Day 1: Vancouver - Bellingham (75 miles)

Over night Vancouver was treated to a dusting of snow. Undeterred, and well fed with toast and cereal we leapt on our bikes and started the long day ahead of us. As we cycled through downtown Vancouver we hit suburbia and our first signs of snow. Luckily there was no snow on the roads but it was pretty cool cycling along with snow on the verges and trees. You would have thought we would be cold with the weather only a touch over freezing but maybe the excitement and extra load of our panniers was keeping us warm. The add image button isn't working on the blog at the moment so I will post photos next time I am on a computer.

We sauntered along the Fraser river, with industrial land to our right. We started to feel strong winds but it was still early enough in our day to not feel perturbed by it. Eventually we hit Alex Fraser Bridge and our first failure in navigation. We were directed to use the East sidewalk but this was closed and for some reason (unknown to both of us) we couldn't work out how to get to the other side. Eventually we found our way onto a flimsy cantilevered sheet metal walkway. The bear bell in my bag kept clanging and spooking me into thinking we were in imminent danger. As Tim got to the other side, the engineer in him was equally panicked by what we had just cycled over.

As we continued to cycle, the contrast of our surroundings was amazing - snow capped mountains surrounding industrial hinterland. As we were reaching 2pm we decided it was time to grab some lunch, but all we could see was fast food land. In luck we found a small supermarket where we stocked up on sandwiches and bananas. After cycling yet further to find some countryside to sit in we plumped for a bus stop bench! As ever lots of people stopped to talk to us. I was tempted to throw our bikes on the bus - the buses here have bike racks on the front - but of course that would be cheating.....

Some time before 3pm we pedalled into Blaine and into U.S. customs on the Canadian/American border, having hit a massive hill with an ever vanishing crest. This was the usual fair of tight lipped aggressive border control asking us daft questions like do we have any guns in your panniers. The best interaction was when the guy asked us why we had so much luggage and what it was. Tim replied 'personal effects'. The guy retorted 'I know they are personal effects mate. You are at the border - I want to know what.' That told us.

Visa waiver sorted, the guy lightened up slightly and asked us which way we were going to cycle. We showed him the map, and he kindly told us that cyclists are allowed to cycle along the interstate out of border control until you reach the Pacific Highway. The hard shoulders are huge here and as such you get a lane big enough for cars to cycle along, but we thought it still sounded a little scary and ignored his advice........ This was a big mistake.

An hour or so later we were on the first side of a triangle (the interstate being the hypotenuse). My back was killing, our bums were agony and the wind was blowing a gale right into our faces. I could barely move for the weight of my bike (touring bikes are not light) and panniers, and Tim was equally not having much fun. It felt like hours to the end of the road and then we had to do the other side of the triangle, where the wind appeared to kindly turn once again into our faces!

At the first sight of humanity (read SUV's and trucks) I dropped my bike onto the forecourt of a petrol station and devoured a king size mars bars - I knew there was a reason for such glutinous chocolate bar sizes!

Recharged we gladly cycled into Bellingham. Last night we had booked a motel on Samish way, only to find when we got into Bellingham we had no idea where this was. As we pulled off the road to formulate a plan a lady with a bike trailer covered in flowers (!) approached us. She was either a little crazy or we didn't yet understand the local mentality - that said she gave us brilliant directions. I have to admit to following them gingerly, wandering if they were true or not but sure enough we got to our destination.

Initially we had tried booking a room in a different motel, but couldn't get through on the number we had. I luckily went onto the Internet and found some horrendous reviews for the place, most memorable of which was: 'It's a whore house, drug den'!! I thankfully checked the reviews of the next place which were really good so we knew when we got to Bellingham we were hopefully going to be in some comfortable beds and that they were.

As we had cycled through Bellingham the place looked like a ghost town so we dropped our bikes and still in our cycle wear we walked John Wayne style (!) down to a pizza place we had seen.

Brilliant - We had survived day one and the pizzas were amazing!