180 - 700 miles. Olympic Peninsula, Portland, Oregon, Reggae on the River.

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I think there will always be a part of me in Washington. Literally. I fell and lost a fair amount of skin. My injury noted read: Wounds to: right arm, left elbow, both knees, left side of face, lower back. Swelling and bruising to left hip. All in all could have been a lot worse. We missed out about half a day cycling altogher. I didn't think I could leave it out of the blog.

The whole situation was helped by the luck of hitching a ride into the next town (bike shop there to fix bent wheel) with a wound specialist nurse called Elizabeth who patched me up like a pro and gave us 2 bags of mixed nuts just for good measure. When you are camping on a tight budget, two bags of mixed nuts is about as good as it gets.

Having said that, we've hit a few pieces of good luck/hospitality. We have been given $30 worth of beer tokens, those nuts, and plenty of food from other bikers at the campsites who take pity on our packet noodle dinners.

Theis blog may not be very well written i'm afraid as aswell as not having long on a public library computer and trying to condense 2 weeks into not too many words, we left Reggae on the River(http://reggaeontheriver.com/) Festival at 3am this morning to get our rental car back to the place in time. It's now 3pm. It was a 1000 mile round trip down to California. The festival itself was quite an experience. Some amazing music and things going on but generally I think George and I reeked of being English. We cleared spaces on dancefloors, benches and even where we camped. It was a bit surreal and bizarre, but good fun and good to have a break from cycling. I haven't quite figured out how to articulate the festival yet but if I do i'll put it on the next blog. We also got a a speeding ticket on the way home.

After the fall the olympic peninsula was awesome. The expanse of everything out here is striking. To be honest though, there are only so many of the forests you can see. The coast is where it's really incredible. Oh, i've also now seen Sea Lions chilling out on a rock, about 30 of them. It was a good moment which we shared with some new Canadian cycling friends of ours who our ride happened to interlink with for 3 days or so. It's nice the way that happens when you're cycling. You'll be close friends with people for a few days at a time, eat their nice food, then go your own ways and it's not a problem you'll never see them again.

The best example of immersing yourself into a group of friends came last weekend (14th/15th) in Portland, OR. where we couch surfed with 2 guys (Elliot and Chase) and hung out with them round the city for a few days. Portland is real nice. They were good hosts. There's generally quite a young community there and everyone seems pretty laid back. We met about 30 different people over 3 nights in bars, out and about and up on a viewpoint over the industrial part of the city which is as close as i've seen to a 'make out point' from the films. One guy we met based his life on New Order.\

I think of the cities so far I could holiday in Seattle, Day visit Vancouver, but live in Portland.

Portland

Place - 9/10

People - 9/10

Food - Cooked our hosts an english breakkie - 10/10.

I'm running out of time. I've forgotten a lot of things i'm sure. Will blog again when i can.

Cycling on from here (Newport) to San Francisco basically. About 2 weeks ride through sand dunes, hills, redwoods and lots of elk.

Take it easy. Enjoy the Olympics.


Dom.


P.S. Ma - There are thousands of foxgloves growing wild out here which reminds me of home.

P.P.S For UBU people, America reminds me of UBU a bit - Its so big you can't use all of it and it's hard to control, there is a lot of space assigned to 'storage', there are plenty of lovely people, but a load of oddballs too. And most of the buildings are structurally unsound.



Some Stats -

Mileage - 700

Total climb - 20,000ft

Cramp Count - 2

Fall count - 1

Shit list of stats count -1

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Comments

[Cuzzie Rose]

Awesome!
Loving the blog cuz - i'm honeymooning vicariously through your trip!! Have a mate from oregon, she'll be glad to hear of your praise for her city. :) Take better care on that bike ay clumsy?! Love you. x

[Ruthless]

Sweet mate
Yes mate, sounds like you're having a blast. I'm currently chilling in Hanoi, 3 days ago we went to see an embalmed communist leader and yesterday we were in the incredible HaLong Bay.(http://bit.ly/NRAFQZ) 800 sq metres and 1,969 limestone islands jutting out from the sea. Boat was a bit shabby for the price and there are too many tourists but the scenery was worth it. Enjoy the rest of your trip dude x

[Dom Oliver]

Yeah boi it's maaaaaad

[Ma & Pa]

Foxgloves
Now u know why i've insisted on foxgloves - preparation for this tour of yours!!!! Look after that skin of yours - it's precious!! Lots of love! Enjoy!