Westward Bound

 

And so the adventure begins...

I spent most of my 2.5 hrs at the airport standing in line waiting to check my bike box in...and of course the box didn't fit through their scanner so I had to open the box, take everything put and repack it, hoping desperately it would get to the plane in time to join me on the journey to Vancouver!

Then more delays...so it was after 4 hours after arriving at the airport that we taxied out for our sub 5 hour flight westward. 

Flight went well enough. 

And on the other end my bicycle box arrived very promptly at the oversize luggage.

I've heard of other touring cyclists do this but never had the compulsion or need to do this; build my bike back up at the airport. 

I found a quiet spot near a garbage receptacle and unpacked my bike box and got to work skrewing things back together. The hardest part was getting my tires pumped up with my tiny little bike pump. It would overheat with all the friction and so I'd do something else needing doing for a bit before resuming. 

Probably about an hour later I had everything loaded on the bike and was ready to hit the road. I tried not think how it was almost 11pm back home.

I made my way across the city 15 kms to where my friend Abigail was living (while going to school in the area). So beautiful cycling at the golden hour of light with the mountains in the horizon. Definitely hillier terrain in the city than I expected. 

So good having a chance to reconnect with my friend again as well! Familiar face in an unfamiliar place and all.