As it turned out, Pete and I only had a single day’s delay in Taiwan, and disappointingly it was largely spent at the airport.  The airline put us up in a hotel for the night though, and we managed to hone our table tennis skills for a couple of hours while the typhoon buffeted the windows.

We landed in San Francisco to bright sunshine and got lots of looks as we walked around the gay capital of America in matching Latitude t-shirts (one blue, one a distinctly faded maroon - nice).  It was a brief visit, but we were both rather taken by the beautiful bay area - and given that all our previous knowledge of the place came from Hollywood, we were just happy to see Alcatraz and the crazy hills.  Pete’s old housemate from Bristol happened to be on a placement there and showed us the sights and gave us a bed and a hot tub for the night - thanks Mel!

In the morning we picked up a hire car and began our trip north to rejoin Spike, Roxy and 50 degrees.  Northern California was warm and beautiful, and with a 20 hour journey up the coast ahead of us we decided to stop at a winery for some tasting, naturally.  We were (of course) sensible but it was a lovely place and we got back on the 101 rather reluctantly.

The coastal road is amazing - we drove through giant redwood country (and yes they are giant!), and up past beautiful coastline all the way through Oregon and Washington.  Sadly we had to do a fair bit of it at night and in fog, but it’s a long way and we had a date with Canadian TV to keep!

We arrived in Seattle for a very brief stop and jumped on the greyhound to meet Spike and get to Canada, the expedition is back on!

-David

Playing on the iPod: ‘Long road out of Eden’ by The Eagles