Here I Go Again

I departed San Juan Island yesterday morning and arrived in Mount Vernon around 930AM. A quick business stop to get new shoes, new sandals, a brake job on the van and a new haircut kept me in Mount Vernon until about 4PM, I also had the pleasure of helping a guy push his broke down car off of the road along with a local sheriffs deputy, too bad I can't spend a lifetime helping people with the small things and still be able to support myself...or can I? I rolled into Seattle around 5PM right during rush hour and noticed the rage towards the city people and stress was gone. SJI what did you do with the Zac I used to know? ;)

First thing I saw off the ferry was a huge Arizona flag, followed by a guy shouting something about rising like the Phoenix and then later followed by a huge piece of graffiti on a train overpass that had a bold red colored "AZ" imprint while I was telling Roz on the phone about the Arizona "coincidences".

I also stopped for Chinese food yesterday and though it was Panda Express(believe me, much better than China Pearl!)my fortune cookie was interesting... "A good position and comfortable salary will be yours." right on!

I have passed numerous "Free Coffee" signs at the rest stops so far, these Seattlites and PNW folks love their coffee.

After rolling out of Seattle I headed towards Mt Rainier which has always been my favorite place in Washington state. About 5 miles outside of the park something didn't feel right so I turned around and started heading toward the Rainbow Gathering which is where all of the excitement started.

My GPS took me down about 50 miles of gravel one lane roads and over old bridges and past some "top secret" looking government facility. I was really living up to my whole persona of being "On The Backroads" last night. After returning back to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest paved highways I ran into not one but TWO "Road Closed" signs with the gates shut, I figured the police were fucking with the rainbow folks or maybe it was snowy? I found out this morning from a campground host that it was snow...mmhmm yeah right.

Today has been full of excitement from having the van about 2 inches airborn and landing hard causing my bicycle to slam into the passengers side taillight and shatter it into pieces to sitting in a library in a small town outside of Mount St Helens that I haven't been to in 3 years. I'm taking all of these Road Closed signs and the broken taillight(that the forest cops ticket people for at RG's)as signs that maybe I need to avoid the Rainbow Gathering. I'm still heading south either way so I will see how it feels in the mean time.

I know this post has been a bit all over but I'm itchin' to get back on the road. Time to call a junk yard for a new taillight and get back on the highway!

...until next time...

Written: Longview, Washington 2011