Great Cycling Adventures

2009-07-14T23:51:00.003-07:00

I'm finally on the way to my house, this time riding the caltrain north. My best hoped plans didn't materialize at all, so I strictly can't say I've failed, but I do need to figure out what is next.

I'll start with today, I woke up on willchan's couch, Katelyn and I convinced him to do moody, so I put my bike together, pumped the tires and we headed out. Neal, Zoran, Luis joined us. I had trouble with my phone for timing the ride, but Moody got flatter since I road it last. I passed Zoran and Neal despite them having a minute-ish head start on me. Then the rest of the day was wasted chatting with people and waiting for Roberto to get to work so I could get the stuff I mailed to him. I couldn't fit all my stuff into the backpack I mailed, but at least I have my laptop so I can get my pictures off my camera.

As for yesterday, I had a reasonably quick ride from Samuel P Taylor state park to the office in SF. I got to thre office before 1000 in time for yet another fire drill. I have no clue what time I left since both my phones died the day before. Even the one I tried to leave off so I wouldn't have to worried about the battery. It seems I turned that on at some point. The route was mostly well marked through the constant suburbs of Marin, except for the transition from route 15 to route 5. The headwinds in Sausilito were the worst of the trip, especially coming out of Sausilito. The city looked to be covered in cloud and fog from the Sausilito and the bridge was buried in fog, but once I got to Chrissie fields the sun was out and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride through SF. As with today I mostly wasted the day at the office chatting with people and not doing work. I go out for lunch with Tina. At the end of the day I did butterlap. San Francisco has also gotten flatter since I left. By the new definition of a hill (my lowest gear up, and hardest gear down) the normal two hills of butterlap were reduced to one. After butter I stopped by Toronado for drinks with Tina, Jeff, Noonan, and random people Tina and Noonan know. As I was about to leave Devon (a random girl I met that night) asked me to change shirts (I was wearing a Google shirt I found at my desk that happened to be clean, unlike the clothes I had with me while camping). So I traded shirts now I have a brown and white stripped woman's shirt. I wonder if I can trade, or make use of this shirt in anyway.

Now for my last real day of riding. I left Gualala county park about 0630 before the ranger came by to collect fees. One other woman who I saw hiking out to the beach the evening before also left at 0630 with me. The day started heating up pretty quickly, I stopped every ten miles or so for the first 30 miles. The second of those stopped was to chat with two boys going north to Portland. They started in SoCal and had burned too much money at the start so were down to 5$ a day per person for food and lodging. (This is sort of hard without the map, I don't remember the town names and the order is very easy to mess up)

Fort Ross, there before it opened

Abalone divers, mosty asian men, lots of white trucks.
The day Before that, the small town was all Fords.

Camped with Reuban & Carly from SF who were geocaching and doing there first bike camping trip. Bill (a mechanic at American Cyclery) & Dan ( a mechanic at Mike's Bikes).

85 mile day to Samuel P Taylor, done by 1530. The last couple miles were hard, after the hot hill

My ankle did feel some pain, like after waves to wine, I like I push really hard with those slow hills, I did spent a large portion of the day in my big ring, except for the coastal climbs. I climbs seemed to be the hardest of the trip.

2009-07-14T23:51:00.001-07:00

Today was a good day to ride, it was sunny, the road was smooth, the hills were gentle and as the day wore on a tail wind grew. I left after 0830 this morning after cleaning up the bottles and cans (4 large bottles, 10 large cans and 18 bottles) and a large bowl of granola. I passed manchester beach around so I decided to continue on. I wasted a bunch of time at the manchester grocery store then moved on to a cafe at the turn off the the point arena lighthouse for lunch. The BLT was good and the salad had strawberries. I cruised on over to the closest point in the continental USA enjoyed the tour then got back on the road. I stopped for sanity after 14 miles and met up with Kevin, we hauled ass into Gaulala where we stopped for groceries and met up with Martin (young) and another guy who I passes earlier in the day.

I arrived at the Gaulala county park around 1630.

Last night was a lot of fun, I bought some beer for the boys, we had some drinks, enjoyed a beautiful sunset (no clouds were on the horizon), then went back and had a campfire with hot dogs, marshmellows and more beer. 2 guys had to go on another beer run before the store closed at 2130.

My first stop of the day was a jughandle state park. I wanted to see the pygmy forest, but the trails were poorly marked so after wandering around and not crossing the highway I continued on.

It looks like I'll be by myself at the park tonight. I'm debating if I should go to bodega, samuel taylor or all the way home tomorrow. I think taylor is the best option, then I can roll into the sf office for breakfast.

2009-07-14T23:50:00.005-07:00

Last night I hiked around all the short trails at richardson's grove, then went to the campfire about toads and frogs. I failed to light the campfire, my minimalist style was not effective with the logs that were there, but I did throw around a frisbee with Will & Adam. My frisbee skills are still in tact after the years of disuse. After the campfire Amy gave us some marshmellows to roast so the 5 social ones at the hike & bike camp cooked up some yummy sugar. The other guy at the hike & bike camp was probably going north since he left about 15 minutes before me and I didn't pass him. He was sort of different he didn't talk to me in the morning when he was packing up and he didn't have cycling shorts (or legs). Also his helmet was a hard hat. I'm guess he was laid off and is moving some place or trying to live cheaply for a while. I was away shortly after 0700, probably 0715, I arrived at MacKerricher beach before 1400. The first 16 miles to standish-hickey were long and hard as I expected, the rest of the climb up Leggett wasn't bad, it was simply a long up. What made it hard was there was no place for water for 28 miles so I stopped at the drive through tree in the town of Legget (I didn't have to pay :) to fill up my extra water bottle. I didn't need all the extra water so I carried more weight than I needed. The descent from the summit had lots of places for the road leveled out I didn't work too hard on those so it took me a while to get to the bottom of Leggett hill. Rockport hill may have been harder, certainly the traffic was worse. The coast road after the rockport hill was pretty fast except some portions which did big sweeping moves inland downhill, then came back to the coast uphill against the wind. I had 3 cliffs bars to eat today along with an apple and a small bag of peanuts at standish hickey. Lunch was a reheated spinich and feta calzone that didn't have enough feta and a klondike bar in Westport. I rode about 55 miles today.

I visited the beach here, instead of sand the beach is made up of tiny rocks. On my way back from the beach I saw to boys touring north, they aren't at the hike & bike site, so they could be trying to go over leggett hill today. I've been surprised how much bigger and stronger the waves on the northern california coast are compared to the northern oregon coast.

2009-07-14T23:50:00.003-07:00

I had a rather late start today, I did call my dad to wish him a happy fathers day. My mom and dad are starting their vacation on Thursday as I finish mine. I started riding at 0900, my first stop was in scotia to see the museum for the company town, the I continued on to the avenue of the giants where a guy riding to his sunny vacation spot (a trailer) in philipsville offered me lunch if I kept up with him. So I rode with Joe, a 66 year old who started cycling 5 years ago to help his knee, until philipsville with him letting me stop once in myers flat for some gummy worms. Before Joe caught up with me I did stop to see the immortal tree and the eternal tree (there is a room in the eternal tree, with windows and a guestbook). I had a lovely long lunch with Joe and his wife Doreen, then eventually made it on the road again. I stopped in garberville for granola, and continued on to richardson's grove state park. There are 5 of us hanging out at the hike & bike camp, two guys from tuson, az (Adam & Will) then martin and some guy who rode from brookings in two days.

Joe and I got to philipsville before 1230 and I made it to the park before 1530.

The trails here are nice, there aren't too many mosquitos. While making supper two young rangers came around who gave us stickers, I have a california flag and the planet earth. They invited adam, will and I to the campfire tonight, if we show up early then those guys can be volunteers.

2009-07-14T23:50:00.001-07:00

My phone died overnight. Oh well, whatever was eating the battery has certainly stopped running now.

I haven't sat on my wallet in a while, it was awkward to do that.

I was road until about 1500. I'm not sure when I left, for the usual 0715. I do know I made it to Orick before 0800 for a slice of blackberry pie. Riding on the freeway is really nice, it is fast with pseudo tail wind from the passing trucks. I like it better than country roads with endless fields, rough. Roads and no shoulders. The freeways have a large shoulder and the rumble strip between me and the motor homes makes the road comfortable.

This morning was foggy and rainy so I decided to ride today instead of taking the day off. The day was rainy until Trinidad. On some of the down hills I was moving so fast I could barely see. I stopped in Trinidad, it is a small town but I got lots of cliffs bars and some chips to eat. After checking out the beach and the memorial lighthouse (it has a list of peope lost and buried at sea), I continued on out of trinidad and the rain seemed to dry up. I stopped a couple times for gummy worms but otherwise I stayed on 101 until Eureka where checked out the old town, then got some sheppards pie for lunch and discovered I took the wrong path through town, so I found the proper route and continued on looking for a bike shop but I found fort humbolt first. Fort humbolt is on the south end of Eureka, so I missed the bike shop. I continued on hoping to go another 6 miles or so. I started riding along 101 again, Fields Landings looked boring, so I rode on looking for an Eel river tap room. There was a billboard on the side of the road that intrigued me. Thinking I was smart I took exit 696 before exit 694 (the sign said the tap room was at 694), on the alternate route through Loleta. There was an old guy hiking to loleta. Loleta was tiny, really tiny, so it didn't have the tap room I was expected. It did have a cheese factory with some very good samples. Enough that I bought some smoked cheddar. In loleta I found out fortuna had an eel river tap room, about 6 miles down the road. I rode until the first exit to fortuna then rode all the main st. The first motel looked really dingy, so I continued on until I found a bike shop where the mechanic checked my chain, replaced it without trying to do more work, they also gave me directions to a set of motels and the tap room. Thus I am staying at the super 8 and had the taster at the tap room with wings. The best beers were the acai wheat and the triple exultation, both of which I brought back for a night of tv, beer and emails.

One of the weird things about riding south is that I have gone further south than the days have gotten longer.

Problems passing urine, the tv commercial couldn't say pissing or urinating.

2009-07-14T23:49:00.004-07:00

I liked the hills today, the Cresent City hills weren't as much as I was expecting. The 2nd and third summits came very quickly. My first stop today was to pick up some cliffs bar, but I didn't find them in a quick scan of fred meyers so I continued on, cruised through the Azalea park and on to california. I stopped to pee on the welcome to california sign, the agricultural inspector waved me through without any questions, then I took a wrong turn turn and took the old bike route along ocean view dr instead of 101. That was painful since the road was going up and down very quickly. The rest of the way to Cresent City basically sucked. In Klamath I stopped at the "trees of mystery", saw some cool trees then went looking for lunch. After a couple a miles I was greeted by a welcome to Yurok tribe, I hadn't missed Klamath yet, it only seemed that way. Klamath is tiny there was a subway, a gas station and a cafe, the is closed. I got to the elk prairie campground around 1600 after hiking a few stops inside the prairie creek park. Before Crescent City I stopped at the market at Fort Dick. The market was cool, it is a convience store in the front a grocery store to the side and a luncheonette off to the side. I got a chimichunga and a pepperoni stick there. I had a turkey sandwich on a croiscent with extra extra salt on the fries. I left around 0715 this morning.

Last night was a reasonable night to get sunset pictures unfortunately the pacific likes clouding over at dusk, the short hiking trails to the beach and butte are nice short and steep.

A new addition to my master plan that will not happen, mary-ann should do moody. I'm not sure I can make it to sf on the 24th, some of the double days I had planned look hard.

I don't understand the battery life on this four. The first 4 days it used 50-60% of the battery, today it used 60+% battery in one day from the same used. Yesterday the phone used about 40% of the battery. I should find out which app is bad. My options are the slide puzzle game or the music app which may keep the sd card powered up. I guess I need a friend on the android team (cynthiaw!).

Martin made it to elk prairie today. So we shot the shit for a bit. I expect this will be the last we see of each other since neither of us will stay at the prescibed sites for the next few days.

The mosquitos are dumb here. I sat down and about 10 started flying around me but none landed or buzzed.

2009-07-14T23:49:00.001-07:00

I did a lot of riding today. My aches weren't too bad and I rode 85^W 90+ miles today. I was planning only doing 70, but I took a wrong turn and went 5 or so miles down cape arago. They was a colony of seal lions that I heard and got some pictures of. I also needed to go into brandon to pick up food since charleston didn't have what I was looking for. My side trip down cape arago was very pretty and the road was nice and smooth. I was also on a bit of a sugar high since I had 3 cups of iced tea at subway when I stopped for lunch. I left at 0730 and arrived at 1430 with a half hour lunch stop in coos bay. I opted to stay at bullards beach park instead of the hostel since they are supposed to have a museum with pictures of ship wrecks. 7 devils rd was a little rough but a nice ride along the top of a ridge. I saw markings on the road for devil #2 and devil #7. The sign for devil #7 made me smile. Well there was a map of shipwrecks at the lighthouse that was 3 miles out from the campground. The campground is rather small. As for the hostel I looked for it when I went to get groceries, I didn't find it there so I'm glad I didn't try to stay there. I got some company tonight, and older guy named ken biked from honeyman (he was they guy camped when I checked at 1730 yesterday). I made a fire so we could cook up some of they spicy hotdogs he bought today. Supper was a bag of chex mix a rogue brown ale, two hot dogs with colby jack cheese in japapeno & cilantro wraps. Ken has been fun to talk to he has done the pacific coast trip once a years since the 70s so he knows all the places to stop. There were 4 other guys camping at honeyman last night, I passed them within the first 15 minutes since one of them stopped to put on sunscreen. I didn't see the sun today. It took me a while longer to pass ken but I did on the first bridge.

I rode from honeyman to bullards beach today.

2009-07-14T23:48:00.002-07:00

A day off. Yesterday was a tough ride I never got over my aching nut, so I'm taking today off then I'll ride from honeyman park to elk prairie without a day off. I rode with shorts on for the first time yesterday, that seemed to keep the breeze under control but the repeatative knocking of my nut is something that shorts or a sock can't deal with. Maybe I should try some of that shamey butter. I took a lot of stops yesterday for pictures, the coast changed from beaches to rocky shores. One guy out for a morning ride caught up with me after Yachats. We rode together for a few miles before I needed a break, I almost kept sight of him until the tunnel, after the tunnel I stopped to visit the sea lion caves. In florence I stopped in for some granola at the fred meyers (I really like this grocery store, I can easily find the bulk section and stuff on sale) I met up with the couple I leapfrogged a bit between astoria and nehalem. At the seal caves one guy asked me about my skinny tires, then another old guy took a look at my bike and asked me about my trip. The second guy apparently used to race. He said the 100 mile training rides were the killers. Now his knees are glass so he can't ride. Inside the caves one einstein looking guy asked me about my trip, and how the cars were treating me, he said he thought holland was a better place to bike since that is the expected form of transportation. Later he told me about yan who he met in nehalem, I remember seeing the einstein looking guy at nehalem. Now I can say it took as long to bike to the sea lion caves as to drive.

I was planning to make it to umpqua yesterday, but I spent an hour riding a 4-wheeler (atv) around the sand dunes. That was a lot of fun, I got stuck once and almost tipped it another time, but I came in safely when my hour was up. So I arrived at Jessie M Honeyman memorial state park about 1615. I got in took a walk around to find the washrooms, the ones the signs point to are still closed for the winter still. By the time I got back to the park Faiza had arrived (again on her own, she and Kathleen had decided to ride on their own for another day. As much as they love each other 12 days without any break is a little too much). Not too long after Faiza had arrived martin arrived. Then there was a steady stream of people, about every half hour. First anthony (anthony was also recently laid off) and nathan who are crazy good riders and are going to attempt to make it to harris beach today. Then an englishman (Ian, a vegan) riding from vancouver to argentina, apparently this is his mid life crisis. Then kathleen, and finally 3 boys from utah who plan to make it to the mexican border.

To start the fire last night, I needed to burn my receipt from south beach. The fire was small and didn't burn as well as I wanted but the 20 minutes of woodgathering was enough to keep the fire going for the couple hours or so that everyone ate and talked as it got dark.

As expected today was super lazy. I took a walk over to the lake, checked out renting a boat but they were taken for most of the day by students taking a fun field trip on the last day of school. So I explored the dunes for a bit and laid on the warm sand. By the time I was moving 20 minutes later the school kids had arrived and the dunes were covered with kids. I went back to my site and noticed there was a yurt available, so I'm staying in a yurt tonight. Once I had moved my stuff, I went back to the lake got a hot dog and popcorn. While eating my lunch in peace the school kids from thre dunes all came over to start swimming. Oh well, eventually I got myself moving to go over to the shower thoroughly rinsing all my clothes and having a shower myself. They rest of the afternoon I read the louis l'amour book I picked up yesterday and drying my clothes. The book read like a tv show episode with all the clean endings and bad aim by the bad guys.

2009-07-14T23:48:00.001-07:00

The wireless in south beach state park isn't free. I got into the park at 1630. I asked the gate officer how she was doing, she said "don't ask" so I offered her some sour patch kids since those made my day a lot better. I think her day has gotten better from the sour patch kids. The showers here are hot but any shower after 3 days feels good. Now if only I can find a way to ensure my hair is dry by nightfall.

Before getting to the park I crossed the bridge out of newport expecting to go to the maritime museum, but I passed the rogue brewery, so I stopped in for a nice taster. The double dead guy is strong, I like the shakespere stout, but I think it had too much of a coffee flavour to be a good oatmeal stout. The morimota soba was very nice it is a light smooth beer. The honey orange wheat beer was different. The penguins won? I wasn't expecting that, last I knew they were down 2 or 3 games to 1.

Still going backwards, upon arriving in newport the first place I saw was a restaurant called izzy's. It turned out to be a buffet, I guess an all you can eat buffet, I didn't stick around to try more than one piled on plate. I did have a salad, clam chowder, and dessert. I guess marionberry is an oregon specific berry. One interesting they had beside the usual comfort mac & cheese or bacon was a roasted potato that was longwise sliced potatoes cooked in chicken batter. I liked the garlic mashed potatoes more. The reason I stopped at izzy's is that it was on the turn out to the lighthouse I was going to check out. I didn't go up in the lighthouse since there was a line, but I did get to see a lot of cool seabirds piled on the rock islands near the shore. The other bonus of the lighthouse is that it was free for anyone that didn't drive in. Like me!

The cape of foulweather was beautiful, they was a slow grade up with beautiful weather, the giftshop at the top also had no wind. The raod was one way with 1 lane for bikes and one lane for cars. I thought I heard a tire start to go flat on the way up, but nothing was wrong.

People for last night: martin, logan, yan, montreal couple, graeme (on recumbant) and chris. Last night was the first night with a good number of people at the hiker-biker sites. Yan was one guy from montreal who did an emt course in yosemite then for a vacation he rode from sacramento to nehalem where some family was picking up today. Logan was a young guy who is in his post high school life crisis. He has taken a couple years off and is now riding to oxnard. He may have gotten to licoln city today. Graeme and chris are brothers, chris is taking graeme on a bike tour since graeme was recently laid off. They weren't going very fair each day, maybe more than 20 miles. And lastly Martin who has recently been laid off made an off hand comment about riding the pacific coast since he had the time, now he is doing it with cheaply acquired and some borrowed equipement (the burley trailer is borrowed).

Getting to pacific city was uneventful. I passed Martin on the first climb. Unfortunately I missed the cape kiwanda state park.

I didn't enjoy getting to lincoln city, my nut hurt and I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere since I was slowing down to stretch so often. I picked up some sour patch kids and spent a bunch of time sitting or laying on sidewalks, and finally made it on my way. Whatever I was supposed to see here I missed.

To depoe bay was better than to licoln city since it was shorter and I knew the places I wanted to stop. I couldn't see the boiler in boiler bay, but I did have more sour patch kids. The harbour was neat I got a picture of fish being gutted. I also came across another rider going north. He seemed to have very ambitious plans for how far he could go even though it was probably afternoon. I did see a couple going down the north side of cape foulweather touring. There seems to be a lot of people doing the north to south trip.

I've barely had time to write this entry I talked to some of the camp volunteers for a while, got a cookie and some popcorn. While talking a nice young woman with cycling gloves came in. I figured this meant I wasn't the only cyclist anymore. I was right Faiza had arrived (the young woman) and Martin had also made it to south beach as he planned with getting his wheel fixed in newport. Faiza's friend Kathleen arrived a little later, they are riding down to SF and are hoping to make it for pride on the 28th. Really the dyke march on the 27th, Martin has a similar plan for the 28th. Faiza is spelled with a zed. She is going to go to berkeley in the fall for a masters of social work, so this ride is also is connecting her to the bay area and vancouver where she grew up.

2009-06-13T23:47:00.000-07:00

During a bored afternoon nap yesterday I got company. 3 cyclists showed up. The first was a middle aged couple that were trying to bike from vancouver to tiajuana. (Canada to Mexico according to the sing on her trailer, yup they were americans). They probably won't make it, after nehalem they were going to go into portland (maybe a 3 day trip for them) and it sounded like that would be the end of their biking. If it isn't good for them. However they have way too much stuff and not enough experience biking. The other guy that came in was Bill, he was from near Savannah Georgia. He was biking from tiajuana to vancouver. At 72 he is doing very well for himself. He knows how long he can go each day and has a mostly inland route through Washington so he'l finish up in vancouver in the next couple weeks. I built a nice little fire last night that bill and I enjoyed, it turns out cathy and I forgot his lawyer, gun afficianato name weren't willing to join us, so he stuck a log in my fire and carried it back to his pile of sticks to try to light them. That didn't work so they retired to their tent to finish enjoying the effects of the margarita pitcher they had had.

Anyway, on to today. I got a reasonable start today at 0830. The road to Tillamook was uneventful and I only stopped once for a bite of a cliff bar. The Tillamook cheese factory isn't very interesting. You can watch people take apart a large block of cheese into smaller blocks. On bills suggestion I got an ice cream cone there. 2 scoops was way too much for me but I ordered two flavours so I got 2 scoops. The blueberry cheesecake was fantastic but the wild mountain blackberry was rather bland. I got groceries in Tillamook (a crow got into my groceries while I was on the beach and ate my currants and mountain bread) then continued on to cape mead. The headwinds along the Tillamook river/bay were noticeable but nothing that would turn me back. The climb up to Cape Meade was well shaded and was only a mile, the other mile from the bay was flat and fun. The lighthouse had some very cool views and a tree that has 8 trunks coming out of its base.

Out of Cape Meade was really fun there were a couple short climbs with very fast decents. On the flats after Nekarts the tailwind was very nice iit felt like the air was moving at all. In cape lookout state park there are a bunch of other bikers, so far all of whom got here before me.

Cape lookout has a nature trail, the trees on the trail aren't too interesting, but the base of the trees are really cool since they seem to grow out of a dead tree and the dead trees seem to have gnarly bases. I also a bug that was the size of my thumb.
Todays ride ended at 01340.

The sun came out at Tillamook. Yesterday the sun waited until I got to the sand dunes to come out.

Food
A big bowl of granola
1 apple
2 scoops of ice cream
1 cliff bar
1 pb, raison and cheese wrap

2009-06-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

I'm using a program called "note everything" for my ride reports. It has a few different types of notes. Unfortunatley what is missing are two things. 1) Send to blogger. 2) picture note, I would like to take a picture of some thing then describe what I think. For example, I discovered that my new, rather tight cycling shorts have a pair of lips on the front side padding. This juveniel thing does provide me some entertainment.

As for the actual ride, I took a quick side trip up to Astoria column after having breakfast with an older couple from Minnesota (they have three horses, and also went up to the column after breakfast. Then I had some more breakfast and headed west along 101. My first stop was in seaside where I failed to fine what I was looking for at the safeway, so I continued on to cannon beach where I made a wrong turn, so I decided to explore the beach. Unfortunately my wrong turn put me on the wrong side of the river so I had a long walk to the ocean. I took some pictures (to prove I was on the wrong side ;) then moved on. I briefly stopped at the bike shop, but the guy there likes to replace the cassette anytime he changes chains, so I continued on. At this point I pass a couple cycling to probably Tillamook today, again. We met up one more time at the tunnel then I left them behind, they were much slower than me going uphill. I arrived at nehalem park by 1330 and I left the lamplighter motel at 0930, which isn't bad time given all the stops I made. When I got here I took a walk along the beach the whole length of the campground then laid down to enjoy the sun (it came out as I got to the beach). Twice after cannon beach I had to stop after a hill because my nuts hurt from the cold.

Food
2 pieces sugar break, 3 slices brreakfast cobbler
1 cliff bar
1 cylinder of pringles (a proctor and gamble product as I learned watching cash cab on my way out this morning)
1 peanut butter and currant wrap
Half a pepperoni stick with cheese and peanut butter

I have discovered there are some surfaces are better than others for walking on with cycling shoes:
Wood, e g boardwalks
Hard beach or dirt trail
Smooth pavement
Soft beach
Gravel

The beaches here are really nice. The sand is some times very hard and others rather soft. By looking I can't tell the difference and the hardness can change from step to step.

God damn it, some bird got into my food. Now I have no wraps or currants!

2009-06-10T23:43:00.000-07:00

Given how much I am eating, I'm pretty sure I won't lose any weight this trip, oh well, at least I found point break on tv.

Food
A bowl of granola
2 cliffs bars
2 peanut butter and raison wraps
Raisons
A hamburger with clam chowder

I got up way too early this morning since I wasn't warm enough and had to piss. So, I had breakfast at 0500, walked around the park, saw the old damn, had a nap on a bench and decided to pack up my stuff and I was on the road before 0800. I took the direct road to Raymond. I got a flat in south bend. This one, like the one I got later on highway 4 and one in seattle was a leaky patch. Anyway, I tried to seal up the patch and continued on to bush pioneer county park. I stopped in at the site about 1230, looked around, refilled my water bottle and decide I could make it to astoria in time to get gear and supper. I got to astoria before 1600, put on a new tire then started on my way to find supper. I decided on the short 1/2 mile ride away from the bike shop that I was done for the day. I got some supper and hit up a local motel, had a very nice shower, and walked along the astoria boardwalk and am now vegging. I thing I'll go up to the column tomorrow morning.

2009-06-09T23:43:00.000-07:00

Today I had to finally get my stuff reorganized for this trip. I repacked bags, put all the stuff I wasn't going to bike with in roberto's hard case, mailed it to him at work, picked up some groceries, said goodbye to ricmoo and headed out. I caught the 1015 ferry to bremerton. There is construction at the ferry docks in bremerton, so I did a useless loop and ended up in the unloading traffic despite being the first one off the ferry. Today was very hot, I seemed to sweating faster than I could absorb water, but I didn't feel sweaty since the sweat was drying so fast. I was feeling fairly tired before shelton, but I was making such good time that I decided I would continue on to lake sylvia park. I stopped 1/2 mile outside shelton (obviously I didn't know I was that close. I rested moved my lock from jabbing me in the back, snacked on some raisons and decided to eat at the first available place on the 101 after shelton. I enjoyed a sub outside shelton, 1/4 mile before the turnoff to 108. I was now on the route descibed in the book. I got rehydrated through sweetened iced tea. The first 5 miles of 108 were hard, it was hot, uphill on rough road. I had to stop twice. After those hard miles I had an uneventful trip until I got onto 8 where I immediately got a flat front tire. To get an earlier start today (and to carry less stuff) I skipped the needed trip to rei, so my front tire now needs to be replaced and neither elma nor montesano have bike shops. After the flat I made good time to elma where I took a break. On the last 10miles of highway to montesano the headwind was strong and my back weak so I stopped every 3 miles for a few minutes. I got into montesano before 1800. I did see a "cycle" shop on the road today, I was disappointed to find out it was for harley davidsons.

Food:
2 bowls of coco-puffs
Cliff bar
Veggie sub, 2 cookies, 2 cups raspberry iced tea, sweetened.
Shrimp bisck
Baked spagetti.

I went for supper at an italian place in montesano, it was good, and was 14$ with a tip. I was annoyed to learn the hiker/biker site was 14$ per night in cash or check. I wonder if I can get change tomorrow when the ranger station opens.

2005-05-22T14:52:00.000-07:00

(Sunday)
Yesterday was fucking silly. I ate one meal. Paid for one more night at the hostel because I knew I wouldn't be able to do shit today. I almost got into a random party with Camile (aflter walking up the wrong set of steps). Now it seems I lost my passport. I'm a dumbass. Too fucking stupid for my own good. Having my camera on me was probably a good idea. I have some random pictures of stuff I don't remeber doing. I did fall off a statue, or something, which has left amark on my face. The beard covers the mark though. It seems I didn't lose my passport, it simply wasn't in my pocket as it should have been.

Apparently I bought 24 beers after the game, I found the receipt today.

Expecting Something Taller -- A good book.

2005-05-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

(Saturday morning)
Last Night, I was going to do a floodlight walk of town. However, while waiting for it to get dark (it takes a while) I decided to hit the high St. Hostel for some 'net access. Since I was there I checked in the basement for the Royal Mile hostel folks. I found them, Brie, Edmonton girl, was a bit wasted, so was Nath, one of the aussie boys. So a beer from Toby and a few games of pool, Heather came back and Jonathon (Toronto -> Europe -> Vancouver), Heather (Moncton -> UNB) and Camilla (the Norwegian girl) decided to try to hit the Fiscal, no long the Fiscal and Firkin. The place was packed and the place was eating up the live band. We decided it was a bit too packed, so we headed to 'The Mitre' where Heather and her friend had been before. Again it was full, but we could get drinks and the band was really good. I met an English couple there. and shot the shit. So much for the floodlight walk. Maybe tnoght, not if the FA Cup is on.

The Edinburgh Castle is massive, it took me over 2 hours to see everything. It's nice, Edinburgh has stuff about Scottish royalty before James IV. The War mueseum probably took the most time. There is a lot of interesting stuff including written orders, and recruiting Scots/Highlanders into the British military.

2005-05-20T14:44:00.000-07:00

Biking to Edinburgh wasn't hard but a bit of a pain in the ass, dealing with downtown traffic despite having cycle lanes in the city centre. I can understand why James (in Tarbert) said the buses and taxi's are a problem for cyclists in Edinburgh. Yesterday, I walked around the Royal Mile looking for Kilts. I've decided to get one full get up and another Kilt. One ancient red and one modern green.

The Hostel here seems to be full of Canadians with some Aussies thrown in for good measure. It's amazing anyone who I think has no accent is very much a Canadian. Last night was a drunken night at 'the globe' a local backpackers bar. The Kareoke was fun, I did 'Riders on the Storm' and 'Thank God, I'm a Country Boy'. After the bar we went to the other MacBackpackers Hostels and hung out with those folks. 2 small hostels make for an interesting atmosphere. At the pub there was a giant connect 4 board, 15cm diameter pieces.

2005-05-18T14:39:00.000-07:00

The better the night, the less writing. Yesterday, the plan was to do a nice 45 mile trip to Stirling. I think I did about 50 miles, about 20 of which was on a cycle path from Killin to Callander. Unfortunately along that path I took at least one wrong turn and went up a big logging road. Going down was fun, but half of the down was backtracking. The Stirling hostel is even more institutional, the class of about grade 6 students doesn't help. I did meet a family from Saskatoon though and played crazy eights with one of them. The class of kids sat down for breakfast did not sit themselves in any mixed gender tables.

Doune Castle was a lot of fun. I arrived around 1315, and hour or so after I had wanted to, but still with lots of time to explore the castle and get to Stirling. Doune was fun to explore as there was very little blocked off and a bit of history to it. When I went in there was a sign saying the guardian was on the grounds, so have a walk around ans pay on the way out. So I explored for about an hour, then went to pay where the woman convinced me to buy and explorer pass which gets me into lots of places for 3 out of 5 days. So, I also spent 2 hours walking around Stirling Castle once I had arrived in Stirling before 1530. After playing crazy eights in the lounge I had my beer in the dining room and decided on todays plan: Argyll's Lodge, library, cycle shop, Wallace Monument, Campbell Castle. I think I got some midge bits while eatin lunch yesterday. Anyway, I was cleaning up my pint glass when an Aussie girl, Brenda, came in and started cooking. We ended up talking until about midnight. Which included eating, walking around town and spinning on a tire like thing until we were both very queasy. She mentioned sleeping naked a fair bit. However, the lowest temperature ever recorded in her home town was 17 Celcious. It's usually above 300K.

Anyway, today, I took a look around Stirling, saw Argyll's Lodge, William Wallace's Monument and then a nice flat ride out to Dollar, a walk threw Dollar Glen then a quick tour of Castle Campbell. There isn't much special about the place, but the monument curator lives at the castle.

Argyll's lodging had the more interesting bits blocked off, but the furniture was awesome to see. Brenda doesn't seem to around tonight so I don't have much to do and there is an extra class load of kids around. I did meet a couple from Peterborough, On.

Nestle is the cerial brand here instead of General Mills, i.e. Nestle Cheerios in a white box.

2005-05-15T22:41:00.000-07:00

The Fort Willy Backpackers Hostel is an awesome place, I've stayed an extra two days. Well, I had the time to stay, so I did. I really haven't written since thrusday at lunch, so here is the attempted brain dump.

Thursday a large number of us sat around the outside fire, chatted and enjoyed ourselves. It felt like most people at the fire had been around the hostel for a while, but besides the 5 staff, the rest had been here only a night or two. I think there is a large large to make it look as if there is always people here and thus encourage people to stay as Victor stayed an extra 3 days, Owl has stayed more, Joey and Ned have stayed an extra 2 days, Simon has spent at least 2 extra days, and I have spent an extra two days here. Those have been the guests for the last few days with various other people coming and going. Caroline has also been here for the time. The staff are Macca, Christian and Mel doing reception with Fiona (Fee) and Bree cleaning.

Friday, I finally got on the internet again and had a good look around town. One of the strange things in Fort Willy is a cemetary under health and safety notice beside the old folks home, so there is a sign for elderly people crossing at the cemetary. Firday afternoon was mostly a walk around cow hill where I cam across a guy playing 'Teddy Bears' Picnic' on the recorder in the woodland. It was friday after the concert and cooking, I sat in the lounge for a bit where Joey and Ned, the boys from Minnesota, were talking to an aussie girl and a kiwi girl and one of those two had worked on the Isle of man.

Before cow hill though, I went to Inverlochy to buy a ticket to see the Peatbog Faeries. Once I had my ticket, from the BA Club, which has no sign indicating it is the BA Club, nor do I know what BA stands for. Anyway, it was time to look around Inverlochy caster, which was a 13 century castle. The ruins are in pretty good shape, but there hasn't been any word done besides stopping the ruins from getting any worse. Exploring the castle was fun, Owl and Victor where exploring it at the same time, so I was able to get up to the Parapet once Owl had found a way up.

The main event of friday was the concert at the B.A. Club. The opening band, the Billipops were decent, sort of countryish. The Peatbog Faeries were awesome though. They mixed the pipes/chanter and fiddle into over 8 different styles of music. All of it was easily danceable. Carloine was the first one up, I quickly followed, then everyone but Simon was up dancing. We bounced for a couple of hours. I was extremely tired. Mel and Bree were mostly able to keep up with me. At the end of the night one woman came up and complimented me on my energy. Another, older woman, gave me a kiss and a big hug outside. Her husband had to drag her away. Evan as they were driving away she was waving at me. I was quite soaked of sweat from dacing all might, my hat even ended up with salt stains. After the concert we got back to the hostel, around 0145, the kitchen was closed, but Owl decided he was going to cook a full meal which caused Macca to explode, partially at Owl and partially at Mel. It turns out Owl (Todd) doesn't remember cooking that meal.

Saturday I decided to do Ben Nveis since I was in Fort Willy. It was a nice long walk. I took about 2.5 hours to go up. I didn't stop. All I had with me was my Nalgene bottle. It was enough for the way up. The views all the way up were simply awesome. I'm glad I had looked around on the way up as looking around on the way down would have meant falling and hurting myself.

[ A crow attacked a seagull. It was a natural dog fight. Evntually, the seagul got away by going too high for the grow ]

The top of Ben Nevis was all snow covered with awesome views in all directions. There is a memorial and the remains of a meterogical station and lots of people. Ben Nevis is the big tourist attraction for Fort Willy. At least most of the people were going up to the top, 1334m, so it wasn't as bad as Eilean Dorean (highlander castle). The trip down took 2 hours and was painful. It was very rough and jaggity. I did see Audrey while I was on my way down. She took a lot longer to go up and down than I did, but 30 minutes of sunbathing on top of the mountain was enough for me. Out to the northeast of Ben Nevis there is a mountain range with one peak that looked very pointy /\ - I can even draw what it looked like.

I lost 1 pound somewhere on the mountain, I'm not sure if I lost thh 2 50p pieces at the top or on one of my breaks on the way down. My half-filled water bottle, filled with tasty Ben Nevis snow, wasn't enough for that much work. At least it was warm enough to walk down the Ben topless. It seems while I was on the mountain, a party had developed at the hostel. Fortunately, the party continued after I got back. So I bough some beers (3 Old Jocks, a Caladonian IPA) and enjoyed the company of the folks here around the fire until after it got dark where we went inside. I chatted with an old man in French, tried to answer some trivial pursuit questions, then passed out in the middel of a conversation. It seems that no lunch, a mountain climb, 5 500ml beers (3 6.7% ones) was toomuch for my body to take. I woke up at 0630 on the couch in the lounge. Now today, Sunday, has been a nice beautiful sunny day, 7thh in a row, to sit write things down and read the paper. Too bad those for those in Uzbekistan. Between the militant religious fanatics and the dictatorial government, the people that will get hurt are those that actually want a better place to live.

Every sink here has a hot top and a cold tap, usually the cold is on the right, but not always. My beard is getting lighter since I have been in the sun so long.

Right near the top of Ben Nevis there is a steep snow section. There were already some slide tracks down and a group to my right were trying unsuccessfully to slide down on one of the guys coat. I decided head first down a previous track would be the way. The slide was a lot of fun, but I got snow in all my pockets and my belt. I ended up a bit wet from the slide as snow is water. I was dry by the end of the walk down, so there was no problem. After I went down, the guy trying to slide on his coat on his butt, went head first with his coat on backwards down my track with great success.

Boozy is a word, great points when hitting a tripped word score.

2005-05-13T22:40:00.000-07:00

Postal Service (the band) sounds a lot like Broken Social Scene.

2005-05-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

There must be some sort of airshow coming soon as yesterday I saw two Brittish fighter jets flying over Invergerry. Today, I saw those jets again, as well as two spit fires. The ride to Fort William was nice, I did some forest riding, big up, big down around Invergerry then took the high road/path from Invergerry to Benavie. Finding the backpackers hostel wasn't too hard, it is even near the top of a steep circular road, so getting out should be fun.

2005-05-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

50-pound day, ouch. One hostel in Fort Augustus is closed, so the other one is full. So, I'm staying in a B&B. I also went out for dinner. Dinner was Haggis & Neeps. Now I can say that I have had haggis. It tastes basically the same as mom/dad's beef stew. I've also had a strong real ale, it tastes pretty much the ssame as the weak stuff, but it has more alcohol.

To sum up the last two days: Today sucked, yesterday awesome. So why today sucked: the hostel was full, the servers at the restaurant were bad and unorganized. I did try 4 scottish cheeses, none were bad. The bike ride took from 9:30 until 5:15. The good parts of today: I tried haggis, and my clothes are being cleaned (2 days overdue). the view is nice. I saw Eilean Ducaan in Dornie. It is a nice bastle but there were way too many ADD (read american bus) tourists while I was there. It turns out Lochach started out in the Lordship of the Isles, which the MacDonald was given at a meeting at Dunakin or Castle Moil, which I saw yesterday in Kyleakin.

Yesterday was good, here is why. I found some free breakfast, scottish oatmeal poridge, at the hostel in Portree. I was riding on the road by 8:30am. The ride to Kyleakin was swift, and with the wind. I arrived at the hostel in Kyleakin about 11:35, by noon I had a bed and briefly met a girl from South Carolina. The afternoon was filled with walking. I stood on a view point compass which showed all the things to see around Kyelakin, then I sunbathed on a rock for a short period. Katie (the girl from South Carolina) actually had that rock. I did see the english couple coucling again, they were cycling out of Kyleakin, I was cycling in, we greeted each other in recognition.

The Illiad isn't so bad to read, I got a couple chapters into it while I was at the Portree hostel and the hostel was having trouble with the boiler. I'm amazed every night is full daylight at 8pm. It is usually light out until around 10pm.

After the viewing table dancing and sunbathing, I took a walk a long the Obbe, saw a lot of Herons. I don't think any of the pictures will turn out too well. My walk continued up into the forest outside Kyleakin. I walked along a logging road for about forty minutes with my shirt off (trying to remove the beakon-like whiteness of my belly. It didn't work). Supper was simple again, very student-like. After supper I started talking to Katie, who is at school in Glasgow for accounting during the summer. We had some drinks, went grocery shopping, played some cards and sat up talking until 12:30am. It turns out she is a huge B5 fan. There can never be enough of us.

I have a mirror in my room in the B&B, I couldn't find a mirror in the hostel in Stornoway.

The neighbours at the B&B are having really banding sex, they aren't being vocal, it can't be that good. I don't even have clothes to get outof the B&B (they are being washed). I do need clean clothes though.

2005-05-09T23:27:00.000-07:00

The day of rest was mostly a day to sit around and watch TV. I was introduced to the sights of Glasgow by the famous Glaswegian Clare Gorgon. I really like the word Glaswegian. However, I did take a walk up the hill in Tarbert. There were some nice views of each bay outside Tarbert. No pictures as I couldn't pick up batteries on the sabbath. Later on in the evening an old gentleman rode in from Stornoway. He was planning on taking the early morning ferry to Uig with myself and a biking couple from Yorkshire. The old guy that biked in is on a 2 year bicycle trip around Europe. He started in London in early March. He also did a 1 year trip a decade back through the lower 48 states in his home country, the USA.

The ferry arrived in Tarbert at 7am. We boarded before the cars without any trouble and started the jouney to Uig before 7:30am. The ferry ride was very uneventful, so I got a nap in as we rolled along with the waves. Once we arrived in Uig I booted ahead of the English couple. I had an awesome ride the short 16 miles to Portree. The ride was really quick too, as I did it in a bit less than an hour. In the afternoon I was locked out of the hostel. So I walked through the local tree plantation and continued up to the top of the hill. It was a long boggy walk up and down the hill. However, the views were awesome. I was able to see a good ways to Dunvegan. The visitor's centre (Aros centre) wasn't all that interesting but they did have a Peatbog Faeries CD, which I hadn't seen elsewhere. How is a wind turbine any worse looking than a house on a hill? Today, was probably the easiest ride of the trip. Tomorrow the next easiest, with the day after being the hardest.

2005-05-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

(Saturday)
Thursday I stayed around Stornoway and actually saw the place during the day. The mueseam was small, but explained some of Lewis' history. Laundry was what stopped me from going on to Harris, but I can't complain as I found a book of Scottish folk tales in the hostel and a book about why men marry. Friday was the journey to Harris. It was a fun bike, I stopped a couple of times to see the scenery. One of these stops was at a momument to a riot. While I was leaving the monument a hitchhiker was dropped up the road a bit. It turns out this hitchhiker was a girl from Montreal, called Izzy, who is on a working vacation visa checking out the hebides between working in a youth hostel in Fort William and working in a shortbeard factory near Inverness or Elgin. We met in the hostel in Tarbert.

Also arriving to Tarbert yesterday were Jonas, A Belgian on a 6 month cycling trip of the northern European countries. James, a bike courier from Edinburough biking the outer hebides the proper way, south to north. Roger, an englishman working in Paris bussing and hiking around the Hebides. So, Izzy, Jonas, James and I went to the bar at the Macleod Motel for a pint. It turned into a night of many drinks and loads of fun. The bar filled up with people from the fish processing plant in Scalpay that had closed that day, so they needed a party. We gladly helped and the drunkest of them even brought us a few rounds.

Apparently I didn't come back to the hostel with the rest of the group. However, somehow I woke up before Jonas, Izzy and James, alone in the correct bed in the hostel. Izzy mentioned at one point I should write detailed descriptions of any images I didn't actually have pictures of to help me remember them. Perhaps that is an activity that is appropriate for the sabbath here. Playing in the playgrounds isn't. The descriptions should be useful as the batteries in my camera have run down.

Finally to today. I biked around South Harris. The plan was to bike along the west coast first then take the east coast road back to Tarbert. I took the wrong turn so I ended up seeing Rodal before Northton. It didn't really matter though. The views on both roads were awesome and the church at Rodal is a stunning example of Medival construction and art. There are lots of Angus and Mary Morrison's buried around the church. Around Harris it seems to be the custom for a woman to keep her maiden name but for the children to have the father's surname. The centre in Northton, Seallam, was nice to see and the guy there was able to give me lots of information on Pabbay. He was able to find teh John Morrison who left Harris for me, but I didn't know what useful information I could gain from the chart.

The fish and chips at AD's take-away in Tarbert are good, but the vinegar is the best I have ever had. I left my towel in Stornoway, oops, 4 things now to buy: lock, helmet, odometer, towel.

2005-05-04T16:31:00.000-07:00

Today's trip was to Calanais. The rain mostly held off until I started my way back, and even then it wasn't too bad. Calanais has lots of standing stones and the Blackhouse tearoom is run by some very interesting people. The bike back to Stornoway was absolutely awesome. It was mostly on a one-way road with the wind at my back. This was what I came for.

Sheep don't run away from fast moving objects.

The cheesecake at the tearoom was marvelous. It was a blackberry, red and black current cheesecake that was still frozen. Yesterday I used 11 gears on my bike, a new record. I figured 11 of 21 gears is probably all the useful gears. Today, I used all 21 gears, about 17 of them are in fact useful.

Tonight was the best night of drinking in a while. For 5 pounds I had a whiskey mac, a rum mac [Ginger Green wine], a 80/- beer, a 'light' beer and a tennent's lager. I was drinking with two Glasgow boys plus a dude from Japan who plans on moving here. I have the address of the Glasgow boys, so I will call them in Glasgow.

2005-05-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

It turns out that I am not the only person in the hostel, but the other beds are taken up by a large group of Polish men. Of which only one seems to speak English. He is the one who helped me last night. Today, I tried to bike to Port Nis, I failed. Early this morning, read before 9am when the bike store opened, I took a nice walk around Lews Castle. Lews Castle was the home of Sir James Matheson, on the castle grounds is his grave stone, it is quite large and elaborate, containing James' entire life story.

The kiltmakers in town would take 8 weeks to make me a kilt, which means I would not have it for convocation. I seem to be having trouble find the 'old' Morrison crest and tartan. I have not seen any Green Morrison tartan's in town and the driftwood crest for Dun Eystein seems to been phased out for Phabby's sword crest.

Back to biking. Crossing Lewis' interior isn't too hard, it's only 12 miles. However, on my first attempt I thought it was only 8 miles, it was also pouring rain such that it looked foggy out, but it was all rain. The wind was also against me. So twelve miles of discomfort and 15 more to go , I decided I wouldn't go all the way to Nis. Instead I had lunch at Barabhas then saw the standing stone at Baile De Truiseil whre the Macauly's and the Morrison's last fought. The bike back from Baile de Truiseil to Stornoway was great, it only took an hour to cross the interior in glorious sunlight.

2005-05-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

Scotland's Change '05 is a 'fair' everything youth publication. However, it is on glossy paper. So, is the print version recycleable? Is it printed on recycled paper?

The hostel in glasgow is nice enough, but the room is really humid, no wonder my towel didn't dry.

In my first day in Scotland, it was foggy while on the bus and raining in Glasgow, this is certainly what I came for.

Nothing interesting happened on the bus rides, but looking around the ferry a lot of people have blue eyes, more than I'm used to. I'm still waiting for the fairy tale view that Stornoway is supposed to be. It wasn't quite a story book view, but coming into Stornoway is nice view.

I am about the only person in the hostel, so it is nice and quiet even with the lights on. Stornoway is a slow place to be in, it almost makes the Manitoulin look active. I'm not used to the early Scotish nights, at 2230 Stornoway seemeed deader than Kingston at 1:30am after I was done washing dishes. The Hebedean Brewing Company's Celtic Black Ale is good stuff.

2005-04-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

Pre-departure: I got a job inquery from a job in Germany the last day I was at my parents. The job was really tempting, but 4 months too late.

Apr 27 2005

I arrived at Pati's at 11pm as I was expecting. Unfortunatly, I coun't use Pat's keys, so her roomate had to let me in.
Thusday: Pati was estatic about her new iPod. We took a trip out to Ikea so that I could check out potential furniture for my next place to live. I'm homeless for 2 months. Somehow I'll live out of a backpack until then. The meals of the day were Indian, then I finally got to see Super Size me. Now, I have seen all of last years big Indie films (Farenhiet 911, The Corporation (American Premiere, and Super Size Me). Someday I'll see bowling for Columbine.

Friday was a nice lazy day, the Bank of America office in toronto was not able to help me with anything, so I'll have to deal with them when I find home.
Friday night was Pati's big party. Lots of people showed up, with a range of ages 18-50, and interesters: Pschology to Radio broadcasting. I also met a couple more people who were from/spent a long while in Scotland. So, I got a few more hints about where I am going.

Saturday: I arrived at the airport with a lot of time to spare. I figured I would have some trouble with customs. However, I will have to deal with customs once I land. Passing through security was awesome, my bag went through the scanner, I walked through with my wallet and that was it. I now had 5 hours to wait in the airport. Sometimes kids amaze me. While finding my gate, I was on a bus with a family who spoke at least German, French and English. Somedays, I think practice the French and German I have already learned. The five hours started quickly as I ran across a former Air Cadet friend of mine, Pete Hanley. Pete is now going to RMC for Mech Eng. he also informed me of a few other former Air Cadets now at the college. It was nice to catch up with Pete along his way to Amsterdam.

Flight: Not enough time to sleep. The lights were on for most of the trip. The guy beside me was interesting but quiet.
Bus: Boring and quiet.
I got stuck in Glasgo for the night, but at least the Scots write the date nicely dd/mm/yyyy.