Going immediately following the last entry. I managed to get down to the Burke Museum after spending most of that morning just lounging around. It was a cool museum and their Northwest Coast stuff was cool for what they had of it, the Field Museum in Chicago has a better and more extensive collection. They had some really cool things, but I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures of the stuff inside, which left me really bummed. I had made the trip there to see it and it appears the museum caters more to a younger age bracket then myself, like people under 10. Even with the exhibits being fairly simplistic they had some really neat artifacts and fossils. There was a primitive whale skeleton and they had various dinosaurs bones set up in life posses, like a stegosaurus. The stegosaurus left me the most intrigued because I have for a long time taken it has a granted that it had spines along its back and a spiked tail, the way its usually depicted. I am not an expert, but the spines anthropologists have always put along the back are in no way connected to the skeleton and could have gone another place, it seemed like to my untrained eye. Though I suppose they are putting the flat dagger shaped bones along the spine, due to dig evidence and not just conjecture. Hopefully evidence is why they look the way it does, otherwise I don’t get why the points down the spine. I found the museum enjoyable and it was cool to wander around the University of Washington’s campus afterward.
After finishing around there I was trying to head over to the City Hall area of Seattle and then maybe the Fremont Troll, but I then had the misfortune to experience what would be occupying me for the rest of my afternoon. I got a flat tire, something I had thought I had fixed prior to leaving my friend Laurel house that afternoon. The second time I had to fix it I was trying to take a short cut and ended up in an upper middle class neighborhood where I stopped under a shady tree to fix my leak.
I was minding my own business and trying to patch my leak, with yet another patch when three little people and a shepharding mom came out to play outside. It didn’t take long for me find out one of the two boys was called “Sam,” which left me feeling pleasantly surprised due to the coincidence. His mom was trying to fix his bicycle as well and it left me wishing my mom was here to bail me out of this one. (Though this mom didn’t know the first thing about bicycles, but “Sam” was still at the stage where parents are all knowing almost supernatural beings.) So I patched it for the 2nd time and headed down and over a block so I could turn around.
Well lucky me the leak wasn’t fixed, so I flipped my bike over and went at it again. At this point I was reusing patches and I was trying to get it too work, when another Mom rolls up and said “I have a pump and a patch kit if you’re still here when I get back.”
I said thanks self-assured that I was going to make it with what I had. No such luck, the patches refused to hold anything and I pumped up the tube a couple of times to see what the problem was. By this time the 2nd mom for now my 3rd patch had come back, I was still there getting more frustrated. She was very helpful and gave me a whole kit to fix the hole, that at the time I didn’t think I would need having just finished the leak. I thanked her told her were I was from and the other usual stuff people talk about when first meeting and hit the road. After getting about maybe a half a mile my fire was flat yet again. So I took the tire off again the 3rd time and used the kit she gave. I patched it and though I had got a good hold on it except the patch failed to hold around the edges, so I ripped it off and tried again. It didn’t work the 4th time either, but figured if I added another patch I couldn’t go wrong, right? I added a 5th and had just as much luck as the fourth. So had 2 patches on my tire and still have a hole and since the air was holding for a little while I decided to pump it up high and try to limp my way home. I got all of maybe a quarter mile before I needed to pump it again and at this point I just gave up and called a cab since it was past 7 by this time and been about 3pm by the time I started this escapade. My tire is still flat, I might have wrecked my back rim, and I currently don’t like my bike.
The next day I drove downtown and walked all over. Being a member of REI I checked out the original store, which was cool, though not as cool as the LL Bean store in Freeport ME. I also just wandered about just seeing things and that looked interesting. For example I bought this really sweet hat at the best Army/Navy store ever. I had intended to see the Fremont Troll sculpture that was under the Aurora Ave bridge, but I managed to forget on my way back toward Laurel’s house. Oh well something to see next time when I go back.
The following day I headed up to Vancouver BC, for the day. It took longer then I had expected partly because I started later in the day and the customs line took forever getting into Canada. The guard wanted to know about my finances as I didn’t have a job and thought I was just coming to Canada to freeload. I gave him some information, but he was kind of insulting but I finally got into Canada. Vancouver, as a city is pretty cool the buildings reflect both a Europe and American influence that is definitely Canada. I checked out downtown and a museum on the University of British Columbia’s campus and then hit the road again. It is a place I would like to visit again, but didn’t feel I had given myself enough time to adequately explore. I also know half of Vancouver’s mystique is the nature around it and I wasn’t really sure where to start since my guidebook only covered the States.
The drive back was uneventful except for an incident I had at the border. I guess I got in the right most car lane called the “Nexus lane.” The only thing I can figure is its for frequent border crossers because they people an extra ID to cross there. I got ushered into Customs Office, hoping I didn’t have to pay a fee as they sent me in with a form that said “Nexus Violater” on it. At this point I was informed that there had been adequate signage, despite seeing any, that told me I was not supposed to be in that lane. It is certainly possible that I had zoned out, but I didn’t see any signs telling me it was a $5000 fine for going in the right most lane. I started to mention this to the guard, but then realized it was better to hold my tongue and let him say his piece. He got the fine waived and sent me on my way after having talked to his supervisor. I got back to Seattle and chilled out at the house for the rest of the evening.
I got up decently early, but I didn’t get moving until later, so I had headed out at about noon and made some headway toward Oregon. It was a boring drive up until I made the turn off toward Walla Walla, WA. There was a tree and grass fire on the way with the largest individual plume of smoke I have ever seen. It was outside the small hamlet of Wallula and I actually saw a fire truck out fighting the flames, which was neat to see while passing, since stopping to gawk at the flames did not seem like the most intelligent thing to do at the time.
I continued on and got caught in a traffic jam that I figured was for an accident, since the road was pretty small I figured it was for that reason. It slowed down and I got a chance to see why things had slowed down as much as they had. It appears to have been an accident between a truck with a trailer and motorcycle and it would appear the accident was fatale for one rider of the motorcycle.
http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-25/1216588463105730.xml&storylist=orlocal
Walla Walla, WA was a pretty cool town between both Whitman College that is in town and the wine is grown there it is a pretty happening place when compared with other places of a similar size. I had the privilege of running into the annual Sweet Onion Festival and I got to see a few of the sights as well as eat a good onion sausage. Since I was running late I ended up crashing at a fairly decent Oregon state park that I really liked both for its cheapness and its general comfort.
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