Week 16

Hello Once again! Today I'm writing about week 16 of our journey! It went by way to fast for me! All the blood, sweat, and tears we've put into this trip so far I believe is greater than any textbook or class. Ok so heres how the week started out. It was Hood River, Oregon where we stayed with a great family that goes by the name of the Bryers. You may remember them from back in DC, they were the nice folks inspired by John's book. We also caught up with them in Montana because they were taking a different route than us. They gave us a lot of hospitality at their home. They also gave us GREAT meals. They started us out with chicken cacciatore. Then they gave us delicious molasses cookies and fresh fruit. Then they invited us to stay at their house. being on the road for 5 weeks it sounded like a good idea. We rested up for our ride the next day and they gave us a hearty meal of cereal for breakfast. It was all you can eat. Then they allowed us to run up their phone bill ;) by letting us call home. It was great talking to their two kids Allison and Elise. They fully understood what kinda journey we're on. Then we had to bid them a farewell and gave them a peace medal. Then we visited the great Deschutes State bark. It was really pretty and we even got to follow the Colombia River all the way through it! It reminds me of one of those nature movies that are good in high-def. It was full of pine trees, waterfalls, and tiny streams all through it. Then we came to the Gorge. It was real pretty with walls all around the river. When Lewis&Clark went through there they had a tough time but not us. We had a little help from the dams ;). When we finally left Hood River we thought Oh it looks like it'll be a clear and sunny day. Oh it looks like we were wrong. And we were. It was FREEZING rain and started raining real hard. To make it worse we had tons of hundred foot climbs. At least we were warm climbing. Anyways we rode after dark when it was STILL raining but we got balanced out karma and we got to stay at a motel and take a dip in the hot tub. Then we got to portland. We wondered what if the food in college is terrible. What if we have to go 4 years+ on really bad food. Yet again we were wrong. It was the best food i've ever had at a cafeteria by far. It also had the widest variety's of food i've seen so far. They had, Burgers, Sandwiches, Fajitas, Pasta, Everything A-Z in the cookbooks. To make it even better there was an ice-cream sunday bar. Then we got taken to the kitchen to meet the nice chefs. Then we gave them peace medals and we headed out on our way. After that it seemed like Hell. We had to double up on days (actually all days) to get to the ocean in time. Some days were so long that we had to go 90 miles. I dont know what you do for workouts but carrying 60 pounds behind you for 90 miles in a day isn't what i'd call a walk in the park. To make it worse there were hills of which seemed never ending. But I knew the oceans were close. We could hear the seals barking and I could smell the sea breeze. Then on Friday, Glorious Friday we saw the ocean for the first time in 4 months. Being a person of the coast thats a LONG time. We took a dip in it and it felt great. It was cold but we didn't care, we were just happy to be back on the pacific coast. It was amazing but it also made me realize that this trip was coming to end and that we'd be living with out them. But then my spirits were lifted when we got to have our big family reunion dinner at Silver Salmon Restraunt. We had a great meal and when dessert came out we found out that the nice people back at Monticello payed for it. We just scarfed it down and it was delicious! Then to be even more generous they invited us to a Lewis&Clark Bicentennial Celebration in Monticello next January. Then on sunday we had to put all our bikes and bobs into boxes and ship them over to Monterey where we would continue our ride down the coast to the Shores of Santa Barbara.