quickly, quickly

Apologies! It's the 6th of August and I haven't written about events more recent than 22 July. Now we'll try and get caught up, briefly:

Monday - Thursday, 23 - 26 July: It took me two days to hitch a ride out of Haines Junction, and that ride got me only to mile 75 of 157. Tuesday night I stayed in the green shack halfway between Haines and her Junction. Ben and Kayla had also been planning on staying there and so we were reunited. Wednesday I tried for two hours to get a ride and had no success. Wanting not to miss my the ferry the next day I decided to ride to Haines. On the side of the road I saw my new favorite road sign. On top was a diamond shaped sign with an iconic image of a tractor trailer on a triangle, and beneath it on a rectangular sign was the following text: STOP AHEAD/CHECK BRAKES/STEEP DOWNHILL/NEXT 18KM. The ride into Haines was fun and beautiful and a little scary. Barb, the woman that gave me a ride to mile 75, told me that the land between Haines and the Junction has the highest bear population density of anywhere in the world. I saw only gophers. Once in Haines I quickly found Ben and Kayla. We camped in a free campground(!) and drank tee and ate carrots. Thursday we rode to the ferry terminal, boarded without hassle, and set sail. That night we stopped in Juneau for two hours and our new friend, Corey, gave us a quick tour.

Friday, 27 July: Ferrying all day. I don't want to seem fickle, but I think I've fallen in love with the sea. We stopped in Sitka and it was a cute town at 5am.

Saturday - Sunday, 28 - 29 July: Minutes after arriving in Prince Rupert we had met some strangers on the street who offered to let us stay at their house. They cooked us dinner (rice, sauteed asparagus and peppers, a big greek salad, and salmon with wasabi and soy sauce), gave us fresh, soft towels and let us use their bathroom and laundry, and cooked us breakfast (crepes with yogurt and fresh berries). Sunday afternoon Ben and Kayla pedaled on towards Prince George and eventually the States. With great difficulty I opted to give myself more time to rest. That night, with bicycle boxed and sent ahead of me, I boarded a bus headed south.

Monday, 30 July: Very bus-y day. At 10pm, 25 hours after boarding the bus in Prince Rupert, I was in Vancouver. There was still one bus leaving for Seattle that night, but I had sent my bike ahead using Greyhound Courier Express, and shipping service offered by the bus line, and if they were to ship across the border it needed to be done from Vancouver, and their office didn't open until 7am. I don't sleep well on buses or planes, and at 10pm Monday I hadn't slept since 6.30am Sunday morning. I decided to walk around and hope to find a hostel. A hotel room, I knew without checking, would have been too expensive, though I did meet a really drunk man on a park bench who offered to share a room with me. It was nice of him to offer, but I was happy to wander Vancouver in the middle of the night and marvel at the number of bicyclists and skateboarders I saw. That, more than anything else, impressed me. Eventually I found a hostel, but simultaneously found a 24-hour coffee shop. Rather than pay the $20 to stay in the hostel I opted to spend around $8 on three cups of coffee and a snack.

Tuesday, 31 July: I was back at the bus station at 5.30am. At 8.30, after a long and frustrating series of conversations with different Greyhound employees, each seeming to work under a different set of company guidelines, my bike and I were once again on a bus. Because of a long stop at the US border we didn't arrive in Seattle until 1.30pm. There I shipped my bike to Olympia, to my good friend and fellow Cyclonaut, Katie. In Seattle I wandered, drank coffee, and bought some zines for my upcoming flight. With what little gear I was still carrying I bussed to the airport, and that night boarded a flight for Syracuse. After making a connecting flight in San Francisco, after being awake and wandering for just over 65 hours, I got a little bit of sleep.

Wednesday, 1 August: Around 9am, with flights and connections done, I was on the ground in Syracuse. JTX picked me up at the airport and drove me to my mom's house. We hugged, caught up, and made plans.

So here I am now, back in central NY, the 315. I'll not update much while I'm here.