Before we get to the warring taxicabs, we begin our heros' journey in DC on April 30th. After receiving smirks from a driver in a rugged Jeep Wrangler, and utterly failing to pack all of our gear we confirmed that the Jeep Compass was too small for both our bikes and our egos. A quick car rental return later and we were on our way out of DC in a minivan.
At 8pm, a freak accident occurs and our rear windshield shatters while we're driving 70 mph on the highway. We and the employees at the rental location suspect someone threw something at our window, but no worries - another detour to the car rental company and we're back on the road by 10pm.
We arrive in Duxbury, MA in the early morning and sleep in after our driving adventures. For the next two days, Colin's parents fed us and helped us with our last minute packing. Folks keep saying that we should add on a few extra pounds before we start riding and I am much too happy to oblige.
We flew into Seattle on May 2nd and needed to figure out how to get our 2 bike boxes and 4 panniers to my friend Constance's house. We decided on a cargo-van taxi. Three-quarters of the way through bustling highway I-5, our friendly cab driver suddenly pulls over to the shoulder. He gets out of the van and slaps the side. "I ran out of gas." Certainly not something you want to hear when you're in the middle of a zooming highway. He eventually has a friend come pick us up as a favor, but not before asking for partial payment for his leg of the trip. As we pull away, our new driver asks that we pay him the full fare amount from the airport to the city. When we told him that we had already paid his friend, he slaps his steering wheel and shouts a litany of cusswords in Arabic. A few phonecalls later, and it is clear that they are no longer friends and favors are off the table.
Lesson learned: Never take the van.
We arrive at Constance's place and Colin begins building our bikes. We have dinner at the delicious din tai feng and after a very involved game of Settlers of Catan, we called it a night.
Today, Colin and I brought our bikes to REI for a once-over before heading out. We also got good tips for how to reach Anacortes, WA as well as a correction to thr local pronunciation (a-na-kor-tiss rather than a-na kor-tez apparently). We spent the day at the EMP museum, Pike Street Market and the Pike Brewery. We just finished packing and look forward to starting the bike portion of our trip tomorrow. Destination: Deception Pass!
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