The cities of Oregon

July 14-16 (Days 59-61)

Distance: 30 miles unloaded?

Total: 3279 miles

Eugene! 

I stayed for three days in the lovely city of Eugene with Allie and her two cats. Allie had to work during the day so I spent most of my time petting her cats and wandering about Eugene on my bike. Eugene has a pretty extensive system of bicycle paths so it's easy and nice to get around on a bike, which many people do. In fact, Allie doesn't even have a car.

There are a couple bicycle and pedestrian only bridges.

Eugene has a crafty side, and Allie pointed me to a fantastic bead shop where I couldn't help myself from adding to my bicycle gear. With my new beads and some origami paper, I made two strands of cranes for Allie.

While I was on McKenzie pass, remember I met the two men who bicycled across the country in 1973? They were with their friend, Leigh, who lives in Eugene and has a dental practice. He offered to clean my teeth for free, so I found myself in a dental practice on Wednesday, trying to talk to a very nice dental hygienist as she did an excellent job cleaning my teeth! Unfortunately, Leigh was still out of town so I never saw him.

I went to an art museum with very interesting local art. These portraits were crocheted by a Portland artist.

Thursday, July 17 (Day 62)

Distance: 75 miles

Average speed: 10.8 mph

Max speed: 36.6 mph

Total: 3432 miles

Weather: sunny, high of 85 or 90, 10 mph headwind

I managed to pull myself away from the allure from Eugene in order to make a visit to Portland, and I had a lovely ride.

There are lots of blackberry bushes about because they are an invasive species, which is great at this time of year because they are producing copious amounts of very edible blackberries. This delayed my progress...

The ride to Portland is too far to make in one day, but luckily I had a very generous host: Michael, the man I rode with for a few days in North Dakota! He lives in Portland and made it back a few days before I did, so he met me with cold sodas and blueberries in his car to take me the rest of the way to the city. 

His very interesting (and nice) friend Audra is staying in his spare room at the moment, so I was cozily set up with a pillow and thermarest in his living room. 

Friday, July 18 (Day 63)

Distance: 0 miles

Total: 3432 miles

I spent one day in a Portland. Michael hadn't yet gone back to work, so we went for a bike ride on Portland's also very extensive and well-used system of bicycle paths. 

We had lunch at one of Portland's food truck pods, which is a cluster of food trucks and seemed to be popular with everyone from college students to families with children.

We had dinner with Michael's friend Tori and her husband. I've been exchanging emails with Tori because she has been on extended solo bicycle tours. She teaches bicycle maintenance courses and recently wrote a book about bicycling for beginners. She was a vibrant addition to the dinner crowd, getting everyone to laugh with her great stories. Also at dinner was her friend who was visiting from Boulder, Colorado, Sarai, the founder of girl bike love and a strong advocate for women on bicycles, mostly of the racing or recreational variety. 

I had a great time in Eugene and in Portland, although my mom and I determined only yesterday that the latest she can pick me up is July 28, meaning that now I have 9 days to ride 900 miles to San Francisco, given that she is my ride home. That's a tall order, given that I have never ridden 100 miles two days in a row, so I'm really going to have to book it to get there in time!