Sunday, April 25, 2010
The bike
Within a day or two of getting home the big box we'd sent via UPS arrived. We got that up into our dining room/bike workshop without much trouble. But by the end of September we still hadn't seen our bike. I started to get a little worried.
I called up Amtrak Express, down in DC. Turns out our Bike had been there for almost two weeks — they just hadn't called. Since David was moving, we took an extra trip down in his UHaul van. The Amtrak Express people wheeled the bike over to us and checked their logs. They had, indeed, forgotten to call, so we didn't have to pay an extra storage fee.
I should probably have been upset with Amtrak Express, but I just didn't care. We didn't really have anywhere to store the bike anyway. David and I ended up carrying it up into the dining room, where I spent several weeks slowly reassembling it and carefully cleaning out as much as I could. Sand and dirt were ground into every little part.
It still wasn't rideable when I was done. The brakes weren't working correctly and it made some nasty noise when I tried to pedal. We took it to Wheelbase Bikes in Frederick, where they said they'd give it a deep cleaning.
Of course, they also found some other things. The back chain was stretched literally off the gauge. That meant the cassette was dead - this new cassette would be our third one. They also tried to replace our front tire. Back in Idaho we'd put a no flat tire on it - no air, just foamy rubber. Unfortunately for us, Wheelbase couldn't get the tire off, even after trying with motorcycle irons. The only way to get that wheel off would be to cut the tire with a knife. We opted to leave it on until the tread wore off (as it was a Walmart tire with several hundred miles on it already, it won't be long).
The Photos
I spent about an hour putting pictures into the appropriate folders and Jillian spent several more hours sorting, cropping, editing, and posting to Flickr. She finished in mid April of 2010. We finished with close to 20GB of photos.
Weight
Before we'd left, I weighed in at just over 190 lbs. When we got back I'd fallen all the way to 170. The part that scared me was my weight in Denver - nearly 185lbs. Somehow I'd managed to lose 15 pounds in the month between Pickle's house and finishing. But then, finishing your day with dinner at McDonald's or worse, a vending machine, will do that to you. I'm now up to 180, which I've hovered around since senior year of high school.
| posted at: 14:30 |
permanent link and comments
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Day 64
We started our day by taking some photos out on the deck overlooking town. Note that these are the first new clothes since the Frederick Photos back in days 4-5.
Also be sure to have a look at my hands. Those, coupled with my awesome zebra tan on my feet, made me stand out pretty well in any crowd.
Next step was to get in touch with a bike shop. Way back before we'd left we'd asked Larry at Mt Airy Bikes for some advice. He'd suggested we talk to the Bike Gallery. Jillian's mother had talked with them before, so we had a good idea of where to go, but we called again to verify a few things.
Before we could go there we first stopped at a Pack and Mail. It took some work, but they found us a box big enough for our trailer, which we packed with just about as much as we could. That cost about $70 to ship - UPS isn't cheap. BOBs are also hard to measure, apparently, as it took a few tries for the Pack and Mail people to make us a box the right size.
Then we went over to their Division location where we met with Peter Lunoak. He first had to find us a box. Standard procedure for shipping a bicycle is to pack it into an old bike box. Our bike proved to be a little too big. In fact, the only box they had that would fit us was a huge electric scooter box. We took some measurements and called UPS. The box was too big for UPS to take. That meant shipping via Amtrak Express. Since we'd be boarding a plane soon, Peter agreed to take care of delivering the bike to the train station and working out a price with them. We agreed on a price that we both thought was fair (having not shipped Amtrak Express before, Peter wasn't sure how much it was going to be).
Bike dropped off, it was time to head out to dinner and to see a baseball game. We stopped at the Duck Store in Portland before getting dinner with Jillian's relatives. Then we were off to a baseball game. On the way, we saw things that made us love Oregon even more, including:
Afterward it was time to head home. We made sure to stop at Powell's, which fills an entire city block full of books. We only had an hour before they closed, which made us both very sad. We all could have spent a day in there. Both Jillian and I grabbed a few books as reading material for the plan ride.
Day 65
The next day we got up late and spent quite a bit of time blogging, napping, and doing laundry. For lunch we went out to a Pasta Bar/Buffet place, which was an excellent way to get lots of food. It was interesting - our metabolisms had already started to slow way down, and I wasn't able to eat nearly as much food as I'd expected. But I was still thirsty, all the time.
We also stopped at REI on the way home. The employees there weren't nearly as excited about our trip as we felt they should have been.
That night we had a fantastic dinner with Jillian's relatives before turning in for some sleep.
Day 66
Our flight left pretty early in the morning, and featured a stop in Salt Lake City. Jillian spent a lot of the flight not feeling very well, and I mostly read or napped. One thing that helped was the free drink tickets Jillian's parents shared with us (they'd gotten them for free on the flight out).
We landed and drove back to Lancaster. The flight took most of the day. It was good to be back in Pennsylvania though. But then, maybe it was just good to know where I was sleeping at night, and to know what I was having for dinner.
Day 67
We had quite the welcome back party at Jillian's parents house. Saw a lot of friendly faces and even gave some advice to a future bike tourist. After the party we loaded my car up with as much stuff as we could. I drove home that night - Jillian decided to wait a day in order to play Ultimate Frisbee in Gettysburg. I thought she was crazy, but whatever.
It felt good to be home.
| posted at: 04:11 |
permanent link and comments
Monday, August 17, 2009
Today started with a rush to look normal for the news cameras.
We answered some questions, unpacked and repacked our gear for the camera, and generally tried to sound like we weren't simply the really exhausted and half glad to be done cyclists we were.
Afterward we gave Aaron and Laura a call, and agreed on a place to get together. Riding through Eugene was pretty awesome. Cyclists were everywhere. Coffee with Aaron and Laura was fun, too. We would love to live in Eugene.
Our new friends helped us find our way to the bicycle paths that traverse the city, which were extensive. Both were on their way to work, which they rode to every day. We were a little envious. Bike infrastructure was really amazing. We stopped again at a gas station just west of town, and took a shot of a very important sign:
Just 53 miles left. Tomorrow we could even sleep in.
OR-126 wasn't that great of a highway to ride. The shoulders were tiny, and there was a good deal of traffic. But, this being Oregon, people gave us lots of space.
We stopped again down the road, and then again at another gas station even further on in Noti. I felt exhausted and beat up.
From Noti we had a hill to climb - but it was less than 800 feet high.
On the far side of that climb, we saw an important sign.
I needed some Espresso. We stopped. Jillian wanted some berries, but wasn't sure she could eat an entire container and I simply wasn't interested. After some discussion with the clerk, she decided to go for it.
She ate them all without much trouble. We finally dragged ourselves away and rode on, along wonderfully shaded roads. We soon arrived at a tunnel, which had some awesome features for bicycles. Before entering, cyclists were supposed to press a button, which activated a light above the tunnel.
We love Oregon.
On the other side of the tunnel we had our last downhill of the trip. Unfortunately, it was marred by construction. We had to wait some time for our turn to go.
At the bottom of the hill was Mapleton, where we stopped, once again, for coffee at the Mapleton Caffeination Station. We had awesome frozen coffees before dragging ourselves onward, in an effort to arrive at the beach at sundown. I made friends outside with a very thirsty dog.
From Mapleton we had a very flat ride along the Siuslaw River. There was some road construction, but a lot of it seemed to be for widening the road and adding shoulders - we can't complain about that.
It wasn't nearly as bright as we'd expected when we got close to Florence. We were going to have to move pretty quick to make the beach by sundown. Jillian's parents met us, to tell us that our original beach location wasn't actually a beach. Instead, they'd found us an alternate beach where we could actually wheel the bikes into the water. We weren't sure how to get there, so her parents leapfrogged us, playing human signpost.
They were pretty excited about our finishing, and that really helped us keep pushing.
We pulled into the Oregon Sand Dunes Recreation area, and found her parents car. There we rapidly put on every article of clothing we could easily find. It was very, very windy.
In order to reach the beach we had to climb over the top of a dune (note to others: if you keep going down the road, you can completely avoid having to climb the dune). It took some effort, but we carried the bike to the top.
There is no real way to describe the feeling of seeing that beach for the first time. Two months of riding. Almost quitting in Maryland, Indiana, and Denver. Outrunning dogs. Breaking down and being rescued by strangers and friends in Idaho, Kansas and Ohio. Going to bed hungry because we couldn't find any food. Freezing in the Oregon during crazy night time descents. Freezing and purple feet in Laramie. Tears. All over in one instant.
The way we'd ridden through Florece we hadn't even seen the water. Our first glimpse came as we crested that dune. We were a little awkward going down.
Our first task was to officially finish - we had to dip the wheel in the ocean, as we had back in New Jersey. We raced down and lifted the bike high above our heads in triumph.
Our second task was to start making phone calls, while we waited thirty minutes for the sun to start dipping down. I called my parents, thanking them for all the weather reports they'd given us, and letting them know they didn't need to worry any more. I called the Staphs, who we missed meeting in Wyoming by a day. I called Pickle, who had lent us her house in Denver. I called Jester, who had originally planned to ride from Boise to Florence with us. I reassured him that he'd made the right decision not coming. We'd changed our plans so many times that the route we wound up doing was nothing like what we'd originally planned on. Jester wouldn't have had any fun at all.
The calls were made extra difficult by the wind, which swept our tracks clean moments after walking on them. We had to spend most of our time facing south, to avoid sand in our eyes. Mostly it was nice to just sit, and not move. I was cold, but didn't care too much. We were done.
Today was the first day I missed the kick stand.
Finally the sun went down, and we hoisted the bicycle above our heads one last time.
Pictures taken, it was time to pack up our gear and find some dinner. We didn't have a bike rack, so we had to carefully disassemble the bike in order to fit in the back of the car. Our apologies to the rental company - it was a little sandy.
We drove back to Eugene, covering a day's worth of distance in a little over an hour. Her parents took us out to the Steelhead Brewery for dinner.
Then it was on to Portland, where we stayed with some of Jillian's extended family. We arrived a little late for a welcome party, but they left us a little something.
We didn't have a chance to enjoy it - we were simply too tired. We took showers, enjoyed the view of the city from the back deck, and crashed into bed.
| posted at: 04:05 |
permanent link and comments
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Today was going to be an extra good day. Our first stop of the day would be in Sisters, where we were going to meet Jillian's parents and give them our trailer. Then, almost seventy pounds lighter, we'd tackle the last real pass of the trip and head into the Willamette valley. As an extra bonus, we'd get an almost 5000 foot downhill from the top of the pass to Eugene.
Our first real stop may have been in Sisters, but we decided to stop at the grocery store down the street first. Motel 6's are cheap, but don't provide much in the way of a free breakfast in the morning. While I was feeling a little sick - likely from too much Mexican food - that didn't stop me from my usual donuts and doubleshots at Safeway.
The view on the way from Redmond to Sisters was fantastic.
I best remember one steep, though short climb, which just about killed me because I wasn't feeling well. I wasn't more than 200 feet, but the combination of Mexican food and heat was enough to slow me down.
Jillian's parents beat us to Sisters, and rather than hang out and wait they thought they'd drive east and find us. They found us about three miles away - though we had some trouble finding them, since we were waiting in a parking lot and they were driving a rental. But they took our trailer and left to find parking somewhere in town, which made the bike a lot lighter.
We met them just inside Sisters, which was accurately described by Jillian's mother as a town from the shore, but without the shore. We ate at a cute cafe. It's hard to describe how hungry you get a bike tour. Some of the people we'd talked to that had toured said we'd likely finish and spend a month just eating and drinking, trying to get the body caught up.
We couldn't stay long with Jillian's parents, since we'd arrived in Sisters much later than we'd originally wanted. We left them there to explore the town while we pressed on for McKenzie pass.
We didn't start very intimidated.
The road was flat for a long time. But it was a tree lined, so we were able to ride in the shade, which was incredibly important. We also felt like we were flying, with our unusually light bicycle. One other awesome thing about this pass: No trucks or RVs. The road simply isn't wide enough, particularly on turns.
As we raced to the top, we realized we were making great time. We also hadn't seen Jillian's parents yet. So we did the competitive thing and decided to race them. We only made one brief stop for Jillian's foot pain and to swap out water bottles.
Imagine our surprise when we literally came around a bend and saw this:
There's a 65 square mile lava field on top of the pass. We had no idea it was going to be there, and no idea we'd be riding through it.
We arrived at the top of the pass only minutes before Jillian's parents did, meaning we'd won. To celebrate our victory, they'd brought us Subway and fresh Powerade!
We took some time to explore the observatory.
Then it was time for our long awaited downhill. The top of the pass is at 5325 feet. Eugene, our goal, is at 430 feet. That's 4895 feet of vertical drop. I could hardly contain my excitement.
Of course, we were moving slow. While riding on a little downhill I noticed that if we coasted we'd come to a stop. I got really, really frustrated. Our last big hill of the entire trip, and we're having brake problems? This was just like the tire rub way back outside of Bedford, PA.
When we first sat down to work on the bike, I tried just spinning the wheel to see if there was a problem. Without any weight on the wheel, it would stop very quickly. I did what I could, using our chain check tool to pry apart the brake pads and then getting Jillian to balance the bike so that we could lower it down and align the pads perfectly. Finally, with our brake problem mostly fixed, we got going again.
This time, the descent was wonderful. It was a long series of shaded switchbacks, with almost no traffic. We were able to take advantage of both lanes while we descended for the next sixteen miles. Watching the trees was fun, too. The further down we went, the higher the trees got.
At the bottom of the descent, we found Jillian's parents chatting with some motorcyclists at a little parking area. They were rather concerned, since we'd taken a while to come down the hill and there'd been an accident at the top while we were descending. Apparently someone had backed out of a parking space near the observatory and backed right in to someone. Her parents were, understandably, a little worried when they started hearing sirens.
Her parents departed and went to Eugene to watch a baseball game while we rode along the McKenzie River.
This was some wonderful riding. Wide shoulder, slightly downhill, and no wind. There were even other cyclists. To keep things interesting, we decided to pretend we were a pirate ship and needed to catch the other ships in order to raid their stuff. We caught two, but didn't raid anything.
A few miles down we stopped at a little general store and had some ice cream. There's something about reaching the end of your tour that makes you feel kind of lazy - or like you don't want to finish.
This road was extra awesome, as it had something wonderful: bathrooms every few miles. Then we spotted this sign:
We knew the one sign was for fishing, and another was for picnics, but what was the last one? Jillian decided it must be for dolphin riding (We think it was actually for a fish hatchery). Dolphin riding, downhills, shoulders, and bathrooms? Oregon was our bicycling fantasy. Jillian even wrote a song titled, "Oregon, you're our bicycling fantasy"
On our way down the road, we called two cyclists who also owned a Pino. Aaron and Laura Beese also owned a Pino, and had spent almost two years riding to the geographic centers of 46 of the 50 states (I wasn't able to find their website to link to). They'd promised to host us in Eugene. But we'd kind of forgotten to call them until we were only a few hours out of Eugene, and we weren't able to get in touch with them.
It started getting late, again. Jillian's parents called us up, wondering when in the world we were going to arrive in Eugene. We didn't really have an answer. They drove out to meet us and give us our stuff back. But when they met us, we convinced them to find us a hotel room and drop our stuff off there. They also let us know about a TV reporter they'd met, and who was interested in meeting with us in the morning. After giving her parents a bit more stuff, they drove off. Aaron and Laura called us back, but we now already had a place to stay. We agreed to meet them in the morning.
By now, it was quite dark. But this was Oregon. We didn't care. There were wide bike lanes, and plentiful lighting. Our real problem was staying on the right road. We were even stopped by some cops, who just wanted to tell us how awesome our bike was. We ended up at a Day's Inn, which was almost brand new. We wheeled our stuff down to our room - meeting Jillian's parents in the parking lot and thanking them over and over. Then it was time for some dinner.
We got some pizza at a place nearly next door. It was a little slow, but then it was after ten.
Today ended up being an amazing day. We powered over the pass, had an amazing descent, had an awesome ride along the McKenzie and wound up with warm food after it was dark for once.
| posted at: 04:05 |
permanent link and comments
You can view more entries using the archive links to your left or by looking at our index!
