July 28, 2023
Day 86 - July 28 - Hudson-Parcher County Park, OR to Portland, OR
It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over. It’s Over.
John’s Story
We left Hudson-Parcher County Park at 7:00 AM. We were treated almost immediately with the last of the long descents of the trip. We dropped 500’ into Rainier.
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We arranged to meet John and Dorothy on the outskirts of Portland to collect our bags and say our goodbyes. Our routes diverged from here.
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An honorary Road Angel award is granted to Bill Shaneyfelt for all the work he did identifying the plants (and some critters) that I photographed along the way. Thanks, Bill!
After parting with John and Dorothy we followed a circuitous route to the bike shop that will ship our bikes home. We happily discovered a brewery just 4 blocks from the bike shop. We left our bags at the shop, walked to the brewery for lunch, then walked back and Ubered to the hotel near the airport.
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We’ve been sorting out our gear in the hotel room. Ed did a final load of laundry. I tossed my bike shoes (I wanted to replace them in Fort Collins) and my flip-flops and a few other odds and ends. We made it downstairs for the evening reception at the Embassy Suites (two drink tickets and a few snacks).
So, am I glad it’s over, you ask? That’s not how I would put it. I’m happy that we safely achieved what we set out to do while maintaining our health. And without killing each other. 😇
Would I do it again ? Only if I hadn’t already done it. There are lots of other things on my bucket list.
My wife Carol asked if I would ride the Hotter’n’Hell Hundred bike ride at the end of August. I last did it the year I turned 65, and thought I would not do it again (I’ve done it about a dozen times over the years). I’ve never been in better biking shape than after this tour. I just wish she hadn’t put that bug in my ear.
My flight home is at 8:48 tomorrow morning.
I’m sure I will be adding some postscripts in the coming days. Stay tuned….
Ed’s Story
John mentioned the 500’ downhill into Rainier. He didn’t mention that both the road and the berm were some of the roughest we’ve ridden on. Shake Rattle, and Roll.
It’s amazing how many drive up coffee shops there are in this neck of the woods. Before we got to the Village Inn for coffee we passed at least two…neither of which had indoor seating. We saw more as we got closer to Portland.
The tailwind we didn’t get yesterday showed up today. We moved pretty fast for a while.
Again as John noted we said goodbye to Dorothy and John at a La Quinta Inn just inside Portland. It was really fun traveling along with them and visiting for the last 6 or so days. I’m glad they were able to make it. They were instrumental in making the end of our journey greater than it was. Thanks!!!!
We indeed had a circuitous route in Portland. At one point we had to cross over a fenced-in railroad track. What do you do in cases like this? Hmm?
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They say that Portland is a bike friendly city. I guess this is proof as it is right along the bike route.
We finally made it to the bike shop, Rose City Cycles. We chose them out of all the bike shops in Portland as they are a well known recumbent shop. I knew they would have no problem packing and shipping my 8’ long recumbent.
I had previously bought a different set of handlebars for my other recumbent from them.
Lunch was good; Uber ride was good; hotel and shower were good; and wine at the evening reception was good.
I wonder if I’ll be able to sleep tonight knowing I’m heading home tomorrow.
I may have a short journal entry tomorrow evening but will recap in the next few days. I enjoyed the tour. Other than my nasty bite around day 4 of the trip I’ve had no issues.
Now that the bikes are turned in and there is no more riding to jynx me, I can now say I rode over 4000 miles without a flat using Schwalbe Marathon tires. I changed them at the 2000 mile point but still..no flats.
Until next time, good night!
Today's ride: 56 miles (90 km)
Total: 56 miles (90 km)
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I had three flats on our 29 day Spain tour - I was using Marathon Racers. Jacinto had zero flats with Marathon Plus. Which version of Marathon are you running?
9 months ago
9 months ago