all the way round it. The only downside of this leg of the trip was the seemingly unending hill that I had to conquer when I got to the end of the lake.

I finally got to Forks, which has made a name for itself as being the Twilight Zone. Apparently this is the place where the author of the Twilight Zone came from and she had used various places around town in her book. It seemed to me like an awful lot of hype, but perhaps I am missing the point not being a Twilight Zone fan!

I wonder how a town devoted to selling Twilight Zone paraphernalia could make any money, but then again I got the feeling that this might be where the real victims of America's economic downturn might live.

Oh, I also stayed the night at my first hiker biker site. Something the Americans have set up to cater for those without a vehicle. Congrats to the Yanks.

Day 25: Victoria - Port Angeles, approximately 10 miles (speedometer battery died)

September 20th, 2009

Despite thinking that I'd probably be up at the crack of dawn, I had a fantastic lie in and then went off on my way feeling well rested. I was also on my way having had a shower, a chance to do laundry, a packed lunch and a full belly too. A big thanks to Ursula.

I had an absolutely fantastic ride round the coast into downtown Victoria; I could see why the city had such a good reputation.

I then caught the ferry across to America via Port Angeles. On the ferry, I saw another loaded bike, but it looked a little odd. It had camouflage on it, was loaded to the hilt and had of all things a light fitting strapped to the back. At first, I made the assumption that it belonged to a vagrant of some description.

During the journey, though, the owner of said bicycle introduced himself and it turned out he was a Frenchman by the name of Baptiste who was cycling from Alaska to Argentina (I thought my ride to San Diego was a big feat, but I guess it doesn't matter what you do in life, somebody is always doing something bigger and better!). The light fitting was apparently going to be converted to a camera tripod so he could record video while he rode along, and the camouflage was there so that he wouldn't get spotted during "stealth" camping exercises. He wasn't exactly the person I expected from the look of the bike, but he seemed like a nice guy.

Having arrived in Port Angeles and with a long wait and a flash of my passport, I had reached America with diddly squat open. After some searching, I managed to find a Subway restaurant open and while the sandwich was satisfying, the company was a bit disconcerting. It was here that I met a colourful man whose advice was plentiful. I will try to give you some of the highlights:

1) Eat 2 teaspoons of extra hot cayenne pepper each morning
2) Completely overdose yourself on salt (can't remember exact quantity)
3) Read 4 psalms of the bible every day (one every 2 hours). Read them like this (on day 1 of the month read 1,31,61,91, on day 2 2,32,62,92 etc.)
4) If you are about to get run over by an 18 wheel truck don't say "Sh**" , say "Hallelujah".
5) We all don't weigh anything but are in fact holograms in gods imagination. (Obese people would I thought find this particularly good news)

Points 1 & 2 were, of course, backed up by long references to cell and molecular structure and a little bit of medical background as he slurped away on his extra large subway fizzy drink... After that encounter, I started cycling away from Port Angeles in search of safer more normal friends, but realised I was being a bit of a plonker travelling so late in the day. In the end, I turned around and spent the night in Port Angeles at the local RV park where I was kept awake by a drunken man shuffling around my tent. The fun of the local RV park!

Day 24: Ganges - Victoria, approximately 35 miles (speedometer battery died)

September 19th, 2009

This morning, we stopped off at the Fall Fair that had given us all the accommodation issues the night before. It reminded me of Buriton (small village that I grew up in) fetes. The secret to winning at Buriton fêtes was to enter into competitions that you knew nobody else would enter. e.g. Largest broad beans sown on a Tuesday, etc. Similar techniques seemed to have been applied at Gange's Fall Fair. That said, there were some interesting things, and I enjoyed the morning.

Later, we continued our ride to Victoria, over the other side of Salt Spring Island and across on the ferry back to Vancouver Island on the other side. It was a great ride into Victoria which was all on a bike path through countryside and into suburbia. We spotted a dear on the ride and was slyly taking a photograph while a local watched on with some bemusement. Apparently the gardens around here are considered restaurants to the local dear. Obviously a bit of a pest to the avid gardener.

Finally got to Victoria, where I said my farewells to Louise and set off to find my friend Alex's Mum, Ursula, who very kindly put me up for the night despite my uselessly late warning of my arrival.