June 5

Hey and so sorry I have not been able to keep up the blog as I had wished, but it has been a whirlwind of activity leading up to the first ride day and time is limited now that we are on the road. I will try to recount the trip thus far since leaving North Carolina, and hope that if time allows I can get back to some of my experiences in preparation for the trip. I flew from Charlotte on June 1st, and met a fellow rider, Howard Smith from Richmond in the Dallas airport, where we waited for our flight to Portland. Howard is great and I really am enjoying his company. He is a farmer from Virginia, and he has many great stories. We arrived in Portland where we took a train with my panniers and Howards as well as his bike( disassembled and in a box) to a location where we got a rental truck that we would use to transport our bikes to the beach. We got in early enough to meet my sons Jake and Jordan, get to South Salem Cycleworks where I picked up my long haul trucker brand touring bike, and adjustments were made to both bikes. The second of June saw us hoping to ride but bikes still required adjustments as Howard decided he wanted another gear ring enabling the hill climbs to be a little easier. It also was raining terribly hard. We had a farewell party for my son Jordan who is riding with us and finishing his senior year early so that he could begin riding with us. There were maybe 30 of his classmates,his family, and some school teachers and coaches present. We drove back to Portland late that night where Alex's plane arrived from Houston, his bike also disassembled and in a box. We dropped from fatigue as soon as we got back to Salem as it was 1 am Pacific time, The morning of the third we were up early assembling Alex's bike and then back to the bike shop to tune it up. We were determined to get a taste of what Pacific riding was to be like so we drove over to find our starting point which we changed to Pacific City as we were captivated by the beauty of the place as we drove upon it. We unloaded our bikes and were only able to ride along the coast for 2 hours before we had to head back to Portland. We were retracing the route we were to ride the next day from the coast so we got a feel for what to expect. We arose at 6 am on the fourth and my son Jake drove us to the coast in the rented king cab Dodge Ram with our bikes in the back. We took some pictures of the ceremonial dip of our tires in the Pacific, and began our journey. We rode 79 miles with some good climbs and terminated back at our motel in Salem. We did not carry all our gear the first day as we returned to Salem. We hustled so we could get Jordan back to a end of year Luau at his school. He was a little late but made it nonetheless. This morning was busy as I had to drive the rental to a drop off in Salem at 0730, then Jordan's mom was kind enough to take us back to the motel where we loaded all our gear on the bikes for the first time and set out for our second destination Coburg, ORr where I am typing this from the laundry room on my blackberry at a small campground. We rode 70 miles today, pitched tents, got showers, and did laundry. The others are asleep and have been so for over an hour. It is about 1030 Pacific time, but I really wanted to get this out. Jordan's brother Jake came and picked jordan up as we are about an hour drive from Salem, so that Jordan could attend a graduation party his family was having for him. He is to be back here at 8 am ready to ride again. We rode part of the ride this morning with some new friends, Mike Wolfe, SouthSalem Cycleworks owner, and coworker, Katie. They rode tandem, and Tom accompanied them. They took us on very scenic route, but we found that a ferry they planned to take us on for a river crossing was closed due to high water. We had to take an alternate route, and actually crossed through about a foot of water where the river was flooding a roadway. Lots of beautiful country! I think we are all faring well, but our butts are sore! We ride tomorrow to the foot of a mountain pass, about 56 miles, but will have to wait until the following am to try to cross it as we would reach it too late in the day to safely cross it. We have been forced to take the Santiam alternate route as the usual route is closed due to snow. Needless to say, we expect to see a real drop in temperatures soon and the heavy sleeping bags and warm clothing will be a necessity. That is it for now. I am having camera problems but will post pictures as soon as I can