I spent the last 2 days of non-bicycling life living out of my car, a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder with one of my best friends, Crazy Dave. By the time we arrived at the Fort Stevens State Park in Astoria, OR around 10pm last night, the inside of the car wreaked of offensive manly body odors, Triscuits, and Copenhagen (thanks to Dave). Needless to say, this morning's shower at the campground was much welcomed and highly appreciated (especially by anyone that would have come in contact with us today).
Here are a few highlights from the 2-day road trip from Lafayette, CO (commonly referred to as L-Town) to Astoria (in no particular order):
- Tossing a frisbee with Dave at the Shell gas station in Twin Falls, ID two nights ago at 1am.
- Committing to and arriving in Oregon on Day 1. We crossed the ID/OR state line shortly after 3:30am last night where we immediately pulled into a rest area for a 4 hour nap.
- Oregon State Law requires that only a certified gas station attendant pump gas into your vehicle. Apparently New Jersey is the other state that also still has this law. Still trying to figure out why this law exists. I'm guessing it involves an economic reason. Better to keep jobs than destroy them. I didn't tip any of the gas attendants. Should I have? What do you in this case? I don't think I should have to tip a guy who only has that job because state law requires it. "Do you tip your IRS man?" (quote by Dave)
- "True freedom requires neither a reason nor an excuse." --Dave Meek (great quote from Dave regarding my adventure this summer)
- 45 minutes into the trip we decided to pull over in Ft. Collins for a plate of fish & chips. Evidence of time being on my side with this journey and high caloric intake being high on my list of priorities. :)
- Planned on departing my house at 9:00am. Officially pulled away from the house at high noon. You'll have that...
- Gas station attendant at the first gas station we stopped at in Oregon was from Greeley. He told us that Oregon has seen an unusual amount of rain this spring/summer. The pattern has tended towards 3 days of rain then one day of sunshine. Awesome! Glad I invested in a good rain jacket before leaving on this trip.
- Dave and I stopped at the Deschutes Brewery in Bend, OR yesterday for a tour of their operations and a 4 shot sampling of their delicious brews! We tasted one of their new seasonal's, called Hop in the Dark. It was an incredibly robust and dark IPA. Dave loved it so much, he picked up four 20 oz. bottles. In Dave's defense, 1 bottle was for a gift. The other 3 were gifts to himself. Their bottling brewing and bottling operations were impressive. As a guy who has focused the last few years of my career in production operations, I passed through their facility in awe at the level of complexity, automation, and quality of the products (tasty beer!) they produce. We have a long way to go at SparkFun to reach their level. At some point in this trip I'll post video of their automated bottling/packaging operation.
- In Portland, we specifically stopped by to visit Powell's City of Books. Powell's claims to be the largest independent new & used bookstore in the world. I believe it. Needing to reference the hand-held map to seek out a new book for this trip is evidence of the vast magnitude of this store. I ended up picking up a book of select writings from the journals of Lewis & Clark. I considered buying the full writings but was discouraged by the weight of that edition. Ounces matter when you're hauling your possessions in a bike trailer across the country! Also, I bought a book by my favorite author, Cormac McCarthy (famed writer of The Road, No Country for Old Men, and All the Pretty Horses). This book is called Blood Meridian, a story about the Old West and the pursuit of Indian scalps as a profitable industry for settlers of the west back in the mid-1800s.
Well, I need to shut this thing down and go unload the bike out of my car and gear up for my initial departure. It's a cool, cloudy day here in Astoria. Very glad I brought some warm layers to wear. Probably won't need them once I move east of Colorado, but they're definitely going to be needed in these first few weeks. Alright, my friends, off I go. You will all be in my thoughts at some point throughout the next couple months.
Tailwinds! (a phrase I first learned from a girl named Sarah who signed this on the invoice that was sent with the series of TransAmerica maps I ordered from the Adventure Cycling Association)
P.S. You can also check out the map of our drive at my everlater.com site...
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