Bucky Ashcraft returns to the BEST Bus

Seattle, Washington

Posted August 20, 2007

Wednesday, August 8th

We left the Gorge with Bucky Ashcraft back behind the wheel, and from there we headed up to Seattle to pick up Lia Feriancek, our International Sales Representative. She'll be joining us for the trip to Canada. As we waited for her flight to arrive, we met up with Darren Wiley from Wiley's Ski Shop. Darren helped us out huge and swung in to grab Lia from the terminal. Then he treated us to beer and pizza at his favorite spot in Seattle. Afterwards, he loaned us a nuvi GPS, a much needed device for where we're headed.

It was Miguel's last night with us in the RV. Miguel will be heading down to Venezeula to travel with the BEST Odyssey for a few weeks, so we decided to make a trade. See, Darren had a Best flag of ours that we happened to leave behind in San Francisco, and Miguel needed to be put up for the night before his flight the next day, so we got the flag, and Darren got Miguel. We thought it was a pretty even trade. No, but seriously Miguel, you will be missed, and best of luck in your travels ahead!

Thursday, August 9th

We woke this morning in Port Angeles, Washington, awaiting a ferry ride to Victoria, BC, on Vancouver Island.

We had quite a beautiful ride that morning, and we had fun posing for pictures out on the deck too.

Once we pulled off the boat at the boarder, we were flagged for inspection.

Their questions were something like, "How do you all know each other?" we ride together sir. "So, you're from Florida, New York, and Texas?" Yes sir that's right. "So, how did you meet each other?" Ahh, we ride together, sir. Finally, they figured out how we know each other and let us across. Mark Sprungman was right there to meet us. We followed him to his house to start packing for the trip up to Nitinat Lake.

The road to Nitinat is a 30 mile-long logging road, and lucky for us the loggers happen to be on strike, so the roads haven't been maintained much. Our trip began around 8 PM, driving gravel roads at 15mph though some of the thickest forest you can imagine. Oh, but we had fun alright! About half way up we started talking about scary movies, and how maybe this was all just an elaborate plan to kidnap us. Well, the longer we drove the more paranoid we must have got, because we were almost there when we noticed a car pulled off ahead of us, and a large man walking down the middle of the road. This is when Lia screams,"He's got blood on his shirt!"

So now Bucky's freaked out and doesn't slow down. We pass right by him, and he starts banging on the side of the RV. Now were really scared. Mark was riding behind us so we slow down to make sure this crazy guy doesn't attack him. Bucky grabs a hammer, I'm looking for him in the rear view. Just then we hear a knock at our door, but no one wants to open it. Finally, we open the door to hear Mark say, "Hey guys meet Dale, the Event Coordinator." Dale was cool, and we all had a good laugh. We had finally made it and parked at the gas station in town to crash for the night.

Coming soon...Our next adventure takes us to Nitinaht Lake's Windfest 2007!

~ Kris Kinn

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