"The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is it's engine." - John Howard

Friday, June 8, 2012 (Day 2)
Edgefield McMenamins, Troutdale, OR
Miles:  35  MPH:  10.02  Max:  31  Total:  52
Great day! Woke up dry in a nice bed and had coffee brewing at 5am. Today we packed up and loaded the bikes in less than an hour--more than a 400% improvement over Tuesday when it took us almost 4 hours to get our soak and wet gear cleaned up and loaded on the bikes! We're getting better!

Hawthorne Bridge

Heading for downtown Portland , we road a service road adjacent to 8 lanes of highway traffic.  Then stopping to read directions, we saw a car stop in the middle of very busy traffic calling our names. It was Val, my cousin Bob's wife! What are the chances that she would drive by just as we stopped? :-)

Edgefield Hotel

We needed all our GEARS to climb over the west hills. Surly the steepest hills I've ever biked! I suppose it is just getting us ready for what's to come! Our adrenaline rushed as we had to ride Highway 26 (4 lanes of high speed traffic in each direction through a tunnel).  It was down hill and our odometer registered 30.3 MPH! It was like we had a motor on our bikes! 

Once downtown Portland we crossed the Hawthorne Bridge and then road the Springwater Corridor bike trail -- no traffic!  Although rainy, we still enjoyed the ride.

Whimsical murals cover the walls at Edgefield

Hot Tub!

Today was a short riding day and we easily reached our destination-the historic Edgefield Hotel in Troutdale-a totally cool place. The hotel, built in 1911, once was the county poor farm. There are acres of gardens, 2 golf courses, several restaurants, live music, a concert stage boasting big names such as Bob Dillon and the Grateful Dead, a winery, brewery, distillery, and movie theater. Each room has hand painted murals and art work was displaced everywhere! We soaked in the mineral springs hot tub before saying good night.

Still raining here but hoping tomorrow will be dry as we head for the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. We start biking longer days and on Monday we have a nearly 100 mile day planned---praying for a tail wind!

Missing Home xoxo