West side

Distance: 16km around Portland


It was good to be off the train. My eyes had almost become immune to the beauty and my ears needed a break from listening to the same guy tell everyone who sat near him his life story...

We met many nice people on the train, and had some wonderful discussions about the world and travel, but, I wanted to be back on the bike!

In Portland we rode to the shop where we'd purchased many of the things for our journey, Oregon Mountain Community. We were expecting a huge shop full of exciting sale items... but it was just a small showroom, as most of their business is done online. 

Mari had put us in touch with a good friend of hers in Portland, Brian, in the hopes we could get a shower (much needed after three days on the train!) and possibly somewhere to sleep for a night. While we waited to hear details from him we found a place to eat and use some wifi. A man offered to take us to his farm where we could camp for the night - in a show of what seems typical of American hospitality - but we were excited to meet Brian so stuck with the original plan.

We met up with Brian, ate some delicious food while we chatted about basketball, then got on our way to his pace just as it was getting dark. We set off without our bags, including our wallet, putting them in his car to make it quicker for us.

We hadn't gone far when, much to our surprise (or not), Sam got another puncture... he fixed about four while we were in Boston. Now he's catching up to me!! We tried to fix it, but the patch wouldn't stick and the tube kept going down. We had no wallet and no spare tube. So we had to call Brian who came back and got us. Thanks for that one mate!

We had a great night chatting to Brian and his flatmate Will and playing with the gorgeous dog Winston. We have been so lucky to be looked after by all these wonderful people - Now it's time to head back onto the road and into the tent!