Non Sign II advertising nothing at Peace Arch Park

Rather than being bombarded with commercial messages, this sculpture, commissioned by the US government, basically encases fresh air. Was installed in 2011.

From Wikipedia: A large public art installation entitled "Non-Sign II" was erected near the crossing booths. The art piece is a 'blank space' in the shape of a billboard sign, surrounded by a mass of twisted metal rods. Click on photo to enlarge.

Viewed on my way back from Vancouver in the Nexus Lane. I have a Nexus card even though I'm bicycling and I don't even go up to Canada that often. It's a long story, but I can tell it here.

They now require enhanced Washington State (drivers or non drivers) ID, Nexus or passport to cross the border. I don't have a passport and the year that the enhanced ID requirement went into effect the Washington State Department of Motor Vehicles was a madhouse. In Bellingham, it was by appointment only and booked clear till after that summer. Summer of 2009, so I decided to get a Nexus instead. It costs a bit more, but lasts 5 years. Nexus is pre screened and usually just a hello at the border. Fewer questions.

Now the enhanced ID is easier to get as the crowds have subsided after the switch over, but I've already got my Nexus.

Whatcom Transit Authority bus took me to Blaine on this latest trip Sept 16 2011. Then I biked to the Skytrain station at King George Highway. Skytrain took me and my bike on into Vancouver where I went dancing, that evening and stayed in a hotel. Next day I rode around downtown on peripheral bike paths at Coal Harbor and False Creek. Then took Skytrain back out to King George Highway. From there I biked back to Bellingham, WTA service in Whatcom County is very limited on Saturday.

Short video of Sahalie Falls

On the McKenzie River northeast of Eugene, Oregon. Taken on my 2011 bicycle tour.

Photo of falls.

20th anniversary of my first bike trip across America

Bandshell in Huron, SD. 1991.

20 years after my first cross USA bike trip, I biked in western Washington and Oregon.

Felt just as good as I did in 1991. No aces and pains to think of. Did I cover as many miles each day as 20 years ago?

Hard to say as I couldn't figure out how to set the trip miles on my new odometer. I wasn't even sure if it was reading kilometers or miles either. Sometimes it would just flash zeros at me indicating it wasn't picking up the passing magnate on the wheel. I didn't try to figure it out. Probably the daily total of miles was less, but "what you don't know can't hurt you." The trip was still enjoyable. In 1991, I also had an electronic odometer and carefully kept track of daily trip miles. Seemed like back then, the odometer functions were more intuitive.

In 1991 my total trip miles was much farther than in 2011, but that's because I invested over 2 months of travel time into the 1991 trip. In 2011 the trip was only about 3 weeks.

The odometer hasn't changed much in the years, but some other things I carry have. No longer riding with me is that antenna booster for AM Radio called the Select-A-Tenna. It wasn't that heavy, but many of the talk stations I listened to in the past on AM radio have gone "all sports talk." Boring. For instance KIRO AM 710 out of Seattle is now sports. It's political talk is now on FM which the Select-A-Tenna doesn't help. I've never had much desire to "keep score." Keeping track of daily milage is one thing, but most important is just having a good time.

Instead of that antenna, I have a netbook computer. I stopped at a lot of WIFI places along the way. That's why my daily milage may be in decline; Facebook.

Since the mid 1980s, I have gone on some sort of bike tour every summer. It's been a fairly mellow and enjoyable legacy. Keeps me in reasonable shape, at least along with other things like dancing that I enjoy.

My 2011 bicycle trip photos now on line

A quieter route under freeways in Tacoma.

Bellingham, WA. to Eugene, Oregon. Then east to McKenzie Valley and up to Portland, OR. Train back from Portland.

While US economy looked like it was crumbling, should I be going on vacation, or hunkering down and hoarding food?

Vacation wins. There's still plenty of food. Glad I do have a job. Not a real fancy job being a custodian, but it's a job. Offers month long vacation benefit. That can be worth more than higher pay.

Enjoy leisure while you can. Who knows what retirement will bring. Much of the current economic worry has to do with all the debt overhang. A lot of that debt is actually money people have "saved" (lent to the government) in hopes that the investments will still be whole, when time comes to cash in. A lot of folks are starting to cash in as post war baby boom reaches retirement. Hard to say if the economy will still be solvent enough, with governments and other entities paying back debts, to meet people's retirement expectations.

Might as well enjoy life now rather than storing too many of one's expectations for the future. Savings is a good idea, but balance is needed. Who wants to work too hard, now, just in hopes of being able to afford a great retirement. Much of that retirement can disappear given the condition of our economy. Also the condition of one's health. Don't work yourself to death.

No need to hoard food, yet, but good idea to hoard your health. Who knows what Medicare will be like in the next decades.

There's WIFI on a moving train

I am on the Amtrak Cascades headed north at the end of my 2011 bicycle tour. Biked to Eugene and McKenzie Valley area of Oregon from Bellingham. Then biked back as far as Portland where I spent a day and got ready to take the train back to Bellingham. Now using WIFI on train, but soon to sign off and look out the window.

Along Spring Water Trail

Coming into Portland, Oregon along Spring Water Trail toward end of bicycle trip.

Enjoyed visiting Terwilliger Hot Springs east of Eugene in the McKenzie Valley. Then headed through west side of Cascades and a place called Detroit, Oregon. After that it was many more forested miles to the Portland area.

By Friday, I should be headed back to Bellingham on the train.

Streetlights in Springfield, Oregon

Only I would ride over to Springfield at dusk to see what the streetlights look like when they are on. The bulbs look different than most streetlights, but I've only been through by day. This time I rode over there when it was getting dark to see what they look like at night. There's bike paths all the way over there, so why not.

Better picture of low pressure sodium light in Springfield from my 2012 trip.

Now I am visiting Eugene. Springfield is Eugene's neighbor to the east. Sort of like a "twin cities" with Eugene being "university and yuppie" while Springfield has a more of a lumber town character. Both are great biking cities.

When I pulled into the campground at Fern Ridge Reservoir, just west of Eugene, I ask the rangers at the check in office if there were any stores nearby. I wasn't that hungry, having eaten earlier on my ride down from Corvallis, but a bit more to snack on would be nice.

The store was another 3 miles away (and 3 miles back, makes a difference on a bike) so the ranger grabbed some cokes out of the fridge and raided the cupboards for all the cookies and crackers she could find. I offered to pay for the snacks, but she said, "don't worry, we love our bikes." I did pay the campground fee for my stay that night, but it was lower for bikes than for automotive camping.

Next morning a bus full of high school kids pulled up to the day use area where I was eating some of my snack food before riding off into Eugene. They were swarming around my table getting ready to go sailing. As I started to leave, the counselor ask me to give an impromptu talk about my travels. I talked a bit about my trip and they offered some advise on interesting places to visit in Eugene. They didn't mention streetlights in Springfield, but did suggest a place called Voodoo Doughnuts. It's near the city library. I checked it out and had a maple bar. Bumper stickers say "I got VD in Eugene" for Voodoo Doughnuts. Biking tends to burn off the sugar so I can partake of a few things like doughnuts.

Passing through Vernonia, Oregon

Trees and graffiti growing inside an abandoned concrete building near Vernonia, Oregon. I camped at a town park just outside of Vernonia. This building stored sawdust fuel for a big mill that is no longer there. There is a small lake that was the mill pond. Campground is across lake from this building.

Looks almost like a cathedral inside old Vernonia fuel house. More images from there.

At the campground, some other campers caught crawdads in the Nehalem River for cooking. They look kind of creepy with their claws, but taste like lobster. I tried some and they were good. First time I have eaten crawdads.

Ferry from Cathlamet, WA to the Oregon side of Columbia River is quite small. Maybe only 8 cars and my bike. Even makes Lummi Island ferry look big, if that's believable.

Weather has been great. Overcast and delightfully cool in mornings, but no rain. Sunny and partly cloudy in afternoons.

In Forest Grove, I'm visiting a friend named Kody who used to live in Bellingham. He volunteered at the Radio Museum in Bellingham and is now attending an art college in Portland.


Old railway wigwag signal can be activated by pushing a button at Banks Trail Head of Vernonia Banks Trail.

Looks kind of funny to see the draw bridge go up

We don't have bridges like Seattle's University Ave. in Bellingham. Opportunity for me and a cyclist waiting near me to visit.

I've been riding bike trails through Seattle area at a leasurely pace. Interurban, Green River and so forth.

At a drive-in just north of Seattle, someone called my name. He remembers dancing with me in Bellingham. Also remembers my web site.

This slow pace seems to make the world more friendly.

By the way, did you know you were on the radio?

Passing water tower by cannery in Mount Vernon.

My first night out was in Mount Vernon where I dropped by the Friday meeting of Cascade Rainbow LGBTA Community Center. One of the folks I visited with is a local peace activist named Jerry Sumerseth. This fall, he was in the hospital for a while after suffering a fall at his home. While he was recovering, they did a tribute to him on KSVR Radio in mount Vernon. I happened to find tat interview in a Google search so I listened to the podcast last may.

Seeing Jerry reminded me of that radio show so I mentioned that I had heard the show. He looked a bit puzzled. Turned out he didn't know the show had been done. We turned on a laptop and went to the archive. Sure enough, there was the tribute to Jerry. He sat and listened to the show and was quite pleased to find out about it. Show was part of KSVR's Stand Up Speak Out public affairs show.

It's like, "by the way, did you know you were featured on the radio?" Made for a fun evening before I headed back to my motel.

Day two. After a glorious ride down Snohomish Centenial Trail, I'm staying in a hotel in South Everett. Not much camping in these urban areas, but the bike paths are nice. A new section of Centennial Trail starts north of Arlington. It starts at Bryant in Snohomish County, but plans are to build it on north to Skagit County line. Should be open in October 2011. South end of trail is in Snohomish.

New section of trail crossing Stilliguamish River north of Arlington.

Pit stop at my home

Was in Bellingham for a few days between my trip to Vancouver and my trip south.

Worldwide economic news sounds so bad, some folks would be tempted to barricade themselves in their homes with a hoard of food and ammunition, but the world around me looks fine. Supermarkets are still as abundant as ever. Bank machines, laundromats, hotels, campgrounds, it's all still working.

As always, I think it's a good time to hoard your health, rather than food and ammo. Healthcare costs are among the biggest burdens in our economy. Who knows how available healthcare services might be in the future. Hopefully, they will figure out a way to keep things somewhat available.

Also now is a good time to go ahead and live one's life. A lot of promises have been made for retirements. With all the debt in the world, who knows what future retirement earnings will bring. Retirement savings are based on economies in the future paying back debt obligations. Planning for the future isn't bad, but living for the here and now makes sense as well. Keeping a balance. Some people sacrifice their lives for a fancy job hoping to have a great retirement. Well, some of my retirement is here and now as my work isn't super high paying, but vacations are sure nice. I do have some retirement assuming the world keeps upright.

Escape to Vancouver Gay Pride. That economy is huming

While the US was mired in it's debt ceiling fight, I escaped 23 miles north to Canada. No, I wasn't trying to escape USA. It was the gay pride parade in Vancouver and I have vacation time.

My pictures of parade.

Ironically, as USA teeters on bankruptcy, it might be better to head for USA than Canada since the Canadian dollar is now more valuable (last I checked) than US currency. Unless our society breaks down so we actually start shooting at each other, USA offers travel bargains, but I survived Canada's strong dollar for just 2 days. The difference isn't that much.

Main problem is, or let's call it a virtue, gay pride is big business in Vancouver. Try finding a motel room that isn't booked, or priced off the planet. An estimated 750,000 people showed up for pride, if I heard that correctly. CBC Radio was estimating impact on traffic with road closures and so forth. Were they also counting folks who live in the effected neighborhoods?

I stayed way out in Surrey in an affordable motel. That wasn't bad, just take the elevated Skytrain and feel like you're able to fly right downtown in minutes. Getting to Surrey was a bike ride for me. Only about 35 sunny miles from Bellingham.

Some folks invited us Bellinghamsters to join Vancouver Polyamory contingent in the parade. I got lots of pictures. The Vancouver Sun even mentioned our contingent. They said people were looking for their dictionaries when we passed by. What is polyamory?

Out of all the mass of folks, the god of coincidence was shining on me. A friend of mine happened to be waiting at the same Skytrain stop as I. What are the chances of us running into each other with 750,000 in the milling crowds?

As the Skytrain whisked us back out of the city, we had a good talk. My friend says the recession seems less evident in the "Lower Mainland" than most of USA, or even a lot of Canada for that matter.

Lower Mainland is basically the Vancouver metro area. Economy is humming, tho I'm sure it has some problems.

What's happening?

Innovation. It's like a blue state economy. Of course, it's all because of gay pride. Don't you know, I've heard several economists say that gay people are good for the economy.

Well also BC benefits from abundant natural resources. In an overpopulated world hungry for stuff like energy, it helps to have lots resources in the ground (for some reason, Canadians seem to pronounce it REZORCES). Natural gas, oil, hydro power, (or sometimes they just say HYDRO instead of calling it power). They also seem to enjoy good planning with less blatant conflict between government and private enterprise.

We can learn a lot from examples north of the border.