November 29, 2008 by
Harry
Before we headed over to Portland, we had to visit an old friend we had never met! I had known MC & Dave since years by email & via the 7summits.com forum,
but we had never met in person. It was great to finally meet them and
we stayed longer than planned as they took us on a nice sightseeing
trip through the Columbia River Canyon, with its gorgeous waterfalls
and hosted us for the night in their great house. It was hard to say
goodbye the next day, but we had another interesting date to get to
that evening…
After arriving late at night in Portland, we ended up in the house of a well-known cyclist: Joe Kurmaskie, aka ‘The Metal Cowboy’.
It was much fun to talk about his and our tours and meet and having
dinner with his wonderful family in person, after having read about
them in their books. It is great that even a well-known person like Joe
gives back by offering ‘Warm Shower’ to biketravellers.
After adjusting our bikes we managed to catch his escaped cat the next morning, and we headed off to see Portland.
It is known to be pretty and one of the most bike-friendly cities in
the US and our hopes were high. We got quite disappointed; even though
there were many people cycling and there were some nice streets with
alternative shops and interesting architecture, it was still another
noisy big city, mainly because of endless streams of large cars.
I realized that we had gotten spoilt in Amsterdam and the
Netherlands: everything is focused around cycling: almost all roads
have separate bike lanes, with their own traffic lights and distance
markers. Nobody wears helmets because it is safe to cycle and because
bicycles have the right of way in many situations. Here in Portland
it was already nearly impossible to get into the city from the North as
there are no clear signs and the big I5 highway has no easy way for
bikes to cross the river.
25th November: Portland – McMinnville 63km: meeting an old friend!
After staying one more night with Couchsurfer Adam (one of the few
Portlanders without a car?), we pushed our bikes up the steep hills and
continued along the Pacific Highway 99. The rain came down nonstop and
we had to adjust our brakes, in order to safely stop for the many
traffic lights on the wet hills.
Once out of the city we stopped at a SafeWay to get some lunch and
got into a bizarre conversation with some teenage kids. It deserves its
own post which I will try to write up soon…
Back on the rainy road, I was passed by a car who pulled over to the
shoulder. Thinking it was somebody who wanted to encourage us in some
way, I stopped and waited for the driver to step out into the rain. It
took about half a second before I recognized the smiling face that
appeared on the asphalt: Ben! Our cycling buddy from the Dalton Highway!
It had been 4 months since we had said goodbye in Fairbanks after
riding down one of the hardest roads in the world together with Ben and
his friends. Even though it was pouring rain, he thought he recognized
Ivana’s Santos Bike and when he passed me as well, he was sure it was
us!
It is a small planet after all, especially as we had no idea that
his family lived so close. He was on his way to a place called
McMinnville, to spend Thanksgiving there. He jotted down the name and
number and promised to email their street address.
We had already arranged to spend the night in the house of Gary
Schultz, an active traveller, who showed us pictures from all his great
trips, but the next day we went to see Ben’s family: Carol & Mike.
They are amazingly warm people and immediately invited us to stay the
next days, so we could celebrate thanksgiving with them. It was nice to
catch up with Ben as well, so we gladly accepted the invitation. We
spend all day preparing the huge meal and had a great time together.
Though we had so different backgrounds and beliefs, we were all
thankful for life and for the opportunity to meet warm people like them.
28 November: McMinnville – Otis, 82 km, back to the coast
It was a fast ride to the coast, we zoomed across misty fields and
empty hazelnut trees and had only one small pass to conquer before we
could follow the Salmon River down to the coast. We had some trouble
finding the place of our Couchsurfing host Alan, but when we got to his place it was worth the extra meters of uphill.
Alan lives close to the coast and he took us across the estuary for a walk on the beach,
just in time before the night fell. While Ivana made some more of her
famous pies, we finished the night watching some movies, getting ready
for yet another famous part of our journey: The Oregon Coast!
