Portland with Mom and being HOME
Aug 9th
After celebrating our arrival at the Pacific on the 31st, my Mom and I spent the morning in Cannon Beach exploring the beach with Becky and Sonya and Olivia before heading back to Portland. We took Jesse, Alyson and Sarah W back to Portland with us, and everybody went to Noah’s house. From there, we packed up bikes (I completely dissambled mine part by part because I’m crazy haha) and said goodbyes. After checking in to the hotel, my Mom and I got pizza at this cool little place with tables on the ceiling and then I got to sleep in a bed for the night.
We spent the next day exploring Portland on a tandem bike that we rented which was a lot of fun. We also got to meet up with all the Bike and Builders again which was cool. We went up to the Rose Garden in the hills above Portland which was nice too.
We got around so quick on the bike that we had seen pretty much all of downtown Portland we wanted to haha, and the next day drove out the scenic Columbia River Gorge and did some hiking amongst the waterfalls. For dinner we went down to Hood River to a brewery and watched the windsurfers before heading back to catch the plane. A nice two days, but I was ready to get home after the whole summer!
Powell's Books, in d'town Portland is a full city block and four stories tall, the largest independent bookstore in the world!!
Hhahaha
Roses!
Voodoo donuts!
In front of Haystack Rock on the beach
At low tide, all the sea life on the rock was super cool
Sea anemone!
And breakfast that morning haha, it was picture worthy I must've thought
One of the highest waterfalls in the country I think, if not the tallest
The water was covered with wind surfers and kite boarders, and I heard one of them comment how few people were out then!!
Rock Bottom Brewery sampler!
Riding the tandem 
Home
I haven’t done too much since I’ve been home, my days have pretty much went like this: wake up at noon, eat some breakfast my brother made and then go for a bike ride. Come back to dinner my Mom made for me, then a few hour nap in the hammock and reading my book before friends come over and we drink some beers around a my expert bonfires haha. It’s the life. My first day back, I went for a 44 mile ride and climbed every big hill in the area including Churchill road going around Otisco Lake, and it is steeper than anything we climbed this summer! I went down Munro (and back up) to see how fast I could get, but only a disappointing 54mph… And then Friday my ride was short, with the skin suit and I just put in some TT efforts in the bars to prepare to the Great Race this Sunday.
I Biked Across The Country Today
Jul 31st
That’s right, we did it. All 31 riders of CUS 2010 ran frantically into the icy Pacific Ocean upon our arrival in Cannon Beach as a group. We danced, screamed, cheered, did the hakka, and popped champagne in the ocean with so much adrenaline we couldn’t even feel how cold the water was. After this, we hugged our parents and I am super glad that my Mom and Aunt Becky (and Sonya and Olivia) were able to come see me complete this journey. And we concluded this celebration with the ceremonial wheel dip into the ocean. My rear wheel went in the Atlantic 2.5 months ago, and I literally rode my Kazane into the water today. I’m going to talk about the (uneventful) ride here, and go back to talk about the past three days if I have time.
Riding into the ocean!!
Mom and I
Bike and buuuiiiiilllllldddd!!
The ride here was again relatively uneventful, as we inched toward our goal. We set out with different strategies on how to ride today, as I was super eager to complete the journey and arrive at the Pacific but others wanted to savor this last ride for every second. We were going to ride into town and into the ocean as a group though, so those of us readier to get to Cannon Beach had to wait for the others who chose to take a two hour coffee break in the morning and ride real slow, which was some of the toughest waiting, but we all got there. It was something like a 65 mile ride today, which could have been done by 10AM any other day but we didn’t arrive at the beach until 4:30PM. After two months of working hard toward completing this one goal, I’m not sure I can say fully what it means, because it hasn’t really sank in yet entirely. I rode Kazane clear across the country, coast to coast, mile for mile.
Tonight, after we got back and showered (warmed up) we had a picnic with other family and friends who had come to witness loved ones finish. I was super hungry, about 8 hours after my 10AM lunch, and we had cold cut sandwhiches and tons of desserts, and good beer. I wasn’t so much a fan of the Inversion IPA, but would definitely recommend Alaskan Amber, of which I saved a bottle cap for my bike. We got to meet other rider’s family which was great, our leaders spoke, and then we had a fire down by the water. My Mom and Aunt left after awhile, and I spent some more last minutes with the CUS family over beer and these really cool mini-hot-air-ballon wish things before hopping in the van to come back to church for the night. Everyone is asleep by this point I’m sure, and I’ll be saying goodbyes tomorrow at Noah’s house in Portland…
To Vernonia (I can smell ocean!)
Jul 30th
Today we left Gresham and went through downtown Portland, into the mountains, and began crossing the Coastal Range on our way to the ocean. I got some great donuts in town at Voodoo, and was relieved of my sweep duty with Laura by Sharif and Heather. The hills were very steep out of town, as were the descents, and we camped tonight for the last time. Our last official night together, we celebrated with some paper plate superlative awards and drinks.
Portland, the city of bridges
Voooooodooooooo
Cool looking coffee from Stumptown....wonder if they tried to do that
Jesse chowin down on a waffle sandwhich thing haha
Sarah C got a tandem and Jake brought it out that night, so she could ride the last day. I spent some time getting seats and pedals switched onto it, and we were all really excited that she was going to be able to ride into Cannon Beach the next day. Hill-master Marky Mark was going to be on the front of the Tandem pulling up the hills, and it turned out to be a very good thing, he actually got tired!
Maple bacon bar! (at voodoo)
I slept again the hammock which was excellent, I love being creative finding places to hang it. We were so close to being done, I didn’t even sleep that well I was so excited and was ready to go in the morning. I thought I took a picture of my hammock job, can’t find any of the campsite though, oh well haha.