Let's Ride

Our last afternoon in Astoria was a real blast!  We walked downtown and decided to take the trolley back to our hotel because of rain. When we got on we found we had stumbled upon a group of  performers in town for a tenor guitar workshop. They were heading for  a lunchtime concert at the bistro behind our hotel so we decided to join them. We ended up sitting at the table with Banana Lowell, one of the founders of the Youngbloods, a woman who happens to be Wayne Dyer's editor and a number of other charming and accomplished people.  It was a wonderful afternoon and reminded us that one of the best things about our tip will all the great people we will meet.
       Our takeoff day greeted us with more Oregon sunshine (drizzle) but we took off in good spirits. The riding was pretty easy with a few hills and wonderful, green scenery.  We took a beautiful detour around a steep section of Hwy 30 and found ourselves on a little used road thru lush old growth forest.  The grade got pretty steep and we will have to admit to bit of walking but we followed Coach Doc's advice of "Keep moving forward" and made it to the top.  We were rewarded with a sunny afternoon with a good tailwind.  Because of our enthusiasm (and the desire to escape the Portland area before the weekend) we ended up doing 80 miles with about 1200 ft of climbing. A very respectable day and Kelly's longest ride ever!  Good job!  We finished up at a really nice county park near Scapoose...a great day.
      We like to think of day 2 as our "Escape from Portland" day. We started out with increasingly heavy traffic to cross the Saint John Bridge.  We spent the next 2-1/2 hours riding in circles to traverse the 10 miles to the 205 bridge.  We were rescued by Jerry, a charming and kindly gent,on a British fold-a-bike, who sacrificed his Sunday morning to take us on an entertaining but circuitous route to our bridge.  Since no campgrounds were available we had to spend the night in a Washougal motel with a pool, spa and sauna...Darn!
     After a late start (that darn spa again) we spent a cloudy but scenic day ascending the Columbia River Gorge. We had one fairly long but gentle climb but were rewarded with a spectacular view of the valley with lush greenery and low hanging clouds in the mountain valleys.  The night was spent in the funky, but charming, Bingen Hostel, a 1930's schoolhouse, now a hostel.