What an eye opener

Having spent 2 nights at a $200 US a night lodge (in the continual rain), with a car club there the first night and the porsches, audis (and associated plonkers) there, it was a real shock today to ride the buses to Tacoma.

The buses went from Lake Quinault to Aberdeen ($1 each), Aberdeen to Olympia - the capital of Washington State ($3 each) and then with a different company from Olympia to Tacoma ($3 each.)  We were relieved to get our bikes on the front of each bus (there are only 2 bikes allowed) and we were trying to work out what we were going to do if we couldn't - couldn't come up with any good ideas!  It is a brilliant system, and I don't think that any of the buses in NZ do it this way.  It was the same as the system used in Bar Harbor.

The real eye opener for us was that it exposed us to the other side of America.  The people who ride the buses in this part of the world (from Lake Quinault to Olympia in particular) appeared to be the lower income/welfare based people.  A lot of the people were disabled - listening to some of the discussions, some people were veterans, on disability pensions.  A lot had let themselves go and seemed quite angry at the world.  On the other hand, some of them seemed to be quite friendly and generous to others.

We saw an ex marine - from the south (self described), who was on a bike (that the bus driver let him put in the wheelchair space) - give another guy who was on a wheelchair scooter (looked in his 50's), his rain poncho as he didn't have one.  Very kind.

His kindness reminded me of the quote I saw on Facebook the other day saying 'be kind to unkind people, they need it the most.'  Not that the other guy was unkind, but it got me thinking.

When we got into the Aberdeen station we had a 1 1/2 hour wait for our connection, which was eye opening.  There was a group of men hanging around arguing/talking with each other.  We kept our heads down, and eventually they drifted away.  Then about 20  mins before we were due to leave an altercation began between the officials at the bus terminal and one of the guys who had been harassing them.   They called the police who came.  The guy then severely failed the 'attitude test', another policeman turned up, and Peter heard them say something like 'why have you been evading us?' after searching the database.  He was obviously on something and just got more and more belligerent.

In the middle of all this the bus arrived and we quickly got on.  But the thing that amazed us was the reaction of the locals.  Quite a few of the locals getting onto the bus were giving the police grief for being there to deal with the guy.  One of them even rang the local police department and asked them why they sent the policemen out, and demanded to know whether they had better things to do.  He then got aggro with the police department.  Stranger and stranger.  As he was hanging up, someone else on the bus announced that they had just heard that there had been a bomb threat just now at the local  Safeway.

Certainly a different set of experiences. - Peter and gear waiting for the bus, pretty much what we spent all of today doing (in the rain and cold)

Finally got into Tacoma and the little that we have seen of it so far has been interesting.  A huge port with oil and petroleum distribution, importation of footwear, production of asphalt, distribution of gypsum, the port and waterways became very polluted.  They undertook a massive project to clean up the waterways- with much funding through rates and taxes.  The area is now still definably industrial, but has quite a quirky trendy feel around the waterways, we will explore tomorrow.

We did a quick visit to the Museum of Glass and looked at amazing art glass from Australia and the Pacific (but none from NZ) and watched working glass blowers.  We will visit some of Dale Chilhuly's glass monuments that he prepared for the city tomorrow morning.

Outside of the Museum of Glass, the furnace is in this structure.

Water and glass display outside museum of glass in tacoma, on the waterways to the right.

Some of the  examples of the amazingly intricate glass at the museum,

Summer tomorrow - hallelujah!!!!

The NRA and the US Constitution

Forks was an interesting little place.  It was very old and run down and poor.  We were talking about how it felt very 'male' and quite 'redneck' orientated.  We ate at the one diner/cafe, lunch, breakfast and (thank goodness) a 'sack lunch'- which we put in our bike bags and were so relieved to have with us when we reached our campsite in the rain.

We also had a small pizza for dinner (funny, we ordered it and then I asked for half to be jalapenos - so we got one side of the pizza with all the toppings and half with only jalapenos - pizza sandwich was created with two slices.).  It was a very busy place on a Saturday night, so we had a 35 minute wait.  The only reading was the magazine of the National Rifle Association (NRA).  So Peter picked it up and read a call to arms from the NRA about the threat of the pending gun legislation.

The call was based on the 'freedom of the rights of Americans under the constitution to bear arms.'  So we thought that we should find out more about the constitution, as we didn't really understand that.

The US constitution was created in 1789 with the 12 basic articles, which created the constitution and the rules to change the constitution (Harts Secondary Rules for us law students.)  Then there were 10 amendments to the constitution in 1791.  These amendments were to cover the following topics:

1. Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly and Petition.  2. Right to Bear Arms, 3. Quartering of Troops, 4. Search and Seizure, 5. Grand Jury, Double Jeopardy, Self-Incrimination and Due Process, 6. Criminal Prosecutions, - Jury Trial, Right to Counsel, Right to Confront, 7. Common Law - Jury Trial, 8, Excess Bail or Fines, Cruel and Unusual Punishment, 9, Non emunerated rights and 10, Rights reserved to states or people.

As you can see, these amendments are pretty fundamental 'rights', but we never realised that amendment 2 was 'right to bear arms.' It helps us understand a lot more about the arms arguments in the US, that we never understood.

There are 27 amendments in total, now including the abolition of slavery (1865, amendment 13), Rights not to be denied on account of race (1870, amendment 15), prohibition (1919, amendment 18 - and its repeal in 1933), Womens right to vote (1920, amendment 19), and the 27th in 1992 - compensation of the members of congress.

The background to this right in the 2nd amendment is that the right is supposedly based on the right provided to Protestants in the British 1688 Bill of Rights (that is part of NZ law.)   The 1688 Bill does in fact provide protection to Protestants from disarmament by the Crown.  However, it is believed that this was merely restoring a right that had previously been taken from landowners.  It does also say 'as allowed by law', but it is a useful quote in the arguments for bearing arms.

One of the things that has amazed me and some of my fellow law students is how little we are taught in New Zealand about our constitutional arrangements and how laws are made in NZ.  In contrast, civics is a core subject at school in the US and people know about the constitution and how laws are made from a very early age and can have a discussion about the topic at any time.

This does highlight how there can be such opposing political views in the media here, whereas in New Zealand, although we can spot some leanings of different news outlets, it does not seem to be as defined.

It also gives me a different outlook on the role of 'rights' in our society.  Why was prohibition a 'constitutional amendment' which was then repealed, and not just a federal law?  

Having just completed a 3000 word essay on how rights are created, and the role of the judiciary in 'interpreting or creating rights', it makes me more aware of the power of the Supreme Court in the US in 'creating law.'  When researching this second amendment, the web entries compare the different Supreme Court decisions in relation to the right to bear arms.  

Interesting food for thought and an interesting experience to read the NRA publication.

The power of water

We hear stories about floods and the power that the water has.  I think it is hard to understand that unless you see the devastation that they wreak.  Fortunately I have not been in a position to witness that.  Water and rain have been a constant them for us for the last three days, and I write this, sitting in a little cafe while it is constantly raining outside.

We left Forks (more about Forks later) in the rain.  We spent most of Sunday riding with overcast skies - actually enjoying the conditions and road.  There were no trucks, nice roads and good riding, up and down hill.  Then it started raining and it didn't stop.

Sunday night we could only get accommodation at Kalaloch Campground.  Another National Park (Park this time, not Forest) campground. No facilities, but we managed to get a relatively sheltered site to put up our tent - while it kept raining around us. Kalaloch (pronounced, weirdly Clay-loch) is on the Pacific Coast.  It exists of one campground and one 'lodge'.  No accommodation at the lodge, but we managed to get dry and have a dinner there.  Then back in the rain to the wet tent.  Amazing that either of us actually got any sleep, but we woke up wet - with everything wet.

Camp set up under the trees, everything is pretty soaking wet except the tent at this stage.

We then headed to Lake Quinault - a 55km ride.  Again, the day started off overcast and not raining, and the start of the ride was pleasant.  Then the road surface changed to a surface more like NZ roads - quite rough and difficult to ride on, and a non existent shoulder to ride on.  Bearable if no traffic and no rain.  But this is US 101 - the main route for the logging trucks.  Nothing else to do and see for 55km (and I mean NOTHING except for forests), so we spent all our time hanging on to our bikes to keep them upright - ended up with sore hands, arms backs and necks (instead of sore legs), just making sure that we kept on the road.

Peter counted the logging trucks. 23 empty trucks going in the opposite direction to us - to pick up timber and 17 trucks that went past us.  The road had a 'rumble strip' along the centre line.  Different to the rumble strips in NZ - these were actually ridges, holes cut out of the road.  What it meant though is that we could hear the vehicles coming and tell whether they went over the centre strip to give us room.  Most vehicles did, but there were about 2 logging trucks and 2 - 3 other trucks that were way too close to us.  Reason to strengthen the grip more.

Then it started raining about 1pm yesterday.  And it hasn't stopped since.

Riding in the rain, on a rough surface with no shoulder and logging trucks going flat out past you (they get paid by the load and head down to Aberdeen (40 miles south of here), or Portland or Olympia, so driving slowly isn't on their agenda,) is NOT fun.

Then, I made a mistake.  I knew that a few days ago we booked in at the Lake Quinault something....  So when we saw the sign for the Lake Quinault Resort we excitedly took the exit (get away from the traffic.) 2 miles downhill in heavy rain later, we arrived.. to be told that we were on the wrong side of the lake and we actually wanted the Lake Quinault Lodge - 7 rain drenched miles away. Oh well, more trail mix and we got there.  Managed to do it without any more logging trucks!

I was getting pretty miserable by now, and the weather forecast was for more more more rain, on Tuesday and Wednesday, not stopping till Thursday.  Today is Tuesday, and Peter made the suggestion we book in at the lodge for another night.  Great idea!!!  So, budget blown, we have another night tonight.  Warm and dry and we can get the rest of our 'stuff' dry in the room.  But can't book back in until about 4pm.

One of the 'bombsite' photos of our room.  Heater is along the wall, where the sleeping bags are getting dry.

Tomorrow though, the forecast is more rain and a 75km ride, along 101 with the logging trucks.  So, I used my initiative and found a bus.  It will pick us up here, take us to Aberdeen, there are bike racks for 2 bikes (so hopefully no one else has their bikes on the rack - as if they do we have to take separate buses) and all for $1 each.  Then when we get to Aberdeen, hopefully the weather is a little better and we can look at continuing the ride.

So- the power of water when you are riding on a cycle tour... pretty powerful - demoralising, dangerous, miserable.  Thank goodness we could book into dry accommodation.  We hung everything out in the room with the heater full power last night and most is dry.  Just need to finish it off.  The room looked like a bombsite!

But the real power of water was evidenced by the beach at  Kalaloch.  These logs (that small orange spot is Peter) have been washed up by the seas and the rivers.  The big huge one is possibly a Sitka spruce.  the little nice neat log on the far right hand side of the picture is a log that has come off a log raft.  These are the rafts that they put together up in Canada/Alaska to get the logs out of the forests.  These logs come apart in rough seas and then just float to wherever their destination is.

The whole coast was littered with these huge logs, makes you realise the power of the water.  Here are  some more photos from Kalaloch Pacific Coast beach.  There are 73 miles of national park beaches that are only accessible by boat from the ocean or by foot access.

Photo from the Lodge

This one shows the lovely skies, and yes it is raining while taking the photos.  Thanks to the new Pro HDR app for the lovely colours.

Of course, we should have thought about this a little more.  We are riding in the 'rainforest'.  Last time we are likely to do that.  There are dry months, July, August and September, but this coast gets between 12 and 14 feet of rain each year.  That is just under half an inch for each and every day.  It is certainly confirming its reputation.  There are three factors that cause the rain - the cool ocean currents, prevailing winds from the southwest and the Olympic mountains that provide a rain creation mechanism.  As the air lifts to go over the mountains, they condense and squeeze out the moisture (all over us!)

Lake Quinault Lodge where we are staying was built in 1926 in 53 days.  It is designed by the same designer as the Yellowstone National Park Lodge.  The dining room is named after President Franklin Roosevelt who visited in 1937.  The Olympic National Park - 898,000 acres was surveyed in 1885 and 1890 by the US army.  It was made into a National Monument in 1909 by President Theodore Roosevelt and then a National Park  by Franklin Roosevelt in 1938.  The coastal region (Kalaloch's 73 miles) were added in 1953.

Main lodge building. Our rooms last night are on the left of this photo, tonight we will be on the right.

The rain gauge which has been here - on the chimney - since the lodge was built.  It is difficult to see, but someone has spelt the word gauge as guage.  But it shows - with the blue marker, the rain last year at 14 feet.  The record, above this is 15.5 feet.  The marker for this year is still down around 6 feet.

Oh and before I forget, we also saw 4 deer, and 1 deer/bear (it was in the distance and looked like a brown bear, but we are erring on the side of caution and assuming it was a deer.)

Wilderness and no vampires or werewolves - yet..

We knew we had really arrived as travellers when a couple from the San Francisco area, who were travelling in a car came over to ask if they could borrow a cork screw.  From the people on the bikes - ha ha!!! Pretty awesome.

Climb nowhere as bad as we imagined, but I can tell you, you can't find out everything on the internet. Having carefully planned this trip based on the internet descriptions of the Olympic Discovery biking trail, when we got off the ferry and got a real map, we discovered that the railroad that we were supposed to be following was really for mountain bikes only.  We assumed that this mean that it would be rough on the road bikes (with tree roots, holes etc) and decided not to take our bikes and luggage over it - didn't need them falling to bits just yet!

But another group that we met on the ferry did take that route, and got into camp about 3 hours after us.  They said it was rougher and they ended up taking the wrong turn at the end and climbed up 500 feet.  Oh well, they are about half our age, they will survive.

No rain!!  No wind!!! and about half an hour of sun - yee hah!  

The ride was around the beautiful Lake Crescent.  It is a glacier lake and has turquoise colours (when the sun is out).  It is quite long and before we got to it, we rode past Lake Sutherland.  Lake Sutherland is covered in houses.  On the edge of a National Park. Of course - we should have known.  So then we wondered whether Lake Crescent and the supposed wilderness type experience we were heading for would have houses all along the lake.

Thank goodness no.  There were a lot of houses/lodging which were serviced by ferries across the lake in the early 20th Century, but when the road was put around the Lake, most of them vanished.  There are few properties at the top of the lake by Fairholme - which exists of a few houses, a very basic National Park campground ($12 for the night and no showers, only loos and a firepit and a table) and a very basic general store.

We had decided not to stock up on food in Port Angeles as we figured that the 'food' and 'shop' signs meant that we could buy something when we arrived.  We were wrong.  So tonight, I feel like a totally ordained wilderness bike tourist.  We had our rehydrated food.  Quite a contrast to the fantastic Italian food that we had in Victoria last night.  Also some salsa and chips that the 'general store' did have in stock.  Assumed at the very minimum we could get milk to have with our moosli tomorrow.  Nup.  So it is trail bars, and trail mix.  Thank goodness we brought some trail bars from home (the US ones are far too sweet for us) and that we stocked up on trail mix (but sadly there appears to be only nuts and seeds and raisins left, all the gummy bears and chocolate peanuts in our home made trail mix seem to go first...).

One of the reasons that Lake Crescent hasn't been built up over the years is that the Indians believed that Mount Storm King was angry at the two tribes for killing each other and he send down a landslide that cut off Lake Sutherland from Lake Crescent.  The modern day geological surveys confirm that it was most likely a landslide that cut the two lakes off (and the ability for the salmon to spawn up into Lake Crescent.)  So, did the Indians know this from long ago ancestral tales, or did they have some other way of knowing?  In the meantime, they were superstitious about the lake and afraid of the spirits, so did not venture up to it.  Given how misty (cloudy) this lake is at the moment (8 pm), it is easy to see how they would think that the spirits of the dark brooding lake were a bad omen.

The Olympic National Forest is a rainforest and there are a lot of logging trucks on the road.  I couldn't work out where they were logging, thinking that this was a National PARK, but no, if I read properly it is a National Forest, and they are logging in small spots everything within the forest.  This is a photo of the tree that we camped under (and no caterpillars!)

It is now Saturday evening and we are in Forks.  Population 3152. It is 22 degrees C and the sun is shining.  However, we are tired and as there is nothing (I mean nothing other than going fishing) to do in Forks, we are catching up on our washing and reading our books - and one of us is currently sleeping...).

Lake Crescent when we left this morning (pretty impressive iphone photo methinks.)

Before posting this I thought that I would go on and find out more history about Forks.  As we were walking around, Peter commented, the economy is just like Turangi, reliant on tourism (Fishing) and forestry, it is only different because it doesn't have the prison services.) Then looking up on Wikipedia, I discovered that 'For many years the city's economy was fuelled by the local timber industry.  With recent declines in the industry, the town has had to rely on the two nearby correctional facilities.)' Hmmphh.  At least Turangi is an awful lot prettier and newer and has a lovely river running through it instead of around it.

We are finding the riding harder than in the last two years.  We are trying to work out why.  Is it the extra 3 - 8kg we are carrying?  Is it the fact that we are both now a year older?  This year is the first year in the last three that we actually did riding before we came away, so expected to be adapted more.  I checked back on our distances last year in my notebook - we were doing between 20 and 50km more a day.  But then, we were absolutely exhausted at the end of the trip!

We have worked out that it takes between 5 and 7 days to get our bodies used to riding every day, and we are only doing around 40 - 50km a day and the being exhausted.  Must be a combination of the weight and the old age!

Forks - the hub of the Twilight books, vampires and werewolves. It's been a long time since either of us have been to such an old (as in back in the 1950's) and male orientated town.  It revolves around forestry and fishing. It does make for some interesting people watching, and the 'outfitters', which was were the supermarket is, was fascinating.  It was stocked with pretty much everything you could want with rows and rows of fishing flies and lures.

Sadly the forecast is still for rain/showers for the next 4 days, hopefully we can finesse it and not get too wet and cold.  

Some other photos that I found that tell an interesting story:

My entree at dinner in Vancouver (breaded eggplant, capsicum and zucchini) versus

Our yummy (really not) rehydrated fettucine chicken carbonara in camp last night.

The clouds over the land that we were headed to on the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles.  Our bikes are the two on the left with the red and yellow panniers.

On San Juan Islands there were 'bicyclists turnouts'.  This was the first one we stopped at (and the best) sponsored by Rotary.  There were bike racks (that both the bikes are resting in, cut in the logs) and tables to sit down out.  I was trying out one of the new apps Pro HDR, hence the words in the photo.

Had to take this photo, late one night in Las Vegas - a Moneyworks slot machine. It ate my money very quickly...

The next door neighbours 'garden' from Dave and Kays place in Anacortes.  A lot of people 'winter' in Arizona and come up to Anacortes for the summer.  They don't want the hassle of doing gardens, so the gardens are gravel.  There was no grass and the odd plant planted everywhere.  Note the gravel from the top of the purple flower out to the road - where others would normally have grass.  We rode past one yard (I can't call it a garden) that was entirely grey gravel and red scoria, with two steel poles sticking up (not sure what they were for.  Those people hadn't even planted any plants.

Lime Kilns and a Real Working Arbitration

Upon arriving at Friday Harbour, we did our first real cycle with our 50 pounds of luggage.  It was quite different to riding with no luggage (actually can be easier as the bike is quite a lot more stable). Out to our campsite which felt like it was all downhill. I was quite worried about riding back in to the ferry yesterday morning with all our luggage as it felt all uphill.  I was so pleasantly surprised that it was really quite easy - roads can be deceptive on the bike.

After  setting up camp we rode out to Roche Harbour - having no idea what we were going to find there.  Again, the roads were all downhill, quite worried about when we would start climbing to regain the height.  Roche Harbour was quite a revelation.  Down the bottom of a very steep hill (Peter rode up, I rode up half), it appears to be a very wealthy enclave, with a resort and marina.

It was the original site of the Lime Kiln works.  These were set up by the British Army to provide work for their soldiers, so that they didn't get bored at their army camp. (when we rode the the camp. we realised that it would have been a long walk to the kiln works each day - it was several miles and the soldiers slept back at the barracks.)  The Kilns were to process lime from the limestone.  San Juan Island and many of the neighbouring islands were deforested to provide the timber to fire the kilns.

After the British troops left, the kiln works were taken over by private interests.  The main owner was the McMillin family - who competed for grandiosity with the Butchart family (of Victoria Butchart gardens and commercial wealth fame).

The lime was exported everywhere and used in the manufacture of steel, plaster, cement and paper.  The lime itself was highly combustible and led to several ships catching on fire, sinking and with the consequent loss of life.  The kiln works were down by the harbour and there are photos there of a smoky inlet, that must have been quite unpleasant to live in when the kilns were going.  There remains the McMillan home and formal gardens - in keeping with the times.

Of more interest is the role that San Juan Islands played in international politics.  Both America and Great Britain laid claim to the San Juan Islands group.  Given that Canada was British and Washington State was American, it is understandable.  They agreed on the 'Oregon Treaty' to divide the borders.  This stated that the dividing line was the 49th parallel and 'the middle of the channel.'  Unfortunately, 2 channels exist  The Haro Strait, nearest to Vancouver Island and the Rosario Strait nearer the mainland.  The San Juan Islands lie between them and both sides claimed the entire island group.

So, after a while, both sides set up a camp on San Juan Island.  The British camp on the Northwest side and the American camp on the SouthEast side.  The Hudson Bay Company established a shee farm where todays American Camp is and tensions started to rise. This continued for 6 years until on June 15, 1859, an American shot a Hudson Bay Company (British) pig rooting in his garden.  This brought things to a head.  BUT instead of fighting, it was agreed that the forces would be reduced to no more than 100 US soldiers and a single British warship.

The two camps co existed peacefully for the next 12 years.  In 1871, the boundary question was submitted for arbitration to Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany, who a year later ruled that the islands belonged to the United States.  The British left in November 1872 and the US troops two years later.  Peace was affirmed, and San Juan Island would be long remembered for the 'war' in which the only casualty was a pig (and a Rear Admiral in the British troops was knighted because of this feat.)

Very impressive example of arbitration at work.

Not a nice day for bike riding

Checking out the Stuff and NZ Herald sites, we know that the weather in NZ is pretty foul - the biggest storm since the 1968 Wahine Storm?  30,000 homes in Wellington without electricity... lots of snow in the South Island.  Thinking of you all - and envious of the ability to turn on the heaters and fires.

We were warned that June is not necessarily a great time to go cycle touring in Washington State, and that there is quite a bit of rain at this time of the year.  But, given the constraints of the University year, this is the only time that we have to do the trip.  We figured - whats a bit of rain in summer, we have ridden in summer  before, as long as it is warm, it is not a problem.

BUT, when you get a cold head wind, rain on top of a night of little sleep, the 35km trip that we did seems like 500km.  We ended up putting on our thermal underwear as we were riding (on a beautiful trail on Vancouver Island from Sidney toVictoria), all our wet weather gear - and when we got to our hotel we were so exhausted we collapsed onto the bed and both promptly feel asleep for a couple of hours.

Heading out this morning, to Port Angeles, the gateway from the north to the Olympic National Park, we can see the peninsula from our hotel room (across the straight) and the clouds are down to sea level, wind is blowing and our top temperature is going to be 13 degrees celsius.  Yesterday we were riding in 12 degrees, plus wind chill factor.  So we have already got out our warm clothing.  Today we start with a 90 min ferry ride and then a 50km ride pretty much uphill.  The weather is supposed to clear at about 4pm when we get to the camp - which will be nice.

Sadly, the weather forecast is for one nice day then rain and cold again, but it does change hourly, so we will press on.  We have already made once concession to the weather and booked accommodation (instead of camping) on Monday night next week, then we will see what happens after that.

So, instead of weather, what else have we discovered?  Caterpillars (arrggghh), lime kilns, and an incredibly successful arbitration.

Caterpillars - there are these furry little caterpillars in this part of the world that turn into little grey moths (they would be more bearable if they turned into pretty butterflies). and they can be everywhere.  Unfortunately, they were everywhere at our campsite on San Juan Island.  It was a beautiful campsite - at Lakeside resort but the caterpillars were everywhere.  On the tent, on the table, dropping from the trees, trying to get into our bags.

We think we managed to escape the camp without any caterpillars in our belongings (lots got squashed, some set up a caddis on the tent between the fly and the tent) - but we won't know till tonight when we put the tent up again.  They had pretty much eaten all the foliage off the soft leaf trees above the campsite - very annoying.

First night camping not a success, little sleep - getting used to blow up beds, pillows, it was cold and started raining in middle of night (causes worries about packing up in the rain, carrying a wet heavy tent.).  Got good sleep last night in hotel, so hopefully we can have a good tenting night tonight - with no caterpillars!

The tent itself is a funny story.  When we were at home Peter got out the tent and called me over to question why the base of the tent was so dirty and why there were dead insects all through it.  I was s puzzled as he was as we meticulously cleaned the tent before leaving France, and it needs to be clean to get through customs in NZ.  We scratched our heads and worked out that neither of us had used the tent since we got home, and just couldn't work it out.  As I was looking at the tent I thought 'I can't remember the inside of the tent being yellow', but just put that down to bad memory and getting old.  Peter had difficulty remembering how to put the tent up - again, getting old!!!

It wasn

Bonking, strawberries and on the road at last!

Arrived in Anacortes (via some necessary shopping for socks and underwear at Target, Walmart, and some camping supplies at REI) to catch up with our friends Dave and Kay Smith.  It is quite funny, as we feel like long lost friends, but actually we only spent one day together on a cycle tour to Versailles in France in 2009 and then dinner that night together.  But we continued where we left off, great to see them, and such wonderful hosts.

First night BBQ with friends and family .  The weather decided to remind us that Las Vegas weather is not normal, and we had some rain, some wind, some squalls and huddled under the outdoor heater.  Then it got warm again!

On Monday, getting Bikes set up - and seeing the lovely little town of Anacortes.  Only ended up with one bike ride later in the evening - 11.5km, as needed to take the two bikes into a bike repair shop.  This seems to be the norm each trip, you think we would be used to it now - the airlines knock the bikes around a lot.

We decided on some major bike repairs  for Peters bike.  It has had a dented and cracked rim, for a while now.  We made it through France, but thought might as well get it fixed now, as don't want to get stuck in the middle of forest and logging roads with a collapsed wheel.

BBQ with squally winds and rain and great company and food.

Carey worked on the packing of the panniers and sorting out of non riding gear (at least one bag which Dave and Kay are dropping down in Seattle for us - so much easier than organising a courier to the hotel!!!

These two bags and the REI bag of camping gear get to be packed into the 8 panniers.

Luggage to go in panniers

The two bikes materialised like transformers from these bags, thanks to the clever hands of Peter.

Bikes in Bags

With Dave and Kay Smith looking out over Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands (and the two oil refineries - not descriptive of how lovely the town of Anacortes is.)

Today we did our first real ride, to Lopez Island.  All up a 43km ride, with a relaxing ferry ride in between each way.

And THIS is where the bonking comes in - NOT BEFORE!!!!  AND NOT the kind of bonking you are thinking about!

According to that erudite manual - Wikipedia, Bonking means: A condition caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles.  Another more colloquial term is 'hitting the wall'.  What happens is that you have sudden fatigue and loss of energy.  Milder instances of bonking can be remedied by rest and the ingestion of food and drinks containing carbohydrates.

Having followed professional cycling through regular updates from Peter over the years, I am aware of 'bonking' when cycling.  I experienced it myself when we did the Otago Rail Trail in 2008 and I couldn't keep my food down.  It wasn't quite as bad as what happened today.

We were riding along in the SUN!!! (beautiful weather on another day that was predicted to be wet -yay!).  Peter was ahead of me and I had been riding with Dave with Kay shortly behind us.  Dave had just been saying he was looking forward to stopping as his legs were really feeling the riding.  I went ahead up the hill and Dave stopped to wait for Kay.  Next minute I heard a crash and turned around and Dave was lying on the road over his bike.  I dropped my bike, yelled for Peter and ran back down. Both Peter and I were terrified that he had had a heart attack.  He was out of it, lying on top of his bike.

We managed to lift him off the bike, he came to, and we put him in the recovery position.  Fortunately a truck stopped with three nice ladies.  We got some fluids and sweet stuff into him and apart from a cut on the nose and burst blood vessel under his eye, he looks okay...   The nice ladies took Dave and Kay to the end point in the truck and gave him some bananas.  After quite a bit of liquids and food, he gradually regained strength.

But wow was it scary.  What happened was that he had stopped and got off his bike, looked down the road and then felt dizzy and fainted.  A lesson!  Peter has instilled in me eat and drink regularly when biking, even when I'm not hungry or thirsty.  Over the years, I have learned that it is a good idea!

Before this we had stopped and picked our own strawberries.  It was a warm day and we ate all of them during the day.  They were warm, big, sweet - so yummy!

End of the trip photo about to get back on the ferry to Anacortes

Tomorrow Peter and I head off on our own to San Juan Island.  An hours ferry ride away.  About the same distance to explore the island and the first night in a camping ground.  The weather is suggesting showers, but it would be nice if the weather forgets what it is supposed to do again...

The making of a show

Now waiting at the airport (free wifi - so impressive) in Las Vegas, to head up to Bellingham Washington (where the forecast is cold and rain for the next week - not so impressive!).

The gambling desire wore off yesterday  - I think we spent a whole $1.50 - and that was only because we stopped off at Fremont Street Experience on the way to the Smith Centre.  It is billed as a 'tourist experience.'  We went during the day, apparently at night it has free concerts, but frankly it was just pretty boring.  There was a flying fox going through the middle of the 'barrel vault' (which was a big canopy across the street and the seedy casinos.)  We went to a 'classic pokie machine' exhibit, which sounded interesting, but it was just more machines to take your money.  Afte $1.50, we gave up and got back on the bus to the Smith Centre.  It did have cheap drinks and food - $2 Coronas and Heinekins, but we weren't particularly interested at 12.30 in the afternoon.

Freemont Street with the Barrel Vault

We were heading to 'American Idiot' at The Smith Centre.  This is where Broadway shows are shown in Las Vegas.  'American Idiot'  was directed by the Tony Award winner Michael Mayer, taking the songs on the award winning Green Day album, American Idiot and making it into a 21st Century Musical.  It played on Broadway for a year, nominated for 3 Tony's including best musical and won 2.  It has been touring since December 2011.

The night before, we had seen Love (the Beatles musical by Cirque du Soleil), which was just as good as we remembered it the first time in 2007.  Superb music, telling the story of the culture and times during the lives of the Beatles, through their music, fantastic acrobatics, trampolining, roller skating in a purpose made theater. It highlighted how dark the Beatles music got in the later days, but fortunately lifted you up at the end so that you could go out and face the world.

Then last night, we went to the brand new (only been running for 3 weeks) show called 'One' based on Michael Jacksons' music.  Before we went, I discovered that the shows generally run in 'preview' format for 2 - 3 weeks so that changes can be made based on audience reaction.  We however, paid a full  $300 for our tickets, which were in the second row and terrible seats.

Seeing the three performances in the order that we did (which was accidental), showed the difference between a musical and a cirque du soleil show, but also the difference in polish between a new show and one that has been running for years.

The Smith Center - Reynolds Hall

Love was smooth, professional and with 2 - 3 performances a day, not totally full.  American Idiot was a brilliant production with the director tying together the songs from the album and about 6 other Green Day songs to tell the dark and sad stories of three teenage/young men from a small town in America.  They are heading off to 'The City'.   As they are about to leave, Will discovers he is about to become a father and stays.  He is stuck in suburbia, drinking himself to a stupor, sitting on the couch, resenting everything.  The childs mother leaves him, takes the child and has another relationship which works out.

Johnny and Tunny go to the City where Tunny is depressed and eventually joins the military.  He goes off to war, loses a leg and meets a nurse.  Johnny meets St Jimmy and spirals into a life of drugs and sex with whatsername.  He falls in love with whatsername, but can't tell her.

In the end all three come home to the small town, having achieved little.  The set, costumes, music, live band, singing and total performances were fantastics. It is big music and some of the voices struggled at that start of some of the songs, but then caught up.  For a fan of Green Day music, it was the highlight of my stay in Vegas.

American Idiot stage after the performance - no photos during the performance  - the stage was the entire set, fascinating use of the set.

'One' on the other hand, was a huge disappointment to me.  It definitely still had it's training wheels on.   From the start, where the queues were moving so slowly (we just wanted a bottle of water), to having to find the seats by myself, to the terrible seats.   The second row meant that we missed quite a bit of the action that was happening overhead and on the side walls.  There were several bits that were superfluous and distracting (like the gold woman supposedly playing a guitar - but we were close enough to see she wasn't).  It was really just an expose of the music, and showed how brilliant Michael Jackson was as a performer.

While there were talented dancers, there was no one of his calibre.  Lots of technical mistakes, timing mistakes in the dancing, and the whole thing was quite disjointed.

Highlights for me were 'Thriller' and the zombies, and the biggest highlight was the hologram of MJ for a whole song - 'The Man in the Mirror'.  It got a standing ovation, but I think that is because many of the people there were just MJ fans through and through.

Set before One started

The guy in the beanie was the lead character, I'm still not sure what the point of him was...

Being so close to the front it was interesting to see the costumes up close.  The majority were full body suits - but made to look like flesh in between the skimpy clothing - obviously easier to get in and out of.

It has promise, but very disappointing for $300US worth of tickets.

The three shows highlighted how much work goes in to getting the performance just right.  I think a bit more 'previewing' should be done on One though...

Onto the next stage of our trip - catching up with Dave and Kay in Bellingham/Anacortes in Washington State.

Food, Plonkers and Bright Lights

Back to the amazing food.  I have now had Spanish Tapas 5 times, 3 were uninspiring and frankly not enjoyable. One, in Britomart in Auckland, pretty good and enjoyable.  But this meal was outstanding.

Starting with the house speciality margarita.  Infused with Chile - that one's for me!  Peter reckons my face went bright red, but we both enjoyed one each.  I followed it with a spicy and very toxic but nice Sangria, Peter with a Moscow something.

Peter studing menu at Spanish Tapas restaurant

We saw all these people being served food in a shoe, which led Peter to share with me the recipe for cooking a Pukeko.  Cook the pukeko and an old boot in a pot together, throw away the pukeko and eat the boot...  Well, we got our shoe, with these amazing chicken fritters. 

 Also had lobster salad, beet salad, divine blue cheese and pears, capsicum, eggplant, onion and garlic fire grilled, steak.  All terrific and beautifully presented.

Then followed by the desserts.  At $12 a dessert. we assumed they would be small, like the tapas plates, so ordered three.  They were all normal size, but no matter, we comfortably demolished them.

During dinner a round pale-ish guy aged in his his 40's sat next to us with a guy a business suit.  The waitress came and gave him a complimentary ticket to a indie music performance and was fawning all over him.  He talked to us later (asking about desserts). What a plonker!  He is a 'high-roller' and the guy in the suit was his 'casino host'.  The plonker was wearing a $50,000+ rolex, two enormous diamond rings, two heavy gold bracelets.  He was asking us about New Zealand and we told him we were heading up to Washington to go cycling.  At which stage he pulled out his phone and showed Peter his new custom-made bicycle he had ordered, and made a point of noting that it cost $17,000.  He will probably never ride it.

Peter had earlier heard him discussing his credit line with his casino line of $100,000 on top of his $30,000 he already had.  We were polite, and asked him where he was from. His answer: 'People like me usually come from Beverly Hills.'  So silly me said, is that you where you are from.  And he said 'of course, my father made his private jet available to me to fly out here. I was coming for a couple of days, but think I will stay for the week.'

Glad we are just ordinary kiwi's!

Tonight is Love - Cirque du Soleil. It is amazing how many shows there are to see here.  Lots of advertising and hawking of tickets going on.  Glad we bought ours before coming and don't have to work out what to see and get tickets.

The Las Vegas version of Maccas - glittery - aim as usual to have a holiday without resorting to McDonalds, can't see how it can be on the menu in Las Vegas with so many thousands of other offerings.

BIG, Food and great shopping

We've made it to Las Vegas, and are revelling in the sunny warm days.  Today much hotter than yesterday -thank goodness we did the trip to the outdoors outlet mall yesterday!

First show tonight.  Forgot how far things are to walk in Las Vegas, fortunately our hotel is pretty much in the middle of the strip.  Tomorrow nights show is right at the south end of the Strip, so we will bus there.  Found out that the Smith Centre (which is where the Broadway shows come to town and where we are seeing the matinee of American Idiot tomorrow) is way out by the outlet mall about an hours bus ride.

BIG - is one word to describe Las Vegas.  Starting with the new Terminal layout at the airport, opened on June 25th last year.  You arrive on your plan then take a train to pick up your luggage.  Then you walk for what feels like miles in any direction.  Not a problem if you have bags with wheels and handles, but sadly our bikes are shoulder strap or handle carried, same with our 'bags - that fold up small for shipping to final destination. So, a luggage trolley was required (2 really needed, but at a humungous $5US a pop - with only a 25c refund on return, the skill of dragging a bag worked well!).  But going to need two trolleys on Sunday, we now have an extra bag of shopping.

The airport addition is 1.9 million square feet.  So much for the recession.  Someone is obviously planning on increases in passenger numbers and visitors!

BIG is the same when you get to the Strip.  It is easy to forget how big the gambling floors are, how big the edifices are.  One big change since we were here 6 years ago are four new casinos next to the Bellagio where we are staying.  Tackiness personified.  Well actually LV itself is tackiness personified.

Paris and the Eiffel Tower from the walkway from Bellagio to the Strip

One of the main things we are noticing is the cult of the celebrity chef.  There are michelin starred restaurants everwhere (Joel Robuchon has two in the MGM Grand, one has 1 michelin star - degustation menu is $145 a head plus wine, and next door is the 3 michelin star restaurant - $435 a head for a degustation menu - plus wine.)  There are celebrity chef restaurants everywhere.  We can now see why Masterchef shows and becoming a 'chef' is such a tantalising career option.

But on the other hand, there is the truly terrible american food that Greg reminded us about last week.  In a 24 hour period we went from a slice of pepperoni pizza (with only four bits of pepperoni, and quite a bit went in the bin as it was inedible) to a divine melt in the mouth spanish meal, back to a horrid turkey, tomato and lettuce sandwich on stale bread.  Time to be more circumspect with the meal planning!!!

The Bellagio has a conservatory and aviary.  The Bird is covered in seeds and feathers.  The snail in fresh cut flowers.

Shopping went well at the outlet mall, have done enough of it over the years, we know which stores will be worth going into for us and which not.  But, this mall was different, there were a lot of things at retail price, it is obviously such a huge target for tourists to LV.  Peter noted that there were very few americans at that mall.  Lots of Eastern Europeans, asians, french, and a handful of aussies and probably a few kiwis that we didnt' bump into.  Still, managed to come away with the 10 pairs of shoes required!!!

The gambling not going too well.  Started off with a hiss and a roar, with Peter being up about $12 (we are so daring, we put in $1 and then late last night put in a whole $5!).  But today the machines ate all our winnings.  So today obviously not a good luck day.  It is fascinating watching people putting in $200 and it vanishing in a matter of minutes.  The cool machines are too costly for us - 40 cents a bet - maybe if we get daring late tonight...

Bellagio Hotel 

The chocolate fountain in the Bellagio - at 27 feet high, the tallest in the world.  Three different types of chocolate.  2 years of planning and design to build and supported by miles of stainless steel pipes.

By popular request - trip schedule and even a map!!!

Well, the assignment is done.

Whew!  Who knew that Hart, Dworkin, Wendell Holmes, Llewellyn and Frank could actually be interesting.  Thanks to the lecturer who set a juicy topic about circumcision of children in Germany.  Now, there should be no more sleepless nights, it is submitted and I can't change it now, so just have to forget about it!

Three more days work (including tax returns - oh well, when they are done, they are done!).  Last minute finalisation of arrangements last night, we now have accommodation booked for end of trip as well as the start of the trip.

By popular demand, I have added information on the itinerary and ... ta da... managed to create a map.  Depending on wifi access on the trip, I hope to be able to update the map.

Leave Turangi on evening of Wednesday June 12th.  Arrive Las Vegas evening of Wednesday 12th June.  Three days in Las Vegas - highlights are three shows - 'Love' the Beatles Cirque de Soleil show, the new Cirque de Soleil Michael Jackson Music show, and 'American Idiot' - the Broadway musical based on Green Day's music that is in town for a week.

Then up to Anacortes to stay with our friends Dave and Kay Smith for a few days, and then a cycle trip to an Island with them to test things out.  Then we are on our own, cycling to Friday Island, then to Vancouver Island (Canada), down to Washington State by ferry.  Then the wilderness starts, with cycling on the Olympic Discovery Trail in the National Park, ending 2 days later in Forks, which is the vampire country.  This is where the Twilight Series is set.

Further wilderness in the Olympic National Park, around the bottom of the park and after 11 days on the bikes, ending up in Seattle. Three days to break down bikes, finish shopping and then back to reality.

Map of trip  here is the link if this map doesn't show on your blog


View Carey and Peter 2013 US Trip in a larger map

Getting closer - trying out the new technology...

For those of you who say that I am a... retentive... thanks... 

This is why we prepare for a cycling trip in advance:

1. Technology

I have upgraded the old little HP Netbook and now have an ipad to travel with.  

Although I have a snazzy keyboard to help me type and do my work as needed, while away, learninghow to use the new technology is not easy.  For example, typing this blog on the Blogger app is a challenge.  It runs out of space at the end of a line and doesn't tell you why, you have to put in yourown line breaks.  Oh dear - 5th form typing skills coming back into use.  So much we take for granted!

I feel clever working out how to Bold as well! (And it really helps if I use the ipad keyboard and not my computer keyboard - duh!).

Next challenge is learning how to upload a photo.  Hmmm, the photo I took 3 hours ago hasn't moved from  my phone to the icloud to the ipad yet...  Appears I need to back them up manually for that system to work. 

Next, the bane of my life when we are travelling - the darn Garmin GPS.  I think it is probably worthbuying shares in that company.  The technology is quite antiquated and I went to download a newUS mapping system (supposed to be guaranteed free upgrades from purchase) - but no, not if you are in NZ!!!  To get the maps that I purchased in 2009 for the US updated, it cost me NZ$139.  Arrggh.Then, it has taken hours to download them onto the unit.

It is such a frustrating piece of equipment that we only use it sparingly - as it chews through the batteries.  At least I wised up a few years ago and we now travel with rechargeable batteries and a charger.   I have looked at GPS for iphones, and because of the cost of overseas data from NZ, I think I will stick with the clumsy Garmin...

Next technology task is to look into the 2degrees prepay international packs. They didn't have anyfor France and Switzerland last year, so travelling to the US we can hopefully use them.  It is frustrating riding along and wanting to know the background on something, and not being able to google it!  Well - nup - they don't exist any more.  Obviously can make far more money charging me 50c a MB. 

Arggghhh.

Any more technology?  I've tried to set up blogger with email addresses, don't know if that will work. Looked at linking the blog with my Facebook page. Honestly - far too hard!!  Google and Facebook really don't like each other and seem to want to do everything possible to make it difficult for you to 

synchronise!

Postscript (I have copied and pasted this into a new blog post as I think I have finally worked out how to add this to Google groups....  By trying to link it to Facebook yesterday using the recommended app, it locked me out of Facebook, so won't be trying that again!!)

2. Photo's

Now, lets see if my icloud has synched yet.....Hmmm no, I can see this being frustrating!  Will keep trying.

3. Camping Gear

Fortunately, most of that has been stored away separately all year.  Peter only has to source the tent and groundsheet, then that is all done!

4.  Clothes

Darn it all - I think I need to go cycle touring all the time, I end up nice and trim and then revert to my normal size.  Some garments a little... tight...  Oh well, hopefully lots of walking then riding will solve the problem. Next challenge is finding all Peters clothes that we need to take - think I've nearly got that project sussed.

5. Bikes

This is Peters zone.  This time, thankfully, he only had to get one of his wheels fixed and 'surprisesurprise' nothing on my bike!!  So, only has to ensure that his bike is re-packed properly.  If he has topack the whole bike from scratch, it is around 3 - 4 hours for each bike.

Well, apart from finding photos on my icloud..  it seems everything else is working properly.  This timewith the ipads and iphones, we are hoping to take only about 500gm and not 5kg (well that is what it felt like!) of chargers with us.  Yay

Next project is praying for decent weather.  I'm watching it regularly, seems to be warming up on thePacific coast (we will be riding right on the coast) hopefully be in high teens to low 20 degrees for mostof the riding.

Yee - hah - the photo worked!!!!  This was take in the middle of the packing of gear.  Remember, it has to fit in 4 panniers and not weight too much.  Think we have got a good set up. New addition this year is  the small green round thing on the bottom right.  The kitchen sink. 

Yes, literally, a kitchen sink.

Hopefully it will come in useful in the campgrounds, but if not it is so small and light that it won't be a hassle carrying it! 

What left to do?

Finish all the work and study.  Transfer $ onto the Air NZ Smart Card.  Only 10 more days (and one Jurisprudence essay worth 50% of total mark) to go.