Lazy Day

I woke up with the unusual feeling of a full belly and remembered the antics of the day before.  I then got rather excited about the prospect of drawing on the van all day and some more begging.  Only to realize that what had woken me up was the sound of heavy rain on the van.  I didn't even bother to look out the window and deemed it a good excuse for a lie in.  I couldn't very well put up my signs, draw or charge other people to draw in this weather.  Today was a right off.  However I decided to stick around for the soul reason that Karissa was working again today and a free Subway was on the cards for supper.  I had plenty to do anyway so I decided to dedicate the day to the drawings I had on my to do list for people back home.  I went into Subway and set up my little desk for the day.  I got down to a bit of doodling and got some cool ideas flowing then spent the rest of the day skypping people back home.  It has been a nice relaxed day.  Very easy going.  A shame the weather hasn't cleared up to allow me to start doodle selling again. 

About five o'clock some subway guy came up to me and asked me if I could move the van out of the way of potential customers.  Fair enough.  I felt it was time to move on anyway.  I would leave tomorrow morning.  Put in the 37 bucks and see how far it would get me.  Hopefully to the next begging spot. 

The weather decided to clear up.  Even though it was pretty late I decided to put the signs up for a bit.  Every little helps ya know.  It was pretty dead.  No one was stopping by.  I got about 2 bucks which is better than nothing.  Especially as I was only doing it for a few hours.  And it was kinda raining.

 Karissa came out and offered me supper again.  Sweet That's why I was hanging around lets be honest.  I had an awesome foot long and felt satisfied it had been a good day.  Everyone I talked to about my plans keeps telling me how my van doodling thing I got going is going to go even better down south.  I hope they are right!  I better save some space on the van!   I was in 2 minds whether to put the address for the blog on the side of the van…… It could get the blog a bit bigger and encourage more customers, get me on the way to fame!! But then I don't want randoms knowing where I am and what I'm doing. It's a tricky business!  So I decided to leave it.  I have had so many compliments about the blog over he past few days, its been great.  It's so inspiring and uplifting to know people are following my adventures with such enthusiasm.  It's a really humbling feeling.  It also drives my on to continue and do things worth reading about just so I can write about them, and the thing with that is you end up having fun by mistake!  No complaints there!  Going to head to bed in a bit.  Tomorrow its time to put the 39 bucks earned to use and get to Portland.  Still haven't seen the sea!  Dying for a surf or just a swim! 






















So I didn't quite get to bed when I said.  Opi and a few of his mates came by and we chilled for a while.  One of his mates was well safe, he really admired the trip I was doing.  He wanted to come with me.  He was syked for the trip for me.  I was cool.  He seemed like a good lad.  Hope I inspire him to do it too. We chilled out in subway while Karissa closed up.  She wanted to get out early so I said I would sweep if she made me another sub.  She was down with the deal so I swept and I swept good!  Got myself another free Sub for the Journey!  Sweeet! 

We chilled for a bit in the van ripped Bowls again for a bit.  They left but said they were coming back so I just watched a movie for a bit and then they popped back for a few more bowls.  Opi asked me how old is was and when I told him he was shocked.  He thought I was 19!  Get in!  So they asked if I would buy them booze.  No problem I said.  Then Karissa offered me more money but I didn't want to take it.  So she said ok so I'm going to draw on your van again. Fair enough!  I got them the booze, which by the way is so cheap!  Ridiculous.  So their like Crunk, or what ever, a big can of 12% alchopop was only 5 bucks for 3!  I wanted to get pissed just because it was so cheap.  I didn't.  But still I will keep it in mind.  Then we said our goodbyes as I was planning to leave in the morning and off they went.  Now its bed time!



Kilometers Traveled Today: 0
Kilometers Traveled Total : 1496
Funds: $43 U.S
Petrol: Still Empty!

The First Day of the Rest of My Trip!

Woke up and took a while for me to remember where I was.  The car park outside Subway on a rest stop in Castle Rock, some where on Route 5.  Wasn't really sure what to do with myself so I cracked open the last tin of tuna for breakfast and then thought I could walk into Castle Rock town and maybe look for a bit of work.  It wasn't far and when I got into town I realized it was not much bigger than Ritzville.  It wasn't looking good.  I walked into a few places and asked if they needed any help, with anything.  No luck!  It was mainly auto repair places that looked extremely run down and hardware stores.  I had no luck looking around and not surprisingly, it didn't look like the right sort of place I was going to find anything.  Still I had to try.  I had no other choice.  I called on a few houses to ask if they needed anything doing.  People were friendly but no one had anything they needed doing.  Not a good start.  I walked back to the van and thought what to do.  I wasn't feeling to great and I had been sneezing a lot recently.  Last thing I wanted was to start getting ill.  But I can't expect much less really having only eaten cereal and tuna for god knows how long.  I spoke to the Ma on Skype and she said that she should lend me some money just to get me to Newport or just a seaside town where I could earn some money and it would be a fun place to be stuck.  Rather than being stuck on the 5 in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do.  Wise words indeed from the mother as they always are but I wasn't quite ready to give up yet.  I was at this rest stop on the freeway which was clearly where Castle Rock must get most of its business so I thought with all the people coming through here spending money possibly I could try my hand at begging.  Why not.  Should have brought my harmonica.  So I found some cardboard and got to work on some signs!  I had a few good things to write on my signs in mind.  In the end I settled on one comical one and one genuine one.  Start off with that.  Lets not forget as well my "draw on me for a $" sign.

So I propped them all up and thought with nothing else to do I might as well start a bit of drawing on the van myself.  The sun was out and I was content drawing for a bit.  But before long a few women pulled up and were extremely impressed by the idea of drawing on my van for a buck.  And they were very enthusiast about my whole set up and plan.  It was a nice feeling.  So they gave me 2 bucks and wrote a little something.  It turned out they were also on a long road trip and were blogging about it.  so we exchanged photos of each other for the blog and on they went.

 Another guy had come up to me while the were writing and just gave me a dollar because he liked the cause.  As you can imagine I was feeling pretty damn goo by now!  It may only seem like 3 bucks to you but to me this was the beginnings of a means of survival!  I was excited.  Still skeptical though.  It was beginners luck!  This happens all the time.  It happened when me and Alex started hitching around Europe.  It starts off easy and "wow this is great we should do this all the time!" and then Bam.  Your sleeping on a motorway getting bitten to death by super mosquitoes.  So I wasn't jumping for joy just yet.  But what do you know.  Slow and steady came the custom.  And I was doing ok.  One guy even gave me a fucking 20!  He just had a good feeling about me and wanted to help me out!  What a legend!

There where quite a few kids hanging about, kids who worked at the rest stop and they're mates come to chill with them and get free deals.  You know the score.  That kind thing.  Any way my van was a great point of interest for these guys and they brought in a good bit of custom.

 
It looked good to have lots of people standing around.  And not only was it good for custom these guys seemed pretty safe and I got on with them well.  One girl "Karissa" she worked at Subway, was cool and everyone was pretty friendly.  I hung out with these guys Sam, Karissa, Opi, Levi, and a few others for the rest of the eve chilling and chatting.  Then a few more came down and we had a chill in the van listening to tunes and ripping some bowls as they said.  Then joy of joys! Karissa came out of Subway and offered me supper!  Oh wow this was a good day!  A footlong sub just for me!  I had hit the mother load.  The evening was pretty late by then and I had managed to make 36 bucks and a subway and a bottle of moisturizer.  The moisturizer was from this lovely woman that was the mother of a kid who took quite a shine to me.  He saw the van and walked over.  He had plenty of questions all of witch I was happy to answer and he gave me a buck and signed his name.  Then 5 minutes later he turned up in a car with his mum and his brother who also where admiring what I was doing.  They had a go as well and she put her website on my van.  Bit of advertising, sure.  It was for these lotions she had just started to make a little business out of.  So she not only gave me a dollar but a free lotion.  Peppermint!  Lovely!  Now at least I can pretend to be clean!

Here is a few more snaps of the new begging doodles on the van and a few of my own.

 This one was done by a little girl.  She was well sweet bless her!  Got well excited about it.

 I drew this little character over the petrol cap.  Thought it was fitting and comical.

Today had gone so well I was in high spirits and had some cash for petrol now if I needed to move on.  I had visions of it going global!  The blog going massive people all over the country seeing the van and being like  "Oh thats the doodle mobile! Lets pay a buck and draw on it!"  Making it to local news, National news! Earning thousands of dollars!  Possibly getting slightly ahead of myself but you get the idea!  Anyway all in all it was a fantastic day!  I headed to bed about 11 excited about tomorrow! I had only started begging about 4pm.  A full day was bound to be even better!

Kilometers Traveled Today: 2 (by foot)
Kilometers Traveled Total: 1496
Funds: $37 U.S
Petrol: Still Nearly empty.

Another day, Another dollar. (the same dollar!)

Ahhhh what a buff sleep.  I needed that more than I realized!  A nice lie in perfumed with two lovely Skype calls. Mr Joni Marsden exclaiming his admiration for my Adventures and my blog.  And then the lovely Abbey Stapleton expressing her jealousy for being in her bed.  A lovely morning and I felt very relaxed and ready for anything.  Then my nose was greeted by a very unfamiliar smell.  The glorious smell that is toast!   I headed down and had a nice cup of tea and a good breakfast.  Steve had already gone off to work but I had said bye and thanks previously last night.  We chatted more over tea and then I had to get moving, as did Jane.  Jane kept offering everything udder the sun bless her but I was all set and ready to venture on.  Not before insisting that they both leave a little mark on my van.  So I took them outside to marvel at the beauty and get doodling.  Jane did a cute little doodle of the nearby ski resort mountain on which Alex had worked as a ski instructor.  And Alex very appropriately drew a yin yang which i thought was very fitting for the trip I was on and then brilliantly he drew a union jack!  An important symbol of where I am from.

After some fond goodbyes and discussing the possibility of coinciding their visit to LA to see Ellie and how long it would take me to reach LA I got in the van and drove off as they waved from the doorstep.  It's always a nice feeling that isn't.  Its nice to have people wave you off.  Gives you a good feeling.  Starts the trip off well.  So off i went directly to the gas station to put in the last of my cash.  40 bucks went in and that had to get me to Portland.  My first surfing town!  Exciting stuff!  I had still got the dollar I saved for a treat.  Yet to treat myself though.  I felt the 12 hours at the Stapletons was treat enough for now.

So I set off and got under way.  It was 300 km to Portland and a further 215 to Newport from there.   Newport is actually the beach town but I heard Portland was a bit of a surf town too.  So 500k and a bit more to go.  Not likely on 40 bucks.  But better get started anyway.  I got back on the road that I had taken to get me in to Seattle and it was easy enough.  Although the scenery was dull now and there was a lot of traffic.  It was like being on the M25 just bigger.  It was not enjoyable driving and you can't just zone out when there is lots of traffic around you to concentrate on.  The driving was far from economical to say the least, there was lots of stopping and starting.  And to tell you the truth the van wasn't sounding great at all.  This worried me some what.  To explain my worry I think I must take you back to when I purchased the van in mid April.  I got the thing for no more, no less than 400 Canadian dollars.  That works out at about 266 English pounds.  Not a lot I think you will agree.  So when you purchase a mode of transport for a song you expect there to be some problems with it.  Just to look at it.  The driver door didn't open, the front windscreen was cracked severely and it was covered in rust.  Apart from that it was good to go.  Now I drove it  back from Calgary to Banff after I got it.  That is 200k.  So by my rules it was pretty sound.  In order to insure the van I have to have a safety check though so I took it to the garage and payed a pretty penny to have it checked over.  No surprises there it was fucked!  It had about 2000 dollars worth of work needed.  Now this was ok for 2 reasons.  1.  All the work needed was bad but didn't affect the engine.  It still had a good motor so as far as I'm concerned if it's going to get me from a to b I'm satisfied.  Now obviously the mechanics don't share my outlook.  So it didn't pass. 2. This is ok because the insurance company give me 30 days to get a safety check, then a further 30 to fix what is wrong with it, and a further 30 before the insurance is void.  Anyone who can do a bit of maths with a pinch of general knowledge will see this adds up to 90 days which is as long as I can be in the U.S before they kick me out.  Pretty perfect I think.  So my point is its a heap of junk that needs 2000 bucks worth of work on it.  Thus my worry is justified.  However just because I am puttering along, putter putter and listening to the engine and thinking each putt is going to be its last does not mean I can do anything about it.  What am I going to do?  Pull over, pop the hood and stare vacantly at the engine and pretend I know what I am looking at?  It might as well be a human brain for all I know.  It's one of those things that I and most males would like to pretend I know a little about, like wine or the economy when really the sad reality of the fact is I know sweet fuck all about almost everything!  So anyway I continued on just hoping and praying it was going to last out!  It was then I happened across my first traffic jam.  Not good for fuel consumption!  It moved on quite fast but the gas was depleting rapidly!  I didn't like the look of it so I pulled over.  It had managed to get me 200k so a fair distance for 40 bucks.  At a rough estimate that means I am doing 22-25k to the gallon.  I don't think that is good but for a 17 year old van it could be worse!  Now as you may remember a few days ago I decided to withdraw all my money even though I wasn't sure about it.  This was because I spent 40 bucks on petrol and it had been a week and still nothing had come out.  So I took the risk.  I took all I could out and even then there was 11 pounds left in there to spare.  So I thought get that money out or pay on card and that will get me the remainder to Portland and I can park up there for a while and maybe earn a few bucks somehow.  Alas it had come back to bite me in the arse like it always does.  Gone!

So this leaves me at a rest stop in Castle Rock with a few drips of gas left and a dollar in cash.  Not the end of the world by any means, plenty shops etc around I wasn't going to be bored but it looks like here is the place for the night.  See what the morning brings.  Times like these it's quite annoying.  And I kind of just wish I didn't have all this stuff and I could hitch.  But that might be too easy!  I parked up outside subway and decided I will just sit in the van and have a chilled one.  Watch a few movies.  I might even sneak into the woods later and make a fire to cook some pasta.  See how lazy I feel.

Of course I'm too lazy to go and make a fire for a bit of plain pasta!  It's 9 o'clock for goodness sake!  I would sooner eat the butter I have by itself!  Maybe tomorrow I will cook.

 Thought the van was looking pretty cool in this spot so got a quick snap.

Kilometers Traveled Today: 209
Kilometers Traveled Total: 1494
Funds: $1 U.S
Petrol: Nearly Empty

Some Superb Stapleton Hospitality

It is Monday morning.  Never a good thing.  I didn't sleep very well past 1 am.  I got up feeling pretty grim.  I haven't showered since Fernie and I haven't had any water since saturday.  I drove down to Starbucks and parked outside.  It was still early and I had about 45 mins before I had to pay for parking.  I went inside and asked Corina to fill up my water bottle and used the interweb for a bit.  I had emailed Abbeys mum to check it was ok for me to pop in rather than just show up but having just come back from the boat I'm guessing she hadn't had time to reply yet.  I thought I would start making my way there any way.  It was a 20 min drive and I wasn't entirely sure it was going to go well.  So having guzzled some water and I had the directions saved on my pad I set off.  The first bit was easy and was going well.  It's such a good feeling isn't it when you get directions right.  You feel kind of proud of yourself.  Then the grim thing about directions is as soon as you go just one turn wrong, suddenly no signs have been put any where.  The ones that have are written in hieroglyphics and there is always some bastard behind you in a fucking hurry!  So I got lost as I'm sure you can gather and where better to get lost than onto a toll bridge.  Fantastic!  I had no choice but to continue as is the case with all toll bridges once they have told you about it you can't escape it.  So I carried on with no idea where I was going and did a good bit of steering wheel smacking.  Not in the happy  drumming along to the beat way like the other day.  I pulled over and decided to try find some internet to get some more directions. 

So I got some internet and got a bit of well needed cheering up from the mother and the mrs and got going with some much more clear and simple directions under my belt (on my ipad).  I got lost again never the less and got very angry very quickly.  But I corrected my error with ease and made it slowly in the right direction.  I found the way and as I got closer the neighbour hood was getting nicer and nicer until I suddenly felt I was in the nicest area on the planet!  Everything looked so perfect.  Gorgeous house followed by gorgeous house.  The grass on every garden was green and bushy.  Not a strand out of place mind.  It was lovely.  I found Abbeys house easily but made sure to park a bit down the way because the van was rather unsightly to put it nicely.  It did not belong in this neighbour hood.  But it will have to do.  I went over to knock on the door feeling much better about the day.  The sun was shinning now and I was excited to meet Abbeys family.  Unfortunately no one answered the door but I wasn't bothered everything was too nice around me to get upset.  I went for a walk down the road to see if I could get my bearings and maybe email Abbey to see if everyone was at work or whatever.  I found a Starbucks (Shock!) they are everywhere and spoke to Abbey and then I realised I had an email from her mum.  Bless her it was so sweet.  Inviting me for a meal and a bed for the night.  I was rather inclined to the idea of a shower so I said I would pop over later. 

So I had a little nap in the van and then about 7.30ish I headed over.  I rung the bell and a second later the door opened wide.  Alex, Abbeys brother was in her parents had not yet returned from the boat holiday.  He warmly welcomed me in and offered me a drink and more importantly a shower.  I took him up on both and 15 minutes later came down stairs feeling a much fresher man.  We then sit and chilled watching telly.  A comfort I had long forgotten!  Alex had also been a ski instructor so we had quite a bit to talk about.  He also shared a passion for good cinema so we went short on things to chat about.  After a while Abbeys parents came through the door and even after arriving back after a holiday and a long journey the were so friendly and so welcoming.  This first thing Jane did was give me a big hug and told me that Abbey had instructed her to do so!  It was nice.  You gotta love a good hug from a mum!  Nothing like it.  Then we went in to the kitchen and chatted for ages about all sorts of things.  Steve, Abbeys dad offered me a beer and then we all talked for a while about the route I was taking down the south and lots of other stuff.  It was such a nice evening and I loved learning about Abbey's family.  They were just all so nice.  I found myself always with a beaming smile on my face.

 

I think for whatever reason all of us were rather sleepy and after them not taking no for an answer I headed off to Abbeys comfy bed.  They were kind enough to give me abbeys room for the night.  I walked in and straight away you could just tell it was Abbeys room.  Everything was just so.  It was nice.  Very comforting.  Then I saw abbey was online and then 2 minutes later Alex knocked on the door with the phone in his hand.  It was of course Abbey.  We had a good chat it was really funny.  Nice to hear her voice, it was a shame she wasn't here.  After a little chat I put my head down and quickly fell into a much needed deep sleep!

Kilometers Traveled Today: 33
Kilometers Traveled Total: 1285
Funds: $41 U.S
Petrol: Nearly Empty

The Journey So Far

So far I have been through:

Alberta. CANADA,

British Columbia CANADA,

Idaho. U.S.A,

Washington. U.S.A and soon to be headed south to Oregon.

Big City Little Toad!

Good morning!  I woke up still pretty worried about what was ahead of me and what I was going to do.  I didn't see my self walking into Starbucks in this big city and asking to use the loo for free let alone the internet!  Never the less I got a few dry Frosties down my neck and was on my way.  I walked in an sheepishly asked if they wouldn't mind if I used the internet for a bit.  I was met by the most friendly girl who couldn't have been nicer.  "of course" she exclaimed.  She wanted to know my story and where I was from, where I was going. Her name was Corina. The other guy working there (Tucker) was awesome too.  I asked them about touristy things to do and they had a few great ideas.  Like this big bridge which has a huge statue of a troll underneath it, holding a VW in its hands, and the fish market where they throw the fish.  Like in Free Willie when Jessie catches it and cycles off and feeds it too Willie.  That sounds pretty awesome too.  So I sat down and started getting my bearings and charging up my stuff.  Then Corina leaned over the counter and offered me a coffee. Bless her!  For the sake of her job, just in case we will say I payed for the coffee!!  So I sat down with my large latte and starting blogging.  Then bless her she came over and gave me email address' and Facebook deets of her friends living in LA and places down the west coast, they were surfers too and one had a little surf shack and she said they would love to have me pop in!  What an awesome start to the day.  Clearly my premonitions of a large unfriendly city were way off! 

That coffee has given me the shakes well bad!  Not so much a coffee drinker since I used to get through cups of the stuff when I worked at Zizzi's.  I'm buzzing now!  But bless her she has just come by with another.  Not going to say no to that.

So I after another coffee I set off on my tourist mission, with 2 places in mind.  The big fish market called pike place market, where they throw the fish!  And The troll under the ferment bridge?  I  was walking down first street and it was amazing the sight seeing was just all around.  On my left was the waterfront with huge boats and ferries and stuff and on my right towering buildings and exciting shops.  before I got very far at all I cam across the Seattle Art Museum or (sam.)  I went in and had a wonder.  there was some amazing art work around and they had some spectacular pieces of work by some very famous artist, like Rembrant and Picasso.

I stayed in there a while soaking up a bit of culture then decided to move on as I thought this might happen a lot today.  I asked the guy at the desk of the museum where the fish market was and he directed me just a couple blocks down, and the troll he had to get it up on Google maps.  It was quite a way!  But I was up to the challenge.  The route was simple enough.  So I marched on determined to find both and hopefully some other things on the way.  I came across the fish market very quickly.  It was brilliant.  It was clearly quite the tourist attraction.  There were dozens of people gathered around as the guy shouted about his fish.  Rather comically too.  He was quite the entertainer.  You could also go and stand behind the counter and have a huge fish thrown at you to see if you could catch it.  Great fun a few people had a go at it.  One girl dropped it.  It was pretty savage.  The fish was massive to be fair to her. 

As for the actual fish it looked so good.  And didn't smell of fish very much at all which I'm told is a sign that it is very fresh.  All the fish looked great quality and there was such a range.  If I wasn't tramping it then I would have liked to buy a nice bit of fish and have a good meal from there.    After  few snaps I moved on.  I passed a few shops and interesting places that deserved a wonder round but I won't bore you with them.  I also passed some pretty amazing graph which I took some photos of.  I'm sure I recognize the artist work from the book Graffiti around the World. 

As I walked on for quite some time I asked for directions from people every now and again.  Unfortunately they seemed to differ as directions tend to do.  But I went with my instinct and the Google maps directions that I was trying to remember.  I continued along 1st for a bit further and then after quite a trust worthy woman told me to take a right I decided to obey her.  First of all I wasn't sure but then I didn't really mind, it had led me to a stage on a large green that was playing live music so I chilled for a bit and listened to a few bands.  It turned out that is was because there was a festival going on around the corner.  Folklife festival. 

http://www.nwfolklifefestival.org/

Luckily it was a free festival, or whatever donation you can afford.  I went in and had a wonder round, there were some awesome bands on and some great stuff going on.  I even managed to get some free lip chap and a granola bar!  Things were looking good!

 After a while I moved on still in search of this troll sculpture under a bridge.  But before long I was stopped again by another event going on.  This one was inside the EMP museum.  I think that stands for Electronic Music Performance.  Not sure though.  So I went in and there were more bands playing!  Awesome bands too.

This was an awesome day for seeing free live music.  I was loving it.  Not to mention It was made very clear that there was a huge Avatar exhibition on!  This was fucking brilliant.  Perfect!  I went in search of the exhibition but before I found it there was the sound lab I stumbled into.  An amazing place with so many instruments to play around with, different programs, separate little rooms to do your own mixing, recording.  It was just jam packed full of awesome interactive things to do.  I must have spent about 3 hours in there looking around and playing with everything.  Such a great day.

I then found an exhibition dedicated to ACDC.  Not a massive fan but I liked some of their music so I decided to learn some shit.

Then they had a massive area dedicated to Jimmey!  Loved that.  Spent ages learning about him and how he started.  They even had a few of his guitars on display.  Loved learning all about Henrdix!  Then I moved on to the Nirvana room.  Another fantastic artist who I enjoyed learning about.  The further I kept going the more there was to do and see in this museum.  It was one of the places you visit and its too good.  You know when a place has so much you want to see and do and you don't know where to start and when to drag yourself away from it.

Eventually I managed to and got to the Avatar exhibition.  Its like it was there for me.  It was amazing it had everything.  Interactive touch screens to learn about anything and everything to do with avatar.  And the same for the fictional planet it was set on.  It was baffling how exact and precise the invention of this planet was.  It had history, it had life cycles, what gases made up the atmosphere.  Any question you could ever think to ask about it was answered.  I couldn't get enough.  There were early drawings of the creatures done by the artists, props from the film including those massive robots that the soldiers would get in and move about in. 

There was more interactive stuff than I could handle.  I wont go on any further about it because it is probably pretty boring to listen about but you get the picture.  I was in heaven and if you want to know any more about how awesome it was there, then ask me in person.  After a couple hours I dragged myself away and decided to continue my search for the troll.  I found the way pretty well up to a big long road I had seen on Google maps.  I knew it would be a long walk but I was up for it.  On the corner of this road was the Big Pink Elephant Car wash.  This is where Elvis used to get his car washed.  Cool little fact.

 So I started off down the road and fucking hell it took for ever I checked after and I had walked 7 kilometers.  After walking over the massive bridge and further I thought I would have seen it by now and then I bumped into some chillers on a bit of grass and stopped for a chat and hopefully some correct directions.

 I chilled for a bit but kinda just wanted to get off and find the troll.  They told me it was back the way I came but not far so back I went.  Didn't take long to find the troll.  This troll I had been searching for all day!  this troll I had walked  7 kilometers for!  The question is was it worth it!  the answer is obviously no.  After all the awesome stuff I had seen and done all day it was going to be hard to top.  Let alone be worth walking till my feet bled for!

 It was an impressive sight but not worth it and I would not have been gutted to miss it.  Never mind it was a nice walk and it was a good bit of exercise.  The grim thing now though is I have to walk all the way back!  And not just back to the van, I don't know Seattle very well at all so I have to walk back the exact way I came to get back to where I know.  And lets face it how ever nice the scenery is if you have just seen it a few hours ago it is not exciting to see it in reverse.  But I had no choice and it was about 7pm by now so I better get on. 

It took so long!  My feet fucking hurt and I was grimed.  Finally I made it back to the van about 9ish I got in and passed out!  Tomorrow I would work out on getting to Abbeys families house.

Kilometres Traveled Today (by foot) :16
Kilometres Traveled Total: 1252
Funds: $41 U.S
Petrol: Just under Quarter Tank