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I woke up to a beautiful day this morning. We are back in US waters! Everybody seems to be out on the decks enjoying the views as we pull into Bellingham, WA. This is kind of a boring port because it looks pretty much like a shipping port and not much else. Lots of barges tied up around here and a few boaters out and about. The dock we pull into is nothing fancy and I think ours, back home in Ketchikan, actually looks a little nicer. We pull in right next to a barge loaded with junk. I can't tell if it is coming or going. Regardless, we are getting back to dry land! This boat has gotten smaller by the hour after two days at sea.
Time to unload and boy have I misjudged the unloading process. I thought it would be quick but I guess there’s a lot more to consider then I thought because the process is pretty slow. My gun is also locked in their safe as well and I have to get it before I get off the boat! So, I wait and wait for the cars to get moving and I decide I better get someone’s attention because the last guy I asked about getting my gun back didn’t seem to have much of an idea of what to do. I have been waiting for someone to come over and help but nobody even looks my way. I went and found a deckie and surprisingly, he just gave me the key to the safe and told me to go get my gun myself! I asked him if I could upgrade if I found a nicer gun and he just laughed. I go to the gun cabinet and luckily I am the only one there because I realize my gun is the nicest one there and I don’t want someone upgrading to mine! So I get the gun in my case and in my saddlebag. Washington no longer honors my concealed carry permit so the gun must be in a locked case. Finally, it’s my turn to get off the boat. I get on dry land and spend a few minutes securing my load and I am ready to ride! Leg one of this adventure is over! The road beckons!
It’s a warm and sunny morning! It doesn't get better for a day of riding! The objective today is a fairly short ride by comparison for what the rest of the ride will be. The ride consists of going from the ferry terminal in Bellingham down to Toledo, WA to see my old friend Jesse Mendez. Time for a little history here, Jesse and I met when my sons and his son were really young. That must be around 16 years ago because my kids were about 9 and 11 years old and now they are 24 and 26 years old. My older son, Alejandro was not into riding motorcycles, but Anthony was. Jace, Jesse's son was about 12 at that time and was into dirt biking as well. We had many adventures riding with the boys and both Jesse and I rode on occasion. For the most part, we hung around talking while the boys rode their bikes. Jesse is the person my kids learned about hair dye from. Jace, Jesse’s son had part of his head in a different hair color. My kids thought it was great and asked if Jesse would do something like that for them. I said it was OK since it’s just hair and it’ll grow out. Jesse dyed their hair with what was supposed to turn out as partially blonde but ended up red since the kids’ hair is so dark. They liked it even better and kept it that way for quite a while!
Jesse and I met at Centralia College where I worked as the lab manager and for a while as an Interim Director of Technology while the college looked for someone permanent to fill the position. Jesse was taking a drafting course at the college as part of a re-education program after being seriously injured on the job in road construction. I have told Jesse many a time that if we find ourselves on the road, I will refuse to stand next to him. It seems he has had more than one incident while working on the roads. The worst, I believe, was the time he was asked to be a flagger for a short while to fill in. As he stood there, a woman driving drunk at 60 mph plowed through the barricades and ran him over. He had to have several surgeries on his back and could not walk for a while. He was a single dad and had to crawl around on the floor to get his son ready for school and to do anything he had to do since he had no help. This guy is devoted to his son and will do anything he has to. Jesse and I became instant friends and made a deal where I kept his computer running and he kept Anthony's motorcycle running, which was a job for both of us! I haven’t seen Jesse in about 14 years but we call each other every now and again just to touch base. He just happened to have called me right after I decided to do the ride and we agreed that I would spend a day at his place on the way. Funny coincidence but we are both from the same part of Texas and probably crossed paths at some point in our lives before since we have so much in common.
When I got to Jesse’s house, we had a great time just catching up on what our kids have been up to and what we have been doing ourselves. He showed me around his place and it looks like a pretty sweet setup. He lives in a mobile home on a road with very little traffic. It’s kind of out in the boonies but Jesse likes living away from people. He has an RV in back and told me I can either stay in the house or out in the RV where it is cooler if I like. Since I like to sleep in cooler areas, I moved my stuff into the RV and parked my bike for the day. We figure we will run around in his car for the day. I have an app on my phone called RoadTrippers. Across from Jesse’s place is a barn with advertisement for tonic from ages gone by and I think I have seen this as a roadside attraction before so I checked my app and sure enough it’s there. The picture I took of it sucks but the advertisement says "Dr Pierce’s Tonic for Weak Women". I don’t know any weak women so no sales here buddy!
We started getting hungry and since we had talked on the phone about how I looked forward to having some of the foods I missed, he took me by his sister's house for some fresh tamales. If you have never had tamales, you don't know what you're missing. Tamales are made by putting special dough in cornhusks. The cornhusks are then stuffed with meat and rolled up like little burritos. My mom used to make these and the meat mixture was a spicy mix of deer, javelin (wild boar), and beef. It was whatever became available at the time. You steam the tamales to cook them and then remove the cornhusk and eat. I remember a funny story from my early twenties, when I was a typical partying young guy. One year, around Christmas, I brought home a couple of friends, not of the Hispanic persuasion, to have some tamales fresh out of the cooker. The house was busy with plenty of people over so I gave my friends some tamales and found them a place to sit. After a while I checked on them and asked them what they thought of the tamales. The guys said they tasted great but that they were kind of tough and stringy. I looked at their plates and found a partially eaten tamale which showed very clearly that they had eaten through the cornhusks instead of removing them! I about messed my pants laughing and when I told them they were supposed to remove the cornhusks, they also laughed uncontrollably. After they were done laughing at themselves, they ate one without the cornhusk and couldn’t wait to get their hands on a few more. They volunteered to become future taste testers if the job ever opened up! I think we each ate about a dozen before we had to crawl away from the table!
Jesse and I ate lunch at his Sister’s house and stuffed as many tamales down as we could, especially me. Hey, you never know where your next tamale is coming from! They offered to send me down the road with a dozen or two but I had to decline since I couldn’t keep them cold on the bike. So Sad! We then drove around sightseeing in tiny Toledo, WA. It isn’t much of a town and it’s pretty old. However, I shouldn't make fun because it was bigger than I expected.
That evening, we went and had dinner at a local watering hole called "The Lone Fir". It was steak night and man was I glad I was there for that day! That had to be one of the best steaks I have ever had. Nice size, tender, and damn tasty! Lots of folks were around and most of them were in our age range so no young whipper snappers to deal with! Everybody is really friendly and the whole place seems to know each other. It reminds me of “Cheers” from that perspective but this does not look as classy. LOL. I even met a 73-year-old ex-Hell's Angel. He rode with them for 40 years before he had to give it up. Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me remember his name. However, he was there with his drinking buddy of the same age named "Spillit” I kid you not; that was his real name. These guys were hilarious with their "on the road" stories of whom they met and what they did. My biggest regret of this evening is that I was having so much fun that I forgot to take a picture of these guys. Spillit even told me about recently losing his wife. He couldn’t remember how long they were married in total because he married her three times! He said they couldn’t get along when he rode but they couldn’t stand being apart either so they would remarry every few years. I swear, Spillit and his buddy looked almost exactly like ZZ Top, beards and all.
We went back to Jesse's place and had a couple more beers and just like old times, I did a little computer work for him. I got out the old sleeping bag and bedded down in the RV where it was definitely cooler than in the house and had a great night's rest.
I only rode 216.3 miles today but that was the plan all along and I am very happy I decided to spend the day at Jesse’s!
Following is some detail on the pictures:
Pic 1 - Out at Sea: Finally back in US waters! We are seeing barge and tanker traffic. Here they told us we could turn airplane mode off on our phones.
Pic 2 - Arriving in Bellingham: Coming into the Port of Bellingham. There are boaters everywhere. It feels good to know I'm getting off this boat soon and back on dry land!
Pic 3 - Bellingham Port: Arriving right next to the shipyard. No fancy port or anything. We are literally right next to a barge full of junk coming or going.
Pic 4 - Getting off the Ferry: Unloading in Bellingham. What a slow process! I’ve still got to wait for them to give me my gun back. You have to declare the gun and then they take it and lock it in a gun safe for the duration and you have to wait till almost everyone is off to get it. So here's the funny thing. They ended up giving me the key to the gun safe and told me to get my own gun and give them the key when I was done. I asked if I could upgrade my firearm if I found one I liked better and they just laughed!
Pic 5 - The Ferry Terminal: Finally off the ferry. Leg one of my ride completed! I am hitting the road to Toledo, WA to my friend Jesse's place now. What a gorgeous day for a bike ride!
Pic 6 - Jesse: Hanging out with my old friend Jesse Mendez in Toledo, WA. The beer is cold and good. I haven’t seen him in at least 14 years. I’m going to try to stop in again on my way back.
Pic 7 - Jesse's Home: My friend Jesse's place. Out in the boonies where it is nice and quiet. He has an RV out back where I decided to spend the night. Very comfortable accommodations!
Pic 8 - The Barn: The infamous barn with old snake oil advertising for "Weak Women". Anybody know any weak women? LOL This barn is actually listed as a road side attraction in my iPhone app RoadTrippers! It is right across the road where Jesse lives so, NO, I did not go out of my way for the "roadside attraction"!
Pic 9 - Dinner: Now that's what I call a steak! It’s time for dinner out with Jesse at the local watering hole. I even met a 73-year-old x-Hell's Angel. He said he rode with them 40 yrs. He and his buddy, Spillit looked just like ZZ Top. They left before I could get their picture.
Pic 10 - The Lone Fir: The Lone Fir bar and grill. Best damn steak I have had in a very long time and great folks. I met several of Jessie's friends. This was a great evening of storytelling and just hanging out.
Pic 11 - The Wildlife: Wild rabbits all over Jessie's property. Also saw a big deer in the yard.
Pic 12 - End of Day Mileage: End of day miles ridden today. Not bad for a first day especially since the only goal today was to make it here. Worth the ride! 216.3 miles is not much but the whole goal today was to get down here to visit Jesse!
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