Friday Harbor, WA

After redoing yesterday’s blog after a glitch caused us to lose about an hour’s worth of work and picture uploads, I fed Lexie and made some pancakes (which come out so much better on the cast iron griddle now). We had plenty of time to relax. I didn’t need to pull out of the RV Park till 11am and redoing the blog assured me I would not depart earlier.

So 10:45am I pack up, unplug, jump in the driver’s seat and turn the key…
Nothing! Not even a click. I grab the meter and test the battery. She’s dead! Oh No!
Thanks to Stuart, I now have two batteries so I borrowed some jumper cables and jumped myself. Once the bus was running, I re-tightened the connection on the auxiliary battery and hoped for the best, but now I didn’t have any time. I had to catch this only to Friday Harbor out of Sidney by 12pm and we now only had minutes to spare rather than a ½ hour.

 

I pulled in and for some reason the smiley and chatty US Border agent at the gate was having a great conversation with the people in front of me, but they are already loading the cars. I finally get through and she forgets to tell me (and evidently the people behind me) which line we need to be in. We both ended up in the wrong lane, but for me, this now meant I had to back Sandy up the ramp and onto the ferry. It’s a good thing I don’t have a problem driving backwards.  Once aboard, Lexie and I went up to the passenger deck to relax and take some pictures.

The trip to Friday harbor was wonderful with so many beautiful things to see including some Sea Otters playing out in the water splashing their tails and jumping around. We also saw plenty of wood. Logs are more like it. Huge logs! They are floating in the water everywhere and I can only think that this happens due to the logging industry, but I am sure someone will correct me there.

 

 

 

We pulled into Friday Harbor and I saw my friend Steven K. Roberts boat right away. SV Nomadness was docked right next to the ferry, but being greeted by the “friendly” US Customs Agent was another story. I actually expected entry back into the US to be problem free. After all, I’m a US Citizen and I have my paperwork and I just left the US yesterday. Unfortunately that was anything but the case. I was scrutinized thoroughly by the Customs Agent. She asked why I was there and I said to visit a friend. She wanted to know how I knew Steven and I said On Line. She did not like that so she questioned me further about him. I pointed to his boat to my left and said, that’s his boat. He’s right there! She insisted I open the bus and she began going through everything. All cabinets, drawers…everything. Good thing Sandy is tiny or I’d still be there. She either didn’t like that I only spent a day in Victoria or that I was visiting an unknown friend or that I was driving a bus, but she too asked me how much I paid for the bus and wanted to know why I did not head to Vermont from Reno NV. In all honesty, if I took emotion and facial expression out of the picture; both Customs Agents asked me the same questions and basically did the same job, but the way the Canadian Customs Agent handled it made me feel welcomed while the US Customs Agent made me feel like I did something wrong.

Yeah…Welcome to America! :/

Well my disappointment with being back on US Soil soon ended as Steven was right there waiting for me. I greeted him immediately and we headed back to his boat after parking Sandy nearby. Once aboard SV Nomadness, I was immediately impressed with the quality. There wasn’t any laminate on this yacht like so many of the ones I was looking to purchase prior to Sandy. This yacht was solid…and steel too. Nomadness is an Amazon 44, steel raised-salon pilothouse cutter built in 1987 and design by Dieter Pollack of SP Metalcraft of Vancouver, BC. While she was not much longer than Kindred Spirit, the Morgan 43 Center Cockpit I was supposed to purchase back in April, she felt much bigger and sturdy. He showed me a cutout of the Hull and I was sold on Steel Hulls immediately. Why we don’t do more steel yachts is beyond me. Fiberglass seems too chancy when sailing out on the ocean with submerged cargo containers and the sometimes disgruntled whale.

After we chatted a bit, I asked if we could go to his shop. (For those that don’t know who Steven K Roberts is…Click Here) We headed downtown to the unmarked building that could have been anything at all. Once inside though, there I was amongst some of the greatest technology ever conceived by a man whom some may call mad. 😀  What we all take for granted today on our Smartphones: Internet Access, Wifi, 4G, Text Messaging, Cameras,

GPS, Maps, Weather and on and on…Steven dreamed up many moons ago and proved that this technology could be used on the road, self powered, self sustained and on a bicycle traveling some 17,000 miles. That bicycle is now in a museum, but here I was standing with the man who though all this to be possible and proved it so as I marveled at the technology before me, most of which was well outside of my realm of understanding which made it even more impressive.  Steven also showed me the amphibian pedal/solar/sail micro-trimaran he designed and built too as a next step to the bicycle and like the bicycle; it too had all this capability. Just the “landing gear” alone I could spend hours marveling over. YES, the sail boat had deployable wheels and a steering system to make maneuvering on land easy. Not to trailer or anything else, just to be able to wheel it in and out of the water. In fact, this trimaran had more technology in its steering system than I do in all of the bus.

After the tour, we chatted a bit about what he is doing today and remarkably, he and I are on similar paths in regards to some business models we are working on. We both still have the desire to sail the ocean and travel and be self-sustaining in doing such. We’ve both had some setbacks, but have decided that life is too precious to put on hold and we both continue to move forward to make these dreams happen, even when we need to change he dream a bit. For me that meant moving from a Motorcycle to a Yacht that didn’t happen to a Bus that did happen. For Steven, it means there might be a need for a bigger boat in the future.

So I found this day to be ironic. First I meet up with a total stranger I only know because of another friend who I believe never met him either and there we are talking about how we approach life in a very similar manner and not 1 hour later a Facebook post comes across my feed and I find out that an old classmate of mine is in the battle of his life for his life.

This is why, when people ask me how I do this, I respond “How can’t I”. We are each given an expiration date, but none of us are told when it is, but make no doubt about it, it will happen. It is beyond my thinking to give away the better part of half a life to “work” As I was telling Steven, I don’t make a living working. I work to live and as many can see, I do immerse myself deeply in the living part and only occasionally tread in the working part. The how is the puzzle. For me, it meant giving up a lot most of you have. Mostly what you call security, but that’s not all. I have also given up many material possessions as they are simply too big of a burden to carry and very costly. I can show anyone how I do what I do, but few will ever be able to step out of the safety of their box and realize you can breathe easier without than you can with…the security of your box.  My trip is not even ½ way over and I have already met many similar people out here on the road. All of whom threw away society’s idea of life and chose a new idea. All are very happy and all have so many stories to share.

I too have many more stories to share and tomorrow will be the start of yet another. Till then, take a look at your life and ask yourself if this is what you want. If the answer is Yes – Smile, you are a rare breed. If the answer is No – Wake up tomorrow and change it, for one day tomorrow will not come. You need not be like me or Steve or any one of the numerous people I meet who live similar to me, you just need to be happy with your life however you decide to write it.