Date: 12/08
City: Seattle, Washington
Kilometres ridden: 243
Cumulative kilometre: 57321
Street: N/A
Weather: Sunny, warm
We packed the bikes and got on our way before the black clouds arrived. We arrived at the border around lunch time, which is not desirable. The sign predicted a waiting time of 45 minutes, which was pretty close to reality. We continued to Gaila’s and Tad’s retreat and got a warm welcome. We met Enrice, a traveller that Gaila and Tad met before who booked into Gaila’s and Tad’s resort with his camper van. We found out that Tad was working for Microsoft again, but this time in a different role. Gaila, meanwhile, was working for the Council. It is really impressive how fast they got jobs. At night, Gaila cooked a Gazpacho, a cold tomato soup, which tasted fantastic and as desert we got an s’more cooked over the bonfire, just for us. Below are Tad and Gaila preparing the s’more.
The s’more consists of two cookies, chocolate and melted marshmallows and it is hard to stop eating them, I guess that’s where the name – some more – comes fromJ.
We went to bed well fed J
Date: 13/08
City: Seattle, Washington
Kilometres ridden: 123
Cumulative kilometre: 57444
Street: N/A
Weather: Sunny, warm
We brought Sigrid’s bike to the workshop to get the neutral switch replaced. We ask if they would like to take the bike into consignment and the answer was no. Additionally, the price they were willing to offer had they been interested was too low for us in the first place and they would like to have 20% of the low price on top of it. Well, there goes the idea of the consignment. We went shopping in the mean time to get some plugs for the GPS and the Spot, so we can fit them both to one bike and easily remove them when we sell the last bike. In the mean time we got a couple of people who would like to buy the bike and pay via Paypal, none of them were reachable and the bike was always a gift for somebody else. We know the scam since the time Sigrid tried to sell our tent in Australia and let these guys know that we accept cash only. We didn’t hear from them again.
Gaila was preparing chicken cooked Argentinian style which meant that the chicken was slowly cooked for several hours. Below a picture of Gaila after she got on top of the fire J
Well, I had my draughts first, if that was really worthwhile the effort, but I must admit it tasted awesome and I will give it a try at home. After such a nice meal, Tad offered to start the water pipe, which was an appropriate finish to the great meal.
We sat together and talked for a long time, it was really enjoyable and relaxing. What hospitality. (Booking.com ***** 5 stars).
Date: 14/08
City: Seattle, Washington
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 57444
Street: N/A
Weather: Cloudy, rain, Sunny, warm
It did rain in the morning, so we decided to stay today and get the bikes ready, which meant cleaning them and removing all parts that we didn’t want to sell. It is amazing how long it can take to clean a bike thoroughly. In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant with Tad and Gail, where we met a friend we’d met on a ride before. After the meal we went over to the coffee shop for coffee and dessert. We finished the night with a rented video for a quiet evening at home.
Date: 15/08
City: Seattle, Washington
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 57520
Street: N/A
Weather: Sunny, warm
We started to get a bit concerned about how and when we would sell our bikes. We contacted Suma and Hoa, motorcycle travellers we met on the Stahlratte and later in Buenos Aires. Hoa mentioned that we should come to San Francisco when we try to sell our bikes. He offered to store them in his garage and put them up on Craigslist frequently, until sold. So we though about leaving Casa Tad’n Gaila and start moving towards San Francisco, with a short stop in Portland, Oregon. Someone from Portland responded, but it was too far for him to get to Seattle to have a look at the bikes, so we decided to meet him on our way down.
