July 15, 2003 Journal for Monday, July 14: Today was a lazy day - as it should be. We had breakfast at the hotel, bought some goodies at Home Depot and cleaned the bike up, made another trip to the shopping area when those stores opened, and bought some CD's to do a backup of photos, had lunch at Burger King and both had massages. Then there was dinner at a little Chinese restaurant (great food), and a good night's rest. Sounds busy, but compared with 6-8 hours on the bike, it was a piece of cake. The poet took the day off - the massage turned his brain to mush and his motivation to nil. Cheers. Journal for Tuesday, July 15: Today's job was to get ourselves from the Portland Airport to Longview, WA. We did that, but it seems that the ghosts of Lewis and Clark think we have had too easy a time of this. Our original plan was to bike across Portland and take the St. Johns Bridge across the river to Highway 30. Then take 30 to the Rainier/Longview Bridge, and cross into Longview. We were excited about this because we had crossed the St. John's last year during the STP (Seattle to Portland) event, and really had a ball. However, when we got to the bridge, it was closed! They are doing some major modification, so it will be closed for about six weeks. Anyway, we were instructed to go downtown, and take the Broadway Bridge, find our way through town and get on Highway 30. We did that, but it cost us about 12 miles - we weren't too happy! After our side trip through downtown, we found Highway 30 (We actually used a route we had used last year to meet LaValle's daughter-in-law for breakfast before we rode to Astoria to do our trial run for the cross country trip, down the Oregon Coast.), and headed for Longview. The trip was uneventful - it is a nice road with a great shoulder, and we arrived in Rainier where the access to the Bridge starts. When we reached the bridge, the traffic was very heavy, and we decided that we should walk the bike across. We began to do that, and got about 3/4's of the way across when we were blocked by construction workers. So, we unhooked BOB, moved BOB and the bike off the sidewalk, and walked a bit further. The traffic was very heavy, and it was mostly big rigs and log trucks, and they were mighty close. We reached a point where we cleared the steel plates on the roadbed, and got back on the bike. We made it across okay, but it was hairy! The scenery today was nothing to write home about. It was basically urban riding, and what scenery there was consisted of the roadside conifers, a nuclear power plant and other industrial facilities. Compared to what we had been seeing, it rated a 1 one the scale of 10. However, anything that gets us closer to Astoria is good, so we won't complain. It was nice to retrace our steps of last year, and it was GREAT FUN to take a right hand turn onto the bridge rather than make a climb up a 10-12 percent grade like we did a year ago. We won't do that hill this year because we are going to Astoria on the Washington side, and will access Oregon after the climb and descent. That will involve a ferry ride which we are looking forward to. The weather today was fine. The wind was blowing fairly hard, but we seem to be used to that (What am I saying?). It was partly cloudy, so it was not very warm. We started off in arm warmers and vests, and lost them after a while. However, it was borderline cool. It was nice, however, because we were working pretty hard with some climbing and the wind. The bike did well for another day, and the Team was in good form. The rest day was nice. Tomorrow is the day. We get to say that "Oh, the Joy" thing when we see the Pacific, and get to experience some of what Lewis and Clark must have felt when they neared the end of their outbound journey. We truly feel a part of the history now, and it is amazing how people react when they find out what we are doing. In the East, and even the Midwest and the Heartland, it was like - oh, you are riding across the country! Now, people are in awe because they know that all we have left is this little 50 mile jaunt to Astoria. It is a nice feeling to almost be there! Before signing off, we would like to send a thankyou to Karen Buxton. Karen is our cycling coach, and she had us well prepared. Her RAAM experience really helped us, as did all her encouragement and gentle butt kicking. She is the Mistress of Zone Five, and as result isn't always our favorite person - just kidding. Karen is a very positve person, and she knows the people aspects of coaching as well as the technical. She can be reached at kbuxton@ultrafit.com if you would like to know what she is all about. Thanks for your help, Karen! Ron Note from LaValle... The massages on Monday were done by a man named David Walsh who was born and raised in the Portland area. Joining the Peace Corps though took him to The Gambia and when he returned he did travel throughout the United States just to be certain he wanted to stay in the Portland area. David is trying to establish a niche for himself by specializing in mobile massage - he comes to you wherever you are. There were wonderful riparian areas on our ride today -- filled with songbirds who were quite happy singing in the trees. We saw a coyote in a field just ambling across soaking up the sun. Today was also special because we went by the University of Portland, twice because of the St. John's Bridge closure. When my son went to the University of Portland, Bill and I would visit him at Kenna Hall in May at the end of his school term. The campus sits on a bluff about 6 miles from the actual downtown area, a beautiful setting for a great school. Mentioning my son reminds me that Captain Pursley will be returning to North Carolina from Qatar arriving on US soil on July 17. He will have completed 14 flights over Iraq enough to be eligible for a medal (the count was raised from 7 when the war was deemed complete).