Day 344

the trio of johnsons dropped me off at the ferry terminal in downtown victoria this morning. i am leaving the island. after pulling my cash from my canadian bank account i hopped on the ferry headed south for port angeles, washington, with no real way to get to where i needed to be after that. today was also my official leaving of canada and i turned in my work permit documentation upon boarding. i no longer belong here.

i was ready to test faith again today. maybe not test it, but i was ready to put faith in the forefront of my limited perspective and therefore be ready for anything to be revealed. this morning i was getting on a ferry in victoria, bc, bound for the olympic peninsula with no idea how to cover the additional 82 miles to port orchard, washington, where my friend parker's mom could pick me up. the 10 a.m. sun was bright and warm and i had my backpack and a yellow rolling duffle bag. all these things greatly excited me.

'there's no easy way,' said the direction man at the information booth on the ferry. 'there aren't any buses that go straight to where you need to go. if you hop these county transit buses you might be able to make it by seven.' i wrote down the series of departure times and bus numbers on a page of my green, back pocket notebook: port angeles to sequim to port townsend to poulsbo to silverdale to bremerton to port orchard. 'most people just cut across the puget sound on a ferry if they're on the way to seattle,' he said. 'and most people are on there way to seattle from port angeles.'

he gave me a white sheet of paper with washington's major highways crudely copied on one side. i thanked him and returned to my seat and memorized the highway routes and tucked it in my pocket as a backup plan.

i was faced with a familiar situation after disembarking, breezing through customs, and stepping back onto american soil- do i go left, straight, or right? i went right for a bit but stopped. i went back and started going straight from my origin. 'hey, my bank.' i was halfway down the block to deposit my canadian money when i stopped. no- back again. i went back to the curb across from the stream of vehicles now streaming off the ferry through customs and unfolded the white map of paper from my pocket. i'd written 'seattle?' in black marker on the blank backside. cars drove off, mostly elderly vacationers in their nice cars and straw hats. i tucked my long hair under the green coal beanie and continued to hold the sign out and tried to look friendly enough. suddenly a small, four door audi quattro pulled up and i recognized the young couple as passengers from the ferry. 'we live in seattle,' they said. 'get in.'

their names were glen and andrea and work as an artistic glass blower and in an office, respectively. they're probably in their late twenties, i guessed, and glen's blue eyes reflected in the driver's mirror and between his thick black hair and an equally dark beard. andrea was in the passenger seat and had blonde, long hair. of course i wasn't heading to seattle, but i'd written it on my paper because to get to that turnoff point would mean getting through the little trickling highways of the olympic peninsula. we talked about mountains and music and alaska and other places any of us had been during the drive that went by surprisingly fast. sixty-two miles later they dropped me at a bus stop in poulsbro, washington, before their turnoff for the ferry and puget sound and seattle. 'there's a little mexican restaurant a block up if you have to wait,' glen said as he shook my hand. i thanked the two of them and they refused money saying that it was on the way and that they always pick up hitchers. i let them know that i'd been praying for the right hitch hike to happen and that they were a literal answer to prayer and had become a clutch part of the story of the adventure. they thanked me back. i thanked them again. then we parted.

i had a forty minute wait and went to the mexican restaurant where eight dollars bought a satisfying and surprisingly large meal that was even complemented by my two good winter friends rice and beans. hey guys, good to see you again down there. so glad you're not alone this time.

from poulsbro i hopped a series of city transit buses. the first ride cost two dollars and they gave transfer tickets at each stop so i wouldn't have to buy another.

after few buses and one more short ferry ride over to port orchard i was in contact with parker's mom as planned. all in all this disconnected journey only cost about twenty eight dollars including lunch. not bad for having left canada that morning with a little bit of faith, even less money, and no plans. i don't know what else to say but i'm always thankful and amazed.



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Day 38

we just got back from the staff 'special event' day. the first part of it included going to see a movie. rumors that had included prince caspian or perhaps indiana jones as likely options were shattered, completely blindsided in-fact, when we all started to realize that kung fu panda was more than a preview. or extended preview. wow. we watched kung fu panda.

the good news in all this was the realization of satisfaction in the hard work i'd put in editing the advanced crew video over the past 48 hours. after a long day and night and then a pressured morning today, the renders and burnings finished literally just in time to grab the hot and precious dvd and hop on the bus for our trip into victoria. they played my video twice before the regular beginnings of previews and then, of course, we all saw kung fu panda. it was really exciting to see my work in a theater and i received good feedback and comments about the video from many people, so the late night and overall intenseness of the past day and a half was well worth this experience. i'll try to post the video on this blog soon.

the rest of the day continued with eating pizza on the parliament lawn. this would be the same lawn that our video 'parliament jam' had occurred several weeks ago. we wandered around the city for a while afterwards and i happened to score some free starbucks from a generous soul before we all, quite eagerly, boarded the upper, open level of two, double-decker tour busses for the final part of our day's event. little did we know that this victoria city joyride and picture-frenzy would turn into a nearly two hour long, temperature plunging experience that included visiting land far, far away from the original downtown victoria turf. between the two previous personal adventures and then today's epic upper-deck journey through the city's capillaries and windy extended divisions, i feel that i have a pretty solid knowledge and grasp on victoria.

it was a long day and it was exciting. trading ipods with australians was really interesting. i didn't listen to a ton of them, but 'the cat empire' seems like a solid funk/jazz/samba band from down under. look it up if you so desire. i'm gonna try to put out a more complete music post soon complete with links and such. i've also been trying to change up some of the pictures on here but blogger has been difficult. i am trying.

my bleary eyes are still rolling after the day's excitements and activities and especially intense bus rides, but i've made it to day 38.

the following was included as part of the ending of the a.c video:

"the community has been built

  these relationships have been formed

  the vision is ours to share

  we stand prepared

  look back no more"