1300 miles and we have not had enough.

Hi everyone!

Before anything else, I'd like everyone to know that we are heading out once more this summer! I initially planned on going alone but I swallowed my lingering teenage isolation angst and invited my two buddies. We had such great times that I wanted to experience this adventure with them once more.

Heidi signed up real quick. Her and I expressed a depression period when we got back. We were anxious in getting back to your nomadic lifestyle and the confines of society were inching up on us. I think we both knew in the back of our minds that if one of us were to go on another trip, the other was going to tag along no matter what.

But George. Someone slap that kid on the back of the head and get him on his bike. Looking for work and uncertainty has put him on the bench. Everyone hassle that guy into going, it won't be the same without him.

Oh, destination. Destination, Mexico. It's dangerous but... I'll regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't head all the way down there.

Think of it as my farewell to the West Coast. Oh a small thing happened during this hiatus, a teensy thing. I GOT INTO MEDICAL SCHOOL! I'll be going to West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. Hopefully I'll be able to help this primary care shortage in the US.

I'll keep everyone updated as the day draws near. We'll be heading out on June 22nd!

Where to now?

This must've been the worst day. No one got hurt but it was very close.

The day started really nice. The sun was out and beaming down. Then things went downhill from there. We had to take Highway 19, yeah bikes on the highway, all the way down to McDonald Provincial park. It was about a 65 mile ride.

Well here's the bad part. We hit a hugh stretch that was all downhill. At that moment I was just thinking, "Hey, my bike is pretty awesome. It's old and reliable." I hit about 35 MPH on the downhill and the highway started to turn to the right. There was a little sidewalk, barely able to fit our bikes, that I did not see. I went past it. But right before it, was this huge pothole. I was going to fast to slow down, I was too close to traffic to swerve out of the way, so I just hit that damn thing so hard my waterbottle flew out into the highway. Then I hear George hit that same one, his pump flew off his frame. I stopped a few feet after to see if the other two were okay. We recovered my waterbottle, it was on the shoulder, but as George was reaching for his pump a truck ran over it right in front of his eyes.

Hitting that pothole was scary. REALLY scary because if I didn't have that weight in the back of my bike, I'd have flipped over on the highway. The cars were already close, about a foot away from us sso I wouldn't have just broke my bike, I'd have broken my face. I'm still a bit shaken up by it so I'm just going to go slow on the downhills now :)

I thought everything was okay. I went ahead a bit. Everytime I made one revolution, my whole bike bounced. I saw that my front wheel had a big flat spot. It was unbearable to ride, but we still had a few miles to get to the next town. We found a bike shop thanks to a local cyclists and they said they couldn't fix it. I HAD to buy another one. And even worse, this shop didn't carry the wheel size my bike had because it was so old. I had to ride another three miles down the road on a broken bike to get another wheel which costs $170. The fellas at the shop were really nice but still, money money money. Then we went to Wendy's too celebrate.

We left and the next bad thing happenend. George found out that his wheel was starting to bound a bit too, but then I felt that even my back wheel was bouncing. That means I have to get a new back wheel too, which is even more expensive. The pothole that costs me $400.

The day got even worse. We decided to head to Chemainus to see the murals. Very hilly country but had some amazing views. I don't have any pictures because we were trying to get into camp before sunset. We didn't make it anyway because we had some faulty directions and signs that led us nowhere. We rode until 9:00PM, in freezing cold, to find the next campsite.

For the first time we had a fire going. We did not know why we didn't do this the earlier nights.