This is a reanimation of the Vicaribus blog as lived by Miro Kazakoff and Ehren Foss in 2004 and 2005. The photos may be spotty.

Goodbye, Seattle

Posted by ehren

Thursday morning both Steve and I set our alarms for 7, and apparently neither one went off but an east coast recruiter called at 7:17. So I told the guy I'd call him back, and we got going and dropped Steve off at SeaTac (sorry Karen, turns out we could drive in after all) and then Miro and I headed north through the bleeding edge of rush hour. Traffic was heavy, but it never came to a standstill.

We arrived at 9 and bought tickets for the 11:00 Boeing tour once in Everett and I spent most of those two hours writing yesterday's post. The Boeing tour wasn't at all as hands-on as the restoration center, and they didn't allow cameras, but it was an impressively huge building (the largest in the world) with large chunks of large airplanes (747 cargo, mostly) coming together smoothly. I could draw a comparison between them dropping a fuselage onto a pair of wings and us lowering the roof back onto the bus body last September, but I have a feeling they didn't need to crowbar the last few beams into place because they were mismeasured.

Miro, after a tour of the gift shop, returned to tell me about a bar he heard about where all the test pilots go before they perform the destructive tests on new airplanes where they show crash footage 24 hours a day and an old airplane is sticking out of the side of the building, but it turns out the bar is in Kansas so we can't go. Yet.

Miro drove from Everett to Mount Vernon, where we topped off the tanks before Canada. It was his first 90-degree-turns-in-traffic experience, and aside from a shopping mall curb he graced with both right rear tires it went fine. I think the bus is roughly as difficult to drive as two cars, simultaneously.

After fuel we cruised into Bellingham, sought internet, and walked around the sleepy downtown area (it was after 5). We were long overdue for an RV park: The batteries have been all but dead for a week, and we've been out of water since getting to Seattle. We did laundry, showered, and met John and Theresa and their 77' Crown school bus conversion (Crowns, produced until the early 90s in California, are the most stylish school buses on the planet). They're the first people we've met on a similar trip; Both lived in Santa Fe for the last 6 years, and are planning on travelling indefinitely until they find a new place to call home. We compared notes on 'the life' over laundry.

Today we will get rid of our heap of fireworks and firewood (neither are allowed over the border), and then, Canada! I doubt we'll be back in internet range until Monday.