T-minus one day: I made it to Portland (barely)! - Bad Tans and Beautiful Legs: Summer on the TransAmerica Trail - CycleBlaze

T-minus one day: I made it to Portland (barely)!

Well, after a fruitless search for a ride to Portland, I was forced to splurge on a rental car. Unfortunately, as I found, "Budget" is quite a misnomer for a rental car company. But alas! There was an upside. The agent was friendly enough to upgrade me to an SUV for free after seeing me contemplate how to stuff my bike into a miniscule Ford Fiesta. So, after biting the rental car bullet, I found myself leaving Walla for Portland.

Portland bound!
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The ride along the Columbia River Gorge was...ahem..."gorge"-ous, per usual. But this time around I couldn't help but feel uncertain about the journey ahead. Here I was, alone, leaving the town I called home for the past four years. I've never been happier than I've been in Walla Walla, so to leave felt as though I was giving something up that I could have saved. But there's something powerful to say about moving on and making difficult transitions in stride. So, I carried on.

Behind those glasses are tears. But with change comes growth, and I'm excited to see where this road takes me.
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After desperately scrambling around the Portland Airport in search of where to return my rental, I successfully dropped it off and began pedaling to my friend's house for the evening. Unfortunately, however, my decision to blast music via Bluetooth in my fancy-dancy rental left me with 10% battery and a misplaced phone charger. Luckily, though, I made it to his place with 2% to spare, and I was not lost in an unfamiliar city.

Tomorrow's the day! I'll be catching a 9:30am bus to Astoria, so I best be getting to bed.

This may be the face of a man that is truly in over his head, but at least he has a roof over his head for the evening!
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