Oregon 2018

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Here we are off in another adventure into the unknown. Well, unknown to me that is.
The flight leaves from Heathrow direct to Portland so us northerners must fly down the day before to arrive in time for midday departure on Delta Airlines. When booking in on line I was offered the chance to upgrade us to Club Europe for £59, which I jumped at the chance. This gave us an extra bag in the hold, which we all needed, plus a chance of free food in the BA lounge, a meal on the plane and free champagne. What is there not to like with this offer, especially since it was £1 cheaper than just booking in the extra bag. The only trouble is I need to lose a couple of kilograms, not put 2 kilograms on. In Heathrow we met up with the rest of our group of 13 cyclists on this CTC Holidays and Tours guided tour.
After staying at the Park Inn overnight where 3 drinks cost £19 - even to pensioners - we took the shuttle bus to Heathrow to encounter massive queues to check in. A major problem appeared when Dave’s ticket had been inadvertently cancelled which meant a further delay whilst we got it reinstated putting him even further back in the queue which had him landing to the departure gate with little time to spare after being in the airport for 3 hours. The Delta B767 plane is quite good and our 11 hr flight passed easily and we were not being over fed, like some long haul flights I have been on. Landing at 3.30pm in daylight which was effectively 11.30pm in our UK heads seemed strange and were driven to our hostel by our host Christopher Frick. After being given some tips by him on the city we went for an early dinner in the local pizza restaurant, Life if Pie’. $16 for pasta and a pint. On our return we summoned up some strength to start building our bikes but by 8pm it was getting dark and the strength was ebbing so off to bed by 8.30. Up at 6.30 to join the shower queue and off to the local supermarket for breakfast. Loads of choice on offer from bagels with sausage and egg etc or a massive range of breakfast items like sausage, sautéed potatoes, roast vegetables, hash browns, scrambled egg etc. This was sold by the weight and ended up quite good value for money. Bill cannot wait for the blueberry pancakes.

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Comments

[Mr T Lingard]

What an adventure..
Your group look a nice bunch Richard..all sounds good fun..watch them pancakes!