Season 3 Episode 1 (9/18-9/19): May These Gates Never Be Closed!

Season 3 Episode 1 (9/18-9/19): May These Gates Never Be Closed! – 

9/18 Arrive in Vancouver, BC and 10 mile warm up ride.

Driving to Newark airport in the rain (and dark), we were thrilled it was sunny in Vancouver when we landed. A great start for our warm-up ride around Stanley Park, their version of Central Park but bigger and surrounded by water. I’d cycled around its spectacular Seawall Route many times before on multiple trips here from 1985-1998.

Stanley Park, Seawall Bike Path. Oh Canada. It was great to be back.

Our day started with the friendly Air Canada team at check-in who was excited to be part of our journey and assured us they’d take good care of our bikes.

And yes our bikes safely made it! Gratitude!

Using the cart on the escalator (against Heather’s warning to me) was not a smart idea. I nearly tumbled and caused a chain reaction with others behind me. That would have been a sad way to injure myself and not even start the ride (kind of Aaron Rogers like in NY Jets debut.)

Logistics was Hertz van rental from the airport to Simon’s Bikes downtown for reassembly.

Our Stanley Park ride brought back a ton of memories of my first trip here in 1985 the summer I fell in love with Western Canada and USA’s majestic National Parks. I confess it felt even grander back then, and I guess that was through my youthful, less experienced eyes that back then had not traveled further west of Toronto. One statue I noticed today that I had not seen before in at least 15 times around this park was the Harry Jerome (athlete of the century) statue with a quote that resonated deeply with me: “The will to do, the soul to dare” by Sir Walter Scott. It struck me as a great theme to launch this ride!

At night, a highlight was enjoying dinner with my old friend Fred in Yaletown. It was close to 30 years since we’d seen him and we roared with laughter recalling the summer we worked together.

Another highlight of the day for me was meeting tennis icon John McEnroe at the airport. He was on our flight to Vancouver, heading there for the Laver Cup.

 I told John about our epic ride to which he replied in a loud shout “You CANNOT be serious!!” This caused a scene.

Nah, just kidding. He wished us the best of luck. That was just my imagination of the movie version where he plays himself. (For younger peeps who don’t get the McEnroe quote, Google it with him to find out why it’s also the name of his memoir.)

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9/19 Vancouver to Bellingham, WA. 72 miles 2291’ climb.

Vancouver is definitely very bike friendly. Lots of dedicated bike paths made it easy and safe to exit the downtown area.

A good sign I’m choosing the right path!

Heather took a spill. Is she pulling a day one Aaron Rogers?

As the trail got soft, Heather went down behind me. After she immediately shouted she was okay, let the record state I still asked TWICE if she was indeed alright before then taking a photo. I wasn’t risking any husband demerit points like I got back on 2021’s ride.

So far it’s been Heather with the sweet tooth. She loves these treats not available in the USA (Crunchie, Smarties and Whippets).

The most thought provoking activity of the day was crossing the border from Canada to the USA. As we are both natives of Montreal and moved to NY separately in our mid 20’s, we have driven or flown between the 2 countries likely a few hundred times. (We are dual citizens, and the day I got naturalized as a US citizen was one of the more significant days of my life.)

Now here is what’s so shocking: despite crossing the border so many times, I’ve never thought much about the fact that this is the longest undefended border in the world. The 49th parallel forming the western half has no natural boundary (mountain or river) dividing the countries. It’s just an imaginary line drawn up. It’s a remarkably peaceful relationship. Is there anything like this in history?

What brought this thought on was crossing the border by bike was a first. And when you’re on a bike, everything is different. It slows down. And there is Peace Arch…

Brethren dwelling together in unity.

Children of a Common Mother.

May These Gates Never Be Closed.

Border Crossing.

Once in Washington, the riding was much more scenic and along the water.

We loved Birch Bay State Park.

After some tough headwinds, crosswinds and drizzle, we made it safely to our Warm Showers hosts, Molly and Jen. (For new readers unfamiliar with WS, it’s a wonderful community of strangers hosting strangers who show up on a bike and without pay. The medium of exchange is conversation and learning about one another.)

Molly and Jen were amazing hosts welcoming us into their charming home, and leaving it open for us to arrive before them and make ourselves at home. They’re genuine people and experienced cyclists and we easily related. There was an instant comfort even before discovering the uncanny connection that Molly is originally from the NY metro area and Jen from Montreal and lived just a few miles from where Heather and I grew up. Amazing we should end today with our dual nationalities connecting us to our hosts.

Molly (and Jen absent) were wonderful Warm Showers hosts.

An amazing day was capped off by sweets from Pure Bliss Desserts. We each sampled four and my #1 pick by far is their creamy lemon wedge. Definitely moanworthy as I say and even better that I was not the only one - our hosts fully subscribe to that food philosophy!

Bliss Desserts - we slept blissfully!

© Copyright Mark Segal 2023.