Day 17 - The sun, the moon and the sky

(I was listening to the song "Lazy Eye" by Silversun Pickups as I wrote this. Perhaps listen to it as you read it). Today has been a day of transition for me. I woke up, showered (such a luxury!), rode my bike to the dock and then boarded the ferry to Vancouver Island. As I pulled up to the ferry's area for motorcycles, I met the only other person there - Rick Petterson from Fairbanks Alaska - who just happened to have the same itinerary as me all the way through to Juneau. Cool - a new friend and company for the next 5 days; that will be different. After having lunch in Victoria BC we headed north towards Port Hardy for the ferry to Prince Rupert BC tomorrow. It was a rough 8 hour ride for me as I was really tired and the road went through a dozen or so small towns with their reduced speeds, stop lights, stop signs and detours. But we make it by 8 pm and ended up staying in a hostel for $40 each (which included showers and coffee!). I am still very tired and somewhat distracted for some reason - not sure why. I did really appreciate the aforementioned song on my ride up here; I listened to it a several times in rapid succession. It is true that I have been waiting for this trip for a long, long time and the timing is not perfect (but probably never will be). The feelings and thoughts that come to me as I ride in solitude for hours and hours on end is impossible to describe. There is definitely turmoil but it is mostly peaceful as my mind wanders from thoughts of my family to my personal issues to work issues, friends, spiritual, my past, my future, and a hundred other things. As the landscape around me changes from mountains to geological curiosities, from streams to deserts, and from vast areas of nothingness to crowded little towns with micro-breweries and high school football fields, I am a self-contained story just passing through collecting more memories. Tomorrow brings another ferry to take me further north and the landscape will change again, this time to open waters, glaciers, whales, liters and perhaps a polar bear or two (scratch them hard behind the ears - got it!). The only constants outside of me and the now has been the moon, the sun and the sky. I like that as they are the same ones that are at home. This trip is in many ways like a 6 week long movie except I get to play a part in it, experiment in it, get to get out of myself in it, and learn from it. Cool. It clears the palate. Oh how wonderful that is! It's time for bed. I hope this page makes at least a little bit of sense.