Saturday I arrived in Portland and was hosted by Sarah's friend Lori, from the Vermont Art Commune. Lori was like an angel from heaven who picked me up from the airport and I stayed in her row house that is filled with the most amazing things; drawings paintings, pottery and every object of use was a piece of art. Here she is in her studio at the college where she teaches. We had a fantastic Peruvian dinner, did the city of Portland up right and I was able to take a great 30 mile warm up bike ride. It was a rare "not raining" sunny day and the locals were all out riding remarking about the fact that "Mt. Hood was OUT".

Sunday we drove 80 miles east through the rain to Astoria on the coast. I checked in with the group, America by Bike here after referred to as ABB.It is sort of like what I might have imagined "boot camp" in the army would be like, but more on that later. I met Charlie my roomate from Concord, NH who seems like a great guy. He comes with a jolly laugh and a sense of humor, which as Sarah says "will get you through anything".

A photo of Sunday is below taken of the Columbia river. I will try to post again tonight on today's ride (Monday). Hopefully nobody is reading this as I do ramble on and am treating the blog as a diary for my own use.