Can I have flies with that?

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I'm now in Missoula, Montana, it's almost 11pm, and it's 25 degrees - welcome to Summer.

I'd hoped to organise a car by now...but I still have some work to do.   Buying a van is no longer an option, i'm now looking for a Subaru Outback...and strangely there are almost as many (dealer cars) here in this small town as there were in Seattle...and here each dealer has quite a few c.f to the scattered distribution around greater Seattle.

The lack of ease of finding a suitable vehicle has been / is frustrating and annoying, but, I shouldn't be surprised given how long it took me to decide that Yuri (my Skoka Yeti at home) was the one for me *coughs*.

Back to Seattle, I only spent time in the South side of Seattle, which is a shame, but there's always later in the year.

Tomorrow is a big day, as well as looking at Subaru's here in Missoula, I finally meet Chad, my "dealer", who's an hour away in Hamilton, Montana.  I purchased my visually and aurally pleasing green MTB wheels from him way back in 2008.  The build of my new bike can also start.  Chad has most of the bits for my build in a big basket at his store - Red Barn Bicycles - and I have a few parts to complete the build.  It'll be nice to have someone else build a bike for me.  Since the start of 2007 I've bought the frames and parts individually and built up 3 MTB's and done a bunch of swapping forks, drivetrains, etc, depending on whether I wanted the hard tail to be a single-speed (yes, a mountain bike with one gear, its a very pure riding experience) or to have gears.

I had a shower upon reaching the hotel around 9pm, and as I was exiting the bathroom I saw Finnegan talking on the phone.  He was speaking to room service.  I only heard the end of the conversation, which ended with "can I have flies with that".

On that note, 'til next time.

Cool phone, that's what one gets at Super8 hotels!  I also have 68 cable channels tonight.  So many channels, such little time - I check out tomorrow morning.  I'm planning on spending at least a week or so in Hamilton..hopefully I have an excess of channels there - I felt somewhat limited with the 25 channels I had in Seattle.

I seem to recall saying that I was going.  Bye.

Here

I'm here in Seattle, safe and sound, excited but daunted and occasionally freaked out by what I'm doing.

From what I've seen of Seattle so far it's a beautiful city, there's a snow capped peak off the North West - stunning.  It's nice but weird to have sunshine at 9pm, and shopping at the mall at 9pm on a Monday, cooling off from a 31 degree day, with a whopping (well largish) snow capped peak in the distance.

My dream of a van as my ideal vehicle may be just a dream, I had a look at some smaller and some larger ones this arvo, and the large ones are large - too large  The small ones are not as long, but may be not high enough to easily fit a bike in (particularly if the bike will be sitting in a bike rack (likes the ones that mount to roof racks - nice and secure.  They aren't too comfortable inside either, unlike the vans that Mark Mc and I rented in NZ a few years ago.  I'll test drive one tomorrow to see how it fares.  If it doesn't feel right I'll explore getting a SUV or a wagon...and mount the bike on top or on a rack attached to a tow bar (hitch).  Finnegan would be more comfortable if he didn't have to trip round in a van.

I'm really looking forward to getting the vehicle purchase sorted so I can trip off to Montana and meet the parts that will form my new bike, or deciding to quit Seattle early and buying a vehicle in Montana (noting that there are next to no vans there, which is why I started in Seattle.

I did quite an amount of driving today - this wrong side of the road thing is really weird, really weird, especially when the GPS is talking to me, even if it's in a lovely voice, and my body clock is all over the place. Hopefully I can sleep well - it's 11:30pm, I think I can feel myself winding down - big day indeed!

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There was movement at the station...

...for the word had passed around

That Richard's US Visa was on it's way

Well, it's been approved anyway.  It'll take a number of days to be sent to me.  I'm hoping to leave this Sunday.  Fingers crossed.

One of the destinations and riding areas that I'm really looking forward to going to is Lake Tahoe in Northern California.  Witness:

Exhibit A: a lake 

Exhibit B: a trail around the lake

Gosh. its like an everlasting gobstopper, but the lake is ~170 miles around, though only half that can be ridding on a bike.

Exhibit C: chuck in them there hills

Manscaped chunk

A LOT of chunk, freeform chunk in this case.  Poor pic, but you get the point.

 

Houston we have a problem

To quite a line from the movie Apollo 13 thats been on in the background while I explore colours and stuff in this bold new world of "blogging" - Houston, we have a problem.

To be more specific, I have a problem.

My travelling companion, Finnegan, has no problems at all.  The US imposes no conditions of entry on stuffed fabric objects, no matter how good looking they may be.  

I, however, need a Visa for my 5 month trip, and I don't yet have a Visa.  I should have a Visa based on what the nice man at the US Consulate said to me at my interview, which by the way took place 2 weeks later than it should due to the inability of their "interview booking system" to sometimes recognise "receipt numbers" generated by their payment system (though that's a separate story), but i have no Visa.

Also, I dont know when I will have a Visa.  It's not possible to speak to someone who knows more than the online tracking system, so one must email the Consulate.  They do respond, though thus far not very helpfully.

So, instead of enjoying the comforts of an Airbus A380, 3 hours away from LA.  I'm sitting on my couch, now watching the early laps of the German F1 GP - very nice start by Mark Webber by the way.

On Friday while I waiting to hear anything about my Visa, I became angrier and angrier.  By Saturday that dissipated into disappointment, sadness and helplessness.  I've postponed my flights and cancelled the accommodation and hire car that i organised in Seattle while I buy a van, but I don't know for when I should re-book...