Off to Seattle - Jun 16

The airplane itself was small and cramped like the Green Line at rush hour. When you get to an airport out west you see the planes from Alaska Airlines. They have a portrait of a hardy-looking Inuit on the vertical stabilizers. My plane should have had a portrait of King Olaf on the tail, because I felt like a Skydine, and the fish, I mean people, next to me felt the same way.

I got into Seattle-Tacoma Airport at 6 pm Pacific time. By the time I was able to get the bike unpacked, reassembled, and the panniers stowed on it, it was 7:30 which is 10:30 Eastern time. I headed outside into the rain, and down the airport road to Route 99, “The Alaska Way”. I turned north towards Seattle, and 1 ½ miles from the airporthad my first tire-related incident. I was trying to pump extra air into the front tire when the metal valve stem broke. This meant I had to take off the front panniers, loosen the brakes, take off the wheel, and replace the tube. At 4 miles from the airport, I was in Tukwila, which is where all the cheap motels are.

Unfortunately, they were all full. If it hadn’t been raining, and so late , I would have found a patch of trees to camp in. Instead I doubled back along the other side of the road to the ‘Jet Inn’, which at $50 a night, was neither the worst nor the cheapest motel at which I’ve ever stayed. As far as my body was concerned it was midnight and I couldn’t go any further.