Flat

An epic day! We rode 64.5 miles from Biggs, OR to Crow Butte State Park in WA. The first half had a few large hills and some smaller hills, followed by a relatively flat stretch. After 40-ish miles of desolate nothingness and stifling heat, we hit a scratch on the map called Roosevelt at 5:30pm, where I thought we'd call it a night. But after chocolate milk & ice cream, we felt revived, and decided to go another 22 flat miles to Crow Butte State Park, since its website promised HOT showers, something Roosevelt's park lacked. Those 22 miles weren't so bad, although I started to drag in the middle because my butt is really sore on my bike seat by the end of each day. After about 20 miles, as the sun was fading, we could see Crow Butte. It looked like heaven. We dreamed of hot showers. And then I got a flat tire. Argh! Doug changed it pretty easily, but by the time we rolled into camp, it was 9:30 and getting dark. And mosquitoey. We ate veggie soup and Gatorade for dinner while swatting away bugs like maniacs, then made the trek in the dark to...COLD SHOWERS. Let me not downplay the degree to which the dream of hot showers got me through those 22 miles. It was my guiding light. And yet...at this point...even cold showers weren't too bad. We were each covered in the nastiest layer of sweat, sunscreen, and road grime. Today we switched sunscreens, too, and it's a more liquid kind with the gross side effect of pilling into grey squiggly, slimy critters on our arms & legs when we rub it on our sweaty skin. So disgusting!!! So needless to say, our desire to get clean overrode our desire to avoid the cold shower. I'm crossing my fingers for a motel tomorrow, though!

Doug started uploading our photos on Picasa. They aren't labeled, and are somewhat out of order, but you can check them out if you'd like.

http://picasaweb.google.com/doug.ricket

Appreciating the little things

We rode 50.8 miles today! That's our longest stretch so far. I'm writing to you from our RV campsite in White Salmon, WA, which is right across the Columbia River from Hood River, OR. The view of Mt. Hood from the road is spectacular! It looks like a glacier. Although I don't have a picture of it yet, I am including a few other shots from today to give you a sense of how gorgeous today's ride was. We had nonstop views of the river and the mountains - I have a feeling the picture doesn't do it justice, but you'll get the idea. We were also blessed by 20 miles of flat/slightly downhill riding at the end of the day, which helped us get so far. We even got to ride through 5 narrow tunnels toward the end of the day. At the start of each one, I pressed a biker's button on the side of the road that activated a flashing light attached to a sign that said "Caution! Bicycles in tunnel!" Yet another reason to love riding here...

This morning, I found myself mentally cataloguing and giving thanks for the little things in my life that make a big difference in my life right now. I mean "little things" quite literally: everything on my list weighs next to nothing and fits in the palm of my hand. For ease of memorization, I even offer you this Harry Potter-esque acronym: MGGLE!

M is for Mirror, the rear-view mirrors we have on our helmets. We've gotten so used to them that even when we're walking around a town sans helmet, we find ourselves glancing up and trying to check for cars or pedestrians using our third eyes.

G is for Granny Gear, into which I downshift, oh, 327 times per day. We added a super-low gear to my bike last summer in preparation for our mega-climb in Hawaii, and it continues to be a lifesaver on the mainland!

G is also for Gummies, to which I am hopelessly addicted. These are no paltry gummy bears, mind you. These are electrolyte-infused gummies for bikers, available at an REI or Sports Basement near you. I like the non-caffeinated Clif Shot Bloks and the Luna Moons. We stocked up in Portland, and have considered mailing some to ourselves via general delivery for those parts of our route that run through the boonies.

L is for Lemon Wedges, which I squeeze into my water bottles whenever I can find them. Though I usually don't love drinking warm water in the middle of a long ride, somehow having the lemon in there makes even warm water taste peppy and refreshing. Try it - you'll see!

E is for Elevation Map, which thankfully we have for this portion of our route. We've both found that even big hills can be manageable if we know they're coming. It's the surprise BFHs (Big Fucking Hills) that really kill our souls.

Well, I think that's enough acronymizing for one day! We're heading into a more isolated part of the state over the next few days. I'll post more when we find the ever-coveted cell phone bars!

Washing in Washougal, Washington

Wahoo! We're in Washougal, Washington, which is right along the Columbia River. And yes, for everyone who was wondering what happened to those bulging bags of dirty clothes that we schlepped around Portland, we finally did laundry here in Washougal. ;)

Today's ride was awesome: lots of sun (but not too hot), lots of greenery, and (this is key!) relatively flat. The only significant climb was the I-205 bridge that you see in the background of this picture. It spans the Columbia River and connects Oregon and Washington. It was a steady, manageable uphill climb that was made even better by the spiffy bike lane that went down the center of the bridge! This is no dinky bridge, either: it's an 8-lane highway with lots of traffic. And right there in the middle of it, where a median would normally be, there's a 2-lane bike path protected by a thick steel fence. It reminded me of riding across the Golden Gate bridge, only without all of the clueless tourists who insist on walking 3 or 4 abreast, and who don't know what "On your left" means. I love that the Pacific Northwest is so bike friendly! The rest of our ride was a meandering tour of tree-lined roads, fancy riverside houses (one of them had windows that must have been 2 stories high!), railroad tracks, and a few small riverside towns. Biking home from dinner, we also got to test out our night light situation, and I'm happy to say that we're blindingly visible in the evening as well as during the day.

By the way, as the days go on, you may start to notice that we're wearing the same few outfits in all of our photos. That's because, well, we don't have that many outfits! When I saw all of our clothes in tidy stacks at the laundromat, I was struck by how little we have with us, and how nice it feels to have so few belongings to handle. Even though we have a bunch of bags on our bikes, it still feels like we're traveling light in a more global sense. This may simply be an illusion made possible by the fact that our parents are now weighed down by all of the stuff we left behind! Nevertheless, it's also rather liberating.

Thank you so much for all of your posted comments, emails, and texts, too! I haven't had too much time to respond to individual emails yet, but please know that I LOVE hearing from you in all forms! It feels good to know that folks are reading and enjoying the stories. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the Columbia River Gorge and sharing our adventures with you! Big hugs!

Return to Civilization

Though this picture could be from any movie theatre in America, it's actually from downtown Portland. I know what you're thinking: "They're in Oregon already?!" We picked up a lot of speed after our first few days, and just blazed on up here...in the Ricket's van, that is. Day 3 was fun (SF to Samuel P. Taylor State Park in Marin), but on Day 4 we hit 40 miles of brutal, unceasing wind & hills from Point Reyes to Bodega Bay. I'll spare you (& myself) the pain of recounting that ride, and just sum it up by saying that on Day 5, we called the Ricketmobile for back-up. Reg & Jean spent Sunday & Monday driving us from Bodega Bay, CA to Champoeg State Park (southwest of Portland), where Doug & I had a great time camping & resting along th Willamette River. Thanks a million, Jean & Reg!!!

Today's ride from Champoeg to Portland was pretty awesome, even though we hit some significant hills. I realized once again that wind is definitely my least favorite climate effect while riding. Without the wind, the hills felt...well, I won't say fun, but doable. We spent the evening in Portland soaking up three things I imagine we won't see much of as we head off on a more rural section of our ride: sushi, Thai food, and movies! If you look closely at the picture, you'll see that Doug is about to drink the largest Coke ever sold to a single human being. Oh, no, wait, I'm sorry. That's only the medium size! Sheesh. He's also holding two bags of our dirty laundry, which we carried around downtown Portland with us all evening (leading one wandering man to call us "dirty hippies," though I promise you, we are quite clean hippies, thank you). Although we had aspirations of going to a laundromat after dinner, we gave into the temptation of the movie theatres instead. (For the record: "Year One" is good for a few laughs, if the idea of Jack Black eating a bit of bear poo makes you chuckle.)

Speaking of bear poo (how's that for a transition?), one thing I forgot about with bike trips is how up close and personal we get with the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of the shoulders of roads. One of the problems with Hwy 1 in CA is that it had no shoulder to speak of -- only thick patches of poison oak and steep ditches full of dry grass, so we had to ride in the lane. Thankfully, Oregon's shoulders are much wider so far, though I've seen enough decomposing squirrels and jawbones of unidentifiable animals to last me a lifetime...

This post has gotten much grosser than I was anticipating, so I'll bid you all goodnight for now. Tomorrow (Wed 6/24) we'll head east along the Columbia River. Our bike map promises that the winds will blow from behind us as we head east. Hallelujah!

Chillin' along the Willamette River

I forgot how relaxing it is to lay down alongside a body of water and just breathe. We're resting on a dock in Champoeg Park. Bliss. Tomorrow we'll ride to Portland. (These Twitter-esque blog posts brought to you courtesy of phone blogging. Longer post to follow when we reach a computer. ;D)

Married. Just.

We made it to San Francisco! OK, so it took us two days instead of one. We pooped out in San Mateo and spent last night with Tom (Doug's brother) and Kim and their cute kids Ben and Evan. At first we were a bit disappointed to realize that we wouldn't be able to make it all the way to the city in one day as we'd planned, but it was great to spend the night hanging out with family. I'm writing this from Rose's house in SF at the end of our second day of biking. We just had a delicious dinner at the Ananda Fuara vegetarian restaurant, and my sister got to come along. Wahoo!

A few musings from the past two days:

- If I could sum up our trip thus far in three words, I would say: Too many hills. We took the scenic route to SF, a.k.a the painful route. The hardest thing today was biking up and over Twin Peaks at the end of a butt-busting day. Turns out we're more out of shape than we thought! We've already walked our bikes up a few hills. Doug pointed out that this is a good thing, though, because we've spoiled any pride we might have had about being "tough" bikers. Instead, we've decided that the theme of this trip is: Chillax.

- People love to honk and wave at us! This is because we have cute bike flags (thanks, Robin & Frank M!) and fake license plates on the backs of our bikes: I'm Just, and Doug's Married. So depending on who's riding in front, we're either Just Married or Married Just. (Or if I'm on my own, I appear to have a high opinion of my own fairness!) Either way, we get a lot of honks and waves. At first the honks threw us off -- we thought people were pissed off at us. Then we realized they were being nice, and we started waving. The funny thing is, now I wave at people even if they're honking at me to get out of the way! I guess that's better than the reverse, though; I'd hate to spend the day flipping off nice people.

Tomorrow we cross the Golden Gate Bridge and head up the California coast. In some ways, it feels like tomorrow is the day the trip begins, since it will be our first day spending the night in an unfamiliar place. I'm not sure when we'll next have internet access, so enjoy yourselves until we meet again! :)

T-minus 2 days until departure!

Hooray! We're officially married people now. Thank you so much to everyone who made our wedding day totally awesome. We had so much fun!

Now we're in bike trip prep mode, and we're planning to leave on Wednesday. Doug has converted my mom's garage into a bike workshop, and he's tuning the bikes as I write this. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting our bikes in person, both of them are completely covered in 3M Prismatic retro-reflective stickers. Match that with our reflective tire stripes and our complete ensemble of hi-vis yellow bike clothes, and we are quite a sight to behold! Oh, and Doug bought the most powerfully bright headlamp sold to humankind, which he has dubbed "The Light of God." It'll be hard to miss us on the road... ;)

First stop on the bike trip: Rose's house in San Francisco!