unlike yesterday, today had a few bumps. We went to bed with the fire works sounding off around us. since we weren't near a town, i'm not sure where they were coming from. doesn't get dark till almost 10 here. we got tifed of waiting and the mosquitos were out. But we were up and on the road by 6:30. jim was even ready first waiting on me. Hour and a half later, we were in longview looking for breakfast.
We stopped briefly at starbucks for the wi-fi (and, no, i did not have chai. Struggling with attaching photos from phone, uploaded the posts anyway. and while i was doing that, another biker called two of his friends out: fellow northern new jerseyites, transplant to longview, both about my age. turns out they're leaving next week to ride across the united states, taking almost the same route. the annual new jersey migration. small, small world.
that's when we had three successive bumps. first, i rode away without my phone. left it sitting on a wall. fortunately, i realized it rather quickly, high tailed it back, and some guy was standing outside the restaurant talking to my wife. not sure what suzi could have done, since she didn't have jim's phone, and usually we have them turned off to save battery. second, found out our projected campground was full for the night. third, we got our first flat. jim picked up a metal shard in his rear tire. hate riding on shoulders with all the debris that collects there. fortunately, no big issues and all were resolved fairly quickly.
the bikers we met did try to steer us on a better route. the one interersting variation: ride on I-5 to avoid a very serious climb and tricky downhill. now, we have never rode on the interstate before. we know we have to do that for part of the columbia gorge, so we said 'what the hell.' very interesting. 5 miles of anxiety. jim said it was the tractor trailers, i thought it was trying to avoid all the glass, shredded tires, bits of plastic, and scraps of metal on the shoulder. but we made it, it was pretty fast, and we missed the hill.
which brings us to the stonehill coffee house and eric stenberg. eric and his wife are another pair of escapees from a life they didn't enjoy. he worked for a bank for 15 years; trudy taught pre-school and elementary. two years ago they bought a house in 'downtown' LaCenter, WA, and converted the downstairs to a one room coffee shop and a small one room gift shop. they're taking a shot at doing what they enjoy. we stayed there for an hour or so charging batteries, connecting to wi-fi, and talking with eric. great place to stop if you're ever in LaCenter. he and a friend pointed us in the direction of a pretty nice koa campground, where we are now. a light 53 mi today, which is good. tomorrow we head down into vancouver, wa, cross the I-205 bridge into east portland and troutdale, then we start out up the river gorge on the historic columbia river highway.
btw, i'm struggling with attaching photos to the blog. eric tried to help me a little, but after an hour of trying, i still haven't got it working right.
and lastly, chris, i'm having a big year. but i just can't seem to identify the diferent birds i'm hearing and seeing. the crows are obvious and seem everywhere. there is another bird i hear all the time, in portland and on the road. small, maybe a little smaller than a jay. Can't see it well, but it has a black head and cowl around the neck, light belly, and darker,grayish back. the sound is just a twirl, no intonation. likes being up in the firs.
 |
| Eric Stenberg, Stonehill Coffee |
 |
| Jim resting |
No comments:
Post a Comment