Reflection

So in the end, you just get on a plain, put your bike together, start pedaling and deal with whatever happens when it happens. Sometimes you loose yourself in the highs, other times you desperately look for a way out when you're crying and want to go home, 3 days into the trip. There is no way to foresee these happenings.

8368 kilometers or 5200 miles I bycicled through swamps, deserts, mountains, icy areas, urban and desolated fields. I can't help but feel a tide rip of nostalgia wash far off and tremendously close by faded and fresh memories on newly discovered shores. Places I didn't know the existence off, inside and out, opened up to me, showed me their passion, beauty and uniqueness.
I found myself surprised, intrigued, ecstatic, sad, loved, out of breath and cracked open in a smile. Talking to people, strangers, friends, fauna, landscapes and to myself.

This journey through time, I escalated on a different dimension, on a counter-cultural wave. Traveling slow, nomadic, I got lifted and carried away, cared for and consorted. Homeless, I don't think so. Not all those who wonder are lost (J.R.R. Tolkien).  

Cycling for 1000s of miles, I found in myself a bundle of cheer and joy, a lust for life. And when I let my thoughts absentmindedly hover over the widespread ocean, I wonder why it is I don't feel more excitement on this final float to end-destination. But a sudden stir and single tear of elation make me realize I'm not done yet. This is not the end but merely the beginning of a life on a journey in search of a story. In the end, it's not the years of your life that count, but the life in your years (A. Lincoln).

It was a pleasure sharing my adventures, encounters, lessons and beliefs with you. Maybe we'll meet again, but for now it is Adieu. 

Love,
Fien 

Vancouver

Closure

The final days of this already epic bike-tour I spend in Ocean-area. The Bosporus-feeling was right on. I was surprised how much Seattle's waterfront reminded me of my Istanbul days. The harbor market on the other side was very much like so many I've strolled through backpacking in South-East Asia. It's funny how big and diverse the world is but then again in a remarkable way kinda all the same. Globalization, where?

Then at last the final, real, day of cycling to the San Juan Islands. It was absolutely astonishing scenic beauty. In downtown Seattle I hopped on a ferry as to avoid in- and outgoing traffic and not so appetizing Seattle-suburb-surroundings. So this day started off with a nice view off the Seattle skyline.

Cycling on the islands is a treat. They are lush green, come with entertaining ocean views, have nice not too trafficked roads and put just enough challenge to the pedal with rolling hills. Blue herons roam the shores, sailboats peacefully float around and all this is wrapped up in a subtle fishy whiff. They even come with a tailwind. What’s not to love?! While I lazily moseyed on, there was not one moment in which it clearly got to me this really was the end of it all.

On San Juan, the biggest and most populated of the San Juan Islands, I met Louis and Sprocket again. He’s working there and living the paradise life. Four full amazing days I hung around, biked around, and my favorite: whale-spotted around. I joined in some of the 4^th of July-madness. Growing up in we-have-some-national-identity-problems-Belgium, it amazes me how much love you can feel for your country and how proudly you can display it, collectively. Sunset fireworks over Roche Harbor were just magical. But stuck on an island, it was quiet the challenge to find a working TV, broadcasting the 9am Belgium-Argentina World Cup game. Luckily my lovely host Marlyn called up half the people on the island and found a friend who was watching the game, rooting for Belgium, and very happy to have me over. Alas! Sad loss.

On another attempt to watch sunset on top of a hill, I got totally lost and engulfed in a maze of little windy bush-tracks, chased by a setting sun. That hill top I never made and I got slightly nervous when in the dark just-walk-back-the-same-way-you-came suddenly wasn’t all that easy any more. But it was not my time to spend a night in a dark forest, apparently, when I, eventually, got a main road in sight and was able to bushwhack my way over.

Next to a lot of foxes, deer, bald eagles and all sorts of whales, the island-animalia includes a camel, Mona, who lives with Edgar, the alpaca. Very cute and always in for causing some traffic jams and close-call-accidents of tourists abruptly stopping or swinging out of the window for just that perfect shot.   

We went kayaking among the sea lions and had homemade sunset dinner on the west-side shore cliffs, graced by several pots of whales. It was perfect. But to Island life too came an end and I hopped on yet another ferry to Vancouver Island and after one to the mainland.

And that's how you cycle from Miami, FL, to Vancouver, BC.

Checking out

Oceana

Rails 2 Trails

Wash(ington) me Away

I always love it when the best is saved for last. I cycled into Washington State on this awesome monstrous bridge over the Columbia river and I knew it would only get better from here on. It made me a little nervous at first, that always happens when I'm cramped on a shitty shoulder on a tight space with cars zooming past me and I'm struggling to go up or try my very best not to veer into traffic when I go down, but once on it, high up in the sky, I gave me the Bosporus-feeling. And it was good.
Washington is gorgeous. Like a glossy cherry you just want to get your teeth in and never let go off. It's nice and quiet, meadowy, pines, rainforest, horses, snowy peaks, lots of space and rolling hills. I was doing 75 mile days and I wished they'd never end.
Since I ran out of maps reaching the coast, I freestyled my way up to Seattle and stumbled upon these great, beautiful European-style bike paths, rails-2-trails, all catered with benches, water fountains and other pleasures a biker might like (like a bike-shaped frame to lean your bike on when you're having a rest). I played hide and seek with Mt.Rainier who kept popping up from time to time in al it's mountainous majesticy. And although I got seriously headwinded nearly all the way, I will remember these days as one of the most beautiful and pleasant of the whole trip.
I stayed with the most amazing people, enjoyed the best gin tonic of my life (and there were quite a few) and for some reason Washington is full of lamas, so I guess that says it all. Amusement guaranteed. The only thing that would make this picturesque picture complete are a couple of scattered ancient castle ruins and a big cathedral, wat or mosque here and there. But then again, I might not want to push it.

By the Sea

This post reaches you from Seattle, where I take a last rest day before bicycling a final century to Anacortes, WA from where I'll ferry-hop to Vancouver, Canada (with a few-days-intermezzo at the San Juan paradise islands). I cannot believe this bike ride is drawing to an end. I honestly thought there’d never be an end (especially back in those early days when I sat - pondering - on a piece of Georgian plantation staring at the map. For real, cycling to Vancouver from Florida, who does that?).

But here I am. It was quite the adventure when Lauren, Zach, Jacob and I made it to the Pacific Ocean in Florence, Oregon and filled the endless horizon with screams, cheers, hugs and beer. I even swam in it! (so to say, in full enthusiasm I accidentally fell in but technically that’s the same). We had a little celebration-party on the beach, with a campfire, smores and a cool but moistly fog rolling in at night which made us rethink the sleeping-under-the-stars-plan. Pitching a tent in the powdery sand, not so great, so Jacob and I ended up sleeping in my supposedly 2-person tent but really just fits 1 and it got even better when the thing, all damp on the inside, collapsed on us in the middle of the night so I could get out and erect it again with pieces of driftwood I stumbled over in the dark while Jacob, peacefully, snored through all this. Anyways that night I slept like a baby in a too small womb.

When Lauren and Zach left the next day by car, Jacob and I pedaled the stretch to Portland. And you won’t believe but cycling in Oregon, on the very scenic 101 coastal drive, got even worse when we nearly, and I really mean missed by an inch, got deliberately ridden off the road by a big, I assume frustrated-drunk-and tired of life, semi-truck driver. The accident made me very upset and confused but sandwiched between ocean and coastal cliffs, there was but one way and that was keep moving forward on this highly scenic tunnel of death. It was hell on a bike but we made it alive, had a nice couple of days off in Portland (which smells like coffee and tattoos, very cool) before I left for final destination. It’s a farewell to my friends but for sure no goodbye!