There are a bunch of really well signed bike routes in the Victoria area. We saw a ton of tandems and triples, later we heard that it was a yearly tandem convention. There are some crazy tandems. I think the weirdest ones are the mixed recumbent/upright tandems. They did look like they might have a shorter wheelbase as the front wheel ends up under the front rider, but man do they look weird.
We did get to visit a bike coop here, saw it right off the bike path and hopped on in. Got shown the works, traded some coop stickers, and pumped up our tires. If you are in the Victoria region, and need a coop, these folks seemed really cool. The Recyclistas!
Also, the US is absurd about entry. You start on the Canadian side (before getting on the ferry) with a customs officer quizzing you and taking a look at your passport, then have to get processed by the border patrol on the US side, who ask random weird questions. When we went to Canada, they asked 5 straightforward questions, and seemed happy to see us. And that was after processing a full train, and we were the last people to get to customs. The US side didn’t even give us a welcome home.
(Robert)
