On the road again! (day three) 4

Right now we’re sitting at some up and happening coffee shop in Hood River, sharing a large coffee and unashamedly taking advantage of the free wifi and available power outlets. Let me now regale you with tales of our first days on the road:

We hit the dusty trail early (okay, perhaps a little later than anticipated)on Friday morning. Our combined family members & friends behaved like ruthless paparazzi and bombarded by taking roughly one trillion photos and we made ready to take off. It was actually really bittersweet saying goodbye to all the people we love, but everyone including us are real excited about this crazy nut-job tour we’s gunna do.

Down the road  we stopped at Stink’s friend, Tessa house & said more goodbyes. Then off we went… till I had to take a potty break right away in Newberg. (I was so nervous/crazy/excited that I forgot to pee before we left).

We cruised on up Rex hill & things went quite smoothly. I couldn’t get into my granny gear (the super tiny gear up front)so Stink made some minor derailleur adjustments for me once we reached the top. Then, more smooth sailing all the way to Portland waterfront park. The endless hill on Barbur boulevard was … hilly, but we did quite well for ourselves. Beef took sporadic & bumpy naps in the beefbox as we rolled along.

I had hoped to connect with a reporter from the Portland Tribune once we got in to Portland, but he texted & said he was too busy writing about Obama because he’s cooler than us. Whatever. haha. While we were chillin’ out at the waterfront, we met a few interesting characters: Ludwig Sears (Ludwig’s ears, he says), who rapped us some spoken wordz, bike dude who I don’t think we got the name of, a friendly family, and some rat folks.

After a good meal of peanut butter, bagel, and Momma Sue’s vegan cookies, we trekked on across the river and over to Stink’s sister, Heather’s apartment. Heather toured with us a couple years ago up to the top of Washington & then back down to Napa Valley, CA. Anyways, we blew up her & Cody’s back patio with all our crap. Stink went off to her pastor Jeff’s graduation, and Heather got bike tube patching lessons from me & Cody. Good jerb Heather!  Later, my friend Mariah & her boyfriend Jeremy came over with ciders, and Jer chopped off most of my hairs. We all hung about & had a good time as it was a good crowd.

Then they headed out and we all immediately went to bed & passed out. In the morning, Heather & Cody made us a delicious breakfast with vegan sausages, eggs, strawberries, and fresh breads from the bakery down the street. After gorging ourselves on free fodder, we finished packing up and rolled on out of Portland.

We had some wonderful riding and views of road side waterfalls as we climbed to the Vista house on the Columbia river gorge. We scoped out all the beautiful lands about us, ate some snacks, and cruised on outta there, riding the old Columbia river highway on over to Multnomah Falls. Stink ran into a friend from George Fox there, so we had that merry bit of kismet. Leaving the falls, we eventually stumbled onto a bike path that paralleled the highway. It was nice cruising along without cars, and we stopped & ate lunch/rested/wrote/mapped for a bit along the way.

But then, after a nice descent, we turned a corner and BAM! Four flights of super steep stairs we had to creep the bikes down. Duuuuumb, but we managed to do it between fits of laughter at the absurdity of having to cart 100 pounds of crap on wheels down stairs in the middle of bum-truck nowhere.

I was in communication with my brother during all this, as he wanted to meet up & camp together that night. Stink plotted out where we’d be to get our quota of 55 miles, and found a state park there in the Oregon side of the river. So we skipped out on the Bridge of the Gods (which wasn’t as impressive looking as in my head) and headed out towards the park. At one point we were following a road when it forked and we were pondering with path to take, and a nice man in a pickup truck pulled up and asked if he could help us ladies find where we were going. He gave us good advice, got us on the right road, and had a badass feather collection dangling from his rearview. Thanks helpful stranger!

We rolled on for many more miles, then arrived at the park….

This is where I sign off because it’s now eight o’clock at night & I’m in the tent about to pass out. Will continue this riveting tale tomorrow, sorry for the word vomit, just kinda journaling it all right here.

PEACE HOMIES.

ALSO, HERE ARE PICTURES:

columbia river gorge. just a bit before vista house

Okay, nevermind, only one picture because it doesn’t want to let me upload any more at the moment.. Tomorrow! pictures! you’ll see!

BYE.

-lizzy/wikki/lizbits