Day 1: It all started with a phone call

“My back tyre has just blown up”. It’s 8.10 am on Friday the 5th of November, and I’ve just picked up the phone, expecting Mark to tell me he is on his way to Starbucks on the corner of Cambie and Broadway to meet me and join me for the first 30 miles of the trip. Carl, Amy, Justin and Ashra are already here to see me off. Waving flags and cheering as I leave.. but all I am worried about is the constant wobble on my front wheel. 150 yards down the road and I have already stopped to rearrange everything. There’s far too much weight on the front.



Another call from Mark “All the bike shops on Broadway don’t open until 10 – I’m just heading back to the one on the corner of my road that opens at 9.30..”
“Don’t worry too much” I say “I’m just rearranging all of my panniers because I’m completely unbalanced! We’re not going to be leaving straight away”
Over Cambie bridge I go, still wobbling on the front. Five minutes later I’m in Wendy’s car park rearranging again. I’ve got too much stuff with me. Clearly. Maybe I should have stuck to my original list, and not included all the other things that are clearly not essential! Schoolboy error number 1.
“I’m just at the bike shop and it’s being fixed.. it wasn’t the tyre it was the whole wheel! I reckon I’ll be here 10 more minutes and then I’ll be with you”  a slightly better update from Mark. My bikes feeling a little more balanced. Maybe it will all be ok.
So, 10am, we are finally leaving Starbucks. My bike is still a little wobbly but feels much better than before. We head out of town on Ontario St. and down onto Kent Ave. This will be interesting. Lots of train tracks to cross on Kent. Boing boing crash! I look behind me and my back left pannier is lying in the road having been bounced off while going over the tracks. Schoolboy error number 2 – always make sure your panniers are properly attached.
After that it all went quite well. At the first scheduled pit stop (Mcdonalds for coffee and a quarter pounder) I moved some more stuff around. Feeling much more balanced now. A little detour trying to find the right road to get onto Patulllo Bridge but nothing too painful. Lunch at a Japanese restaurant, where the police hanging around outside tell us to take our bikes in rather than lock them outside ‘otherwise you’ll lose all your gear’
So a beer with lunch, as Mark had to turn back at this point, and we’re off again. Or rather I am. Have I mentioned there has been a constant drizzle in the air all morning? No, well, there was a constant drizzle in the air all morning. That turned into and slightly more annoying drizzle by the time I reached the US boarder (approximately 4 hours behind schedule).
“Where are you heading?” asks the immigration officer. “L.A” I respond. “Seriously??!” he replies with raised eyebrows and a look of confusion on his face. “Seriously” I say, with a grin on my face as I have now become quite accustomed to the look on peoples faces when I tell them.
So that was immigration. 2 minutes in and out. All very easy. Helped that I was in the US last week and already had a visa.
So, it’s 4pm, and Blaine is the nearest town to the border, and it’s starting to get dark, and now it’s raining as well. Properly. Shall I stop here? I cycle past several motels. None of them look particularly welcoming, so I think no, I’ll carry on. There is bound to be one between here and the next town. 5 o’clock and I stop for a 10 minute break. I ask the only person I can find where the nearest motel is. It’s back the way you came (they didn’t say it exactly like that, but that’s what I hear!) “How about that way?” I ask. A look of pained thought in their eyes and they tell me that the next place with a motel is Ferndale – about 12-15 miles that way (pointing in the direction I am going). O.K, so my initial promise of not cycling in the dark is going out the window then!
Not too bad all in all. I get to Ferndale and find a Super8 motel for the night, Arrived at about 6pm so it had only just got dark. I was originally intending to camp. But I’m soaked and the campsite is a further 15 miles. 59.61 miles on the speedo. Not too bad all in all.