Not just another robot

There is this guy I know, he is the most energetic, outgoing, insane, all over the place kind of guy I know. He is always walking around with the look on his face like he knows something you dont. And the look of "I love what I am doing". To be honest he kinda made me feel overwhelmed, in no way bad. I could only take being around him for short periods of time or I would not be able to keep up with his "insanity" The direction I am going towards is, here is this guy that loves what he is doing and it shows. 40 years old and acts like an ADHD 12 year old, its the best.
I see so many people on my trip that look like there 40 and act like there 80. When I hear people say "I am too old for that", I think "to old to live?" whats the point then.

City Slicker Camping

I dont camp at camp sites because when I camp I try to be secluded. When it comes to spending 15 dollers on a picnic table with RVs on all sides I'm not into it. But I cracked one night in northern california and spent 3 dollars on what is called the hiker/biker campsites. I was suprised to see at least 10 touring cyclists. It was a really good night, it was nice talking to some people that had the same interests.
The next day I rode with two guys from great britan that where headed south on the same road. Richard and Ben the two where headed to San Diego on a summer vacation. I rode with them for about 50 miles then they stopped for the night at noon and I had to push another 100 miles before dark.
The screen on my camera is broken so I cant see what I am taking a photo of. Its like film because I dont know if it turned out til I get to a computor. Thats why the photo of the British has bad layout.
Ben was cooler anyway ...
jokes

There was a car accident near Orick, CA and the police wouldnt even let me by. I ended up talking with two guys in a truck that didnt want to wait the 4 hours for the traffic to clear. So I threw my bike in the back and they took me to a cabin they had been working back on an indian res. Two of strangest charicters at first, they actually where very real people. A little on the nuts side but very nice . The photo's are bad because I was holding the camera on my lap trying to be inconspicuous so they wouldnt get wierded out.. sounds sketchy but it really wasnt.
Duane and Cajun...thanks for the food and place to sleep.

Avenue Of The Giants

Avenue Of The Giants is a 30 mile road that parallels Hwy.101.
I was in a hurry to get to San Fran but made it a point to spend some time with the nobel red woods of nor cal. Pictures dont really do the trees justice.

Coos Bay, OR to Eureka, CA

Still good looking..........

Coos Bay, OR

I have wanted to pull some tourist moves and visit steve prefontaines house in Coos Bay ,OR for a while. For those of you that dont know who he is you need to watch "Without Limits". I will not expain why I think he's a champ. Just know that alot of my motivation in life comes from that man.
In the process of looking for the prefontaines house I met Dori that invited me in for the night. Over the coarse of the time that I was in Coos Bay I lost my cell phone, by the time I had left, the entire town was looking for it. Dori had called every news reporter in the area to interview "the crazy kid that lost his phone".
Thanks Dori...

Tillamook to Eureka, CA

The Oregon Coast is one of those places that makes touring so rewarding. The coast is so green and abrupt. The only bad thing about Hwy. 101 is the narrow sholders which make riding a bike a little unerving but its better than sleeping in close proximity as grizley bears.

I left Portland on the 25th and hitch hiked back to my bike on the coast and continued riding as soon as I got to my bike. I had to be in San Fran by the 1st to meet a freind. So I ended up riding around 700 miles in 5 days. When I pulled into San Fran today I felt like I was on my last leg of my life... so Tired..

Entirely too much fun

Snowboarding in the summer is a treat.

Windells snowboard park

I miss snowboarding alot, I remember why I do it so much. If you dont do something for a while you start to forget how much fun it is. A peice of wood and some snow.

After spending a few days in portland I headed up to Mt. Hood to get my fix of snowboarding. I met up with seth, a good freind of mine. He has been living out of his car and snowboarding since he was 17, he's now 30. I have never met someone that loved something as much as Seth loves snowboarding.

Portland

I ditched my bike in the woods with a tarp to cover and hitched into portland to see a freind.
I met a kid named jordan in portland and he took me to these cliffs 40 miles north. This was the best swimming hole I have ever been to. Not only the cliffs where fun to jump off of but also the locals where real entertaining. We swam for an hour and watched the locals temp fate..hehe Alcohol + cliffs + rednecks = Pull up a lawn chair

hillbillies and bridge jumping

I had'nt jumped off of a bridge in years so when i got the opportunity to jump it was about 30 seconds between getting off of my bike to when I jumped. Oh yeah salt water is very dense.......

Oregon Coast

There where a couple things that I have been looking foreward to this enite trip: camping on the Oregon coast with a big fire , Checkmark, and to eat coconuts on the beach in the tropics.

Ship Wreck

The T'j

I grew up with The T'J in wisconsin, and I would consider him one of my best freinds. He rode with me from Seattle to Tillamook . He told me when he was done that he was glad to have ridden with me for those 3 days, however he found bike touring to be not his thing. I really respect him for trying it and for telling me strait up that I was a lunatic. Thanks T'J for being there.

Seattle

Touring has ruined my life......Just joking

Everyone that has contacted me in the last 2 weeks has been entirely too motivating, I find myself jogging in place when not on my bike. Its been almost 2 weeks since I've been back in the states and I have only gone 300 miles. Its hard to leave good people. Everything aside I really appreciate all the hospitality I have been graced with the last couple weeks. The trip has become more like an all you can eat stroll than a struggle.

I hope to get more stuff up in the next couple days.
I am currently in portland visiting a freind. She has no idea that I am going to talk her ear off for the next couple days

"If wishers where horses beggars would ride"

When I started this trip I had no idea how much I would learn about myself. I knew at the beginning of this trip it would be the hardest/best thing I have done to date. I have been suprised to find that the biking part for me is really no problem, no mileage is to far and hill too steep. Its been a little unerving being near grizleys, being chased by moose, or even shot in the back with a bb gun 2 weeks ago. All of which I've been able to overcome with relatively no greif. But by far the hardest thing for myself has been missing my good freinds and family. I was once told "The best things in life are not things" and for me thats absolutely true.
When I began this trip I knew what I was giving up and knew what to expect for the most part. The thing I didnt realize was that I would be finding the true meaning of freindship.
6 Months ago I came upon the idea of doing this trip and I realized that if I didnt do it now at this point in my life I may never do it. Because who knows, I may fugure out I want to become a full time student, or perhaps find someone I in fact cant live with out, or might get hit by a car on the way to work. I wanted to travel, I wanted to see the world, and wanted to share the experience with my freinds and family. I am telling you this because the 3,000 miles I've biked has been physically easy for me but the 7 people so far that let me down by not joining me like they told me they would has been the most painfull thing in the world.
I want to inspire people, I want people to do something that is important to them. Wether its taking time off of their normal life to follow a dream or perhaps just be there for their kids. I really appreciate the "doers" and want the talkers to realize they have been my only obsticles.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/06/30/blindness.drug.ap/index.html

Here are some advances in the research of Macualar Degeneration..

I'm going to miss those canucks

When I look at a world map I sometimes get anxious to see how far I still have to go
and on the other hand when I crossed into the States and saw how far I had traveled so far I thought Holy Sh$# I'm a lunatic....It was a very happy momment crossing into the states and to celebrate a 3 doller six pack was in order.
I stopped at a gas station in the town of Custer to full up on water and to gather my six party buddys. A very nice lady named Suzy, let me stay at her house, take a shower and do landry. I have been so lucky on this trip to meet such genuine people.
Thanks Suzy
Ps. I left the other 4 beers in your refrigerator suzy, I'm not much of a partier.

Vancouver is a mess

I lost alot of stuff is vancouver including sylvain and then later myself....
Sylvain has been a great person to travel with, he has helped me alot throughout the trip since fairbanks. I have gone through 5 pairs of sun glassed since the start not because I break them its because I lose everything thats not connected to me. He told me he would be suprised to see if I make it to Argentina and still had a bike because I might lose it, funny because he's probably right. I have nearly left things at every camp spot from hear to Prudhoe Bay and Sylvain has picked up after me this whole time. I rode with sylvain for 2000 miles and over one month and never lost him for more that 30 minutes, then about 5 miles out of vancouver where Sylvain turns off, I lose him and hav'nt seen him since.
If you read this Sylvain E-Mail me SavageQuinn@hotmail.com

So allegedly bikes arent allowed on hwy 1 in Vancouver which created a mind numbing task of getting across the Fraser River on my hog. While trying to solve this dilemma I learned a very priceless lesson that even if you are really hard up for directions never ask a local. It seems really weird because one would think if your lost ask a local, but in my studies out of the 5 people I asked for directions over the Fraser I recieved no solution and even got the answer "you can't get there on a bike". After 3 hours and 20 miles of zig zaggin when I should have been zag ziggin I realized that you can only trust a map. Most people only know how to get to and from work, and lack the chance to explore there own city so "your guess is as good as mine". Though getting lost is a good way to get the feel for a town I highly recommend it.

Camp near Squamish ocean side

This campsite was the first one that we payed for, and to think it took a lady paying half of a 10 dollar camp fee to get us to stay at a ocean front camp spot. I think thrifty is too good of a label for us, perhaps something like dirtballs would better suit us.
City slicker camping outside of Squamish.

Why are you riding your bike half way around the world

Once in a while I'll get the question "why are you riding your bike that far? why not a car". And I asure you I ask myself this question on a regular basis, but its hard to give someone a strait answer when they are sitting behind a register at seven eleven.
So lacking the capabilities to express what it feels like to experience what I have in the last 45 days, I say in a non-demeaning way "why do you work here?" hoping to get my point across. Its more insane to me working at some place only for money and not because you feel its improving your person or someone elses, than to be thrifty for 10 months in order to do what you love.
I will get a print of the photo on the right to show people from now on instead of perhaps offending someone. This is what makes touring so damb good.

Squamytown

Squamish is such a nice town. big mountains and huge rock faces surrounding squamish
along with an inlet to the Ocean.

Skiing @ Whistler

I had been looking foreward to getting to Whistler for along time, I wanted to go snowboarding in the worst way. Then when it came down to it I couldnt find a snowboard to use so I ended up demoing some skis... Skiing is for rich little fat kids... or kids with canadien tuxedos(jeans and jean jacket)and died black hair.
just joking, it was a good time..

Sylvain "Mr Bean"

!4 Percenter

I was talking to a kid at the Clinton visitor center, he told me there was a shortcut on a dirt road through the mountains. He mentioned something about a really steap climb for like 5k. So I think hell yeah no problem..... 14% grade is not messing around...1 hour to go 3.1 miles.

70 Mile House "I should'nt have drinken that water camp"

Forest fire on the Cassiar Hwy sends smoke 500 Miles south near Williams Lake

Broken Rear Rack

I have a bone to pick with the person that engineered this rack......

Williams lake Camp

And I was going to get a red tent..... O-llay!!

So.....Sick to my stomach and stuck in 70 mile house. One day out of williams lake we stopped at a farm to get out of the rain. We set up camp next to a old guest house down in a mosquito infested valley. very nice campsite, and a cool night of sleep we had no idea how sick we would get the next day from the river next to the farm. Our filters did nothing for us, we were stranded in 70 mile house with bad mosquitos and 90 degree heat.

Cimena City

On the 2nd of july we took a lunch at cimema city and got out of the insane heat. After we had loaded our stomachs with oatmeal and chocolate sauce I ran into a little cafe to fill up on water...I was greeted by darrel and dave the owners like i was their long lost brother. freaked out at first by this out of the ordinary kindness I remained reserved about what I was doing there on a bike... after I talked to darrell for a bit about his cafe and how there where so signs out front advertising "Cafe" or really anything that made it resemble a cafe, he offered me some cinnamon rolls for the road....I was so delighted by his kindness, it would have made my day just by the rolls and some water. As I was packing up my bike darrell and dave came out with a full lunch for us, they had just made fresh is the seconds while we where preping to leave....and insisted that we go to his house across the road and take showers and relax for the remainder of the day. We gave it a whole 2 seconds of thought before accepting this generous offer... That night we where fed everything from pastries huge plate of diner and 1/4 of a pie each with ice cream, we couldnt help but to have these hideous perma-grins.. it had been so long sustaining ourselves on pasta and oatmeal we did'nt even know what to think...
The next morning still full from the night before we went into the cafe to thank them for all of their hospitality, and yet again where treated with a truck drivers portion of food and a lunch for the road.... I have never met anyone so content on what they do for a living than those two guys. I will forever be in debt to them not only for the food for the great company....Thanks Darrell and Dave fot being so Freekin nice....