Road trip finishing in sleepless Seattle

2 to 14 September 2015

Vegas seems so long ago already. Plenty of action since.

Starting from the day I left Vegas, Wednesday, 2 September. I changed the Yaris for a Chevrolet, which was much a much bigger and more comfortable car. This meant I could take two hitchhikers on my 400miles drive to Salt Lake City: Danny and Jordan, two young brothers from Montreal, Canada. This turned out to be an excellent decision, not only for the company, but also because they changed the tyre after another flat on the freeway in the middle of nowhere. I had to buy a new tyre the next day. Two days later the low tyre pressure warning light came on again. Another screw – what flat luck (haha sorry!).

Back in Salt Lake City, Candice and Paul surprised me once again with their immense hospitality. They not only took care of me, but also offered Danny and Jordan to stay and continue with us North to Rexburg, Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. In the end, we were seven guests at Paul parent’s, Glenda and Birch, house in Rexburg, Idaho. Candice’s colleague from India, Ash, and Paul’s friend, Jed, had also joined. Glenda and Birch were incredibly nice and welcoming. They provided us with delicious breakfast of perfect pancakes, fresh fruit salad, crispy bacon, tasty omelette, homemade huckleberry jam and apple butter. I would happily spend more time there and relax in their beautiful garden (look at the sunflowers!), but hope that I will see them next in Freiburg, as Birch’s ancestry is from across the border, the Alsace region.

With Glenda and Birch’s home as a base, we discovered some of the great surrounding areas. On Friday, we went on a drive through Yellowstone National Park. First we saw a bison and turned the car to take closer pictures. Later we saw so many and close up that we decided not to stop for bisons anymore. Only stopping for bear or wolves! And we did see a black bear. But the most remarkable feature in Yellowstone are the geysers, I loved the strong colours and formations. At some point, there was a rainbow in the sky to match the rainbow colours of the Grand Prismatic Spring, fantastic.

The real bear action was on Sunday in the Grand Teton National Park. The bear walked right in front of us across the road, played in the bushes and swam across a river. Even bear world the following day could not beat that!

On Saturday, the seven of us plus six more friends hiked for 18miles to the Union Falls. On our way back, we stopped at a waterhole. Even though it was cool outside, the pool was warm because of a hot source further up the stream. Plus you could jump into the water from a little cliff. I enjoyed it so much, I forgot to take any photos!

I said goodbye to all on Monday and made my way to Seattle in two nights across Idaho, Montana and Washington mainly on the I-90. I stayed in two proper motels, the first in Missoula, shabby and in 50s decor. I am glad nobody killed me whilst taking a shower! The second in the desert town of Sprague, which was spacious and freshly painted. Sprague had a nice and calm feel about it. I don’t know what it was, but I felt very comfortable in this sleepy little town. Maybe it was the nice young woman I talked to over breakfast. She was an artist and had just moved there starting a new life with her family. She praised the community and how everybody was so helpful. Something to say for small town lifestyle!

Seattle was amazing, thanks again to Angie and her friends. Thursday, 10 September, was my birthday and Angie had organised tickets to a baseball game at the Seattle Mariners. It wasn’t just normal tickets, it was seats in the kings court, where the supporters of the pitcher King Felix Hernandez sit. We all got yellow T-shirts and signs and had to stand up whenever the Felix was at two strikes (you can tell I learned a lot of baseball rules!). Most importantly though, we were sitting in the hot sun, drinking ice cold beer in the afternoon. Afterwards, we went to a German place where I had Spätzle and a Maß. From then the rest of the day is a slight blur of a bus ride to Angie’s, dancing at her place, pizza at Capitol Hill and more dancing and more venues. Brilliant birthday party. Clearly still a teenager. That said, we needed about two days to fully recover. We were mainly sleeping on Friday, but with a amazing interlude on one of Angie’s friend’s boat. We had cheese and cold meats at sunset on Lake Union. The sea planes took off and landed right besides us, it was scary at times.

Saturday was sadly my last day in Seattle, but we spent it perfectly by cycling 40miles along Lake Washington to two different breweries where we stopped for beer and food. The day was rounded up by playing board games and drinking vine.

Without sleep because I guess that’s what you have to do in Seattle, although I have not seen the movie like I have not seen most movies (sorry, I know my lack of knowledge in this field is becoming embarrassing!), I went to catch my flight to Chicago at 6am.

To be continued with a report from the ITU triathlon world championship in Chicago. Go Team GB!