A few thanks are in order from our stay in Portland that I want to point out before we forget. Thanks to Wayne and Rose for letting us stay with them for the first few days and taking us to some killer sushi, thanks to Jonathan Maus and Elly Blue for arranging our event at Roots, Donna for loaning us a pair of U-locks and a bike map of PDX, April for the cool zines!, Martina and Todd and the group at Clever Cycles for their kindness and openness and the bikey people in Portland for coming out to the presentation, letting us bike move and all the general two-wheel mayhem.

I’ve been really enjoying making Fauxlaroids with my iPhone for the trip thus far. It really gives the photos a nice human touch. To me they look like what memories look like. The big shapes are there but the details are a little smudged and the colors are a little off. Here are a few from the last few days.


We leave our hosts Martina and Todd who live in a beautiful neighborhood in Portland that is green, lush and filled with surprises (more on them later).


On the way out of town we rendezvous with Dan Kaufman and Jay of CrankMyChain, whereupon we attempt a rolling real-time interview from the back of a trike. Technical difficulties prevent it from happening, but we have lunch at a Burgerville and Dan shares us his story of the transformative power of the bicycle.


We find heaven in the form of a roadside espresso shack on a farm on the way to Champoeg.


We arrive at Champoeg. Tired and hungry but glowing.


Found at the picnic table at our site. We interpret it as a symbol of good luck.


The paella pan gets some use and proves to longer be dead weight! We cook a proper paella over a stick fire with Spanish chorrizo from a New Seasons. After dinner we watch an episode of Flight of the Conchords (2nd Season) on the laptop and go to bed on our new sleeping pads. Things feel right in the world.


The next day we receive reminders from the road.


Laura stops to smell and look at the proverbial flowers on the side of the road.


I stop and smell the proverbial hop plants (i.e. beer trees) on the side of the road.


Lots of fun rollers and country riding all the way to Corvallis.


Some tire issues along the way. Both Laura and I have switched from Panaracer Paselas to something else. I’m now running Schawable Marathons and Laura has Conti Touring Pros.


We arrive at Laura’s moms house.


The digs for the next few days.