let's get ready to rumble!

So I survived a full day of traveling to get to Portland, and along the way I avoided the worst of the jetlag. A good thing considering the time difference is 8hrs! Portland is completely different to anything I would have expected. It's surrounded by hills (or mountains, depending on your definition) and is beautifully green. I have never seen a city with so many trees scattered around everywhere! On Friday the air was so clear, I could see Mount St Helen (the big volcano) and some other snow covered mountains in the distance.

I picked up my bike and bought all the bits I needed, so I am now fully equipped and prepared for bits falling apart. Again, the guys at Revolver Bikes were super helpful, so I am hoping that absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong with this bike. (Right ;)) I decided not to buy any form of sat nav gadget/toy, as the bike GPS computers are so expensive but don't even offer a reasonable screen or mapping function (and don't work with a Mac unless you splash out on the most recent model for a mere $649!), while the cars sat navs are cool but only run 3-4hrs on batteries. Useful.

After that, I did a bit of sightseeing around the city, and watched Kung Fu Panda at the cinema- highly recommended!! I also saw Wall-E today, another brilliant animated movie out at the moment. The two are seriously the funniest movies I have seen recently! Of course, my first day in the US included a trip to the Ben&Jerry's store, and various other bits of fast food. But that's probably enough for now.

I'm taking the bus up to Astoria in an hour, where I'll stay with a fellow couchsurfer for the night before setting off down the Oregon coast tomorrow. The first day is going to take me to Pacific City, roughly 105 miles from Astoria. And since summer has literally hit today, I'll try to set off quite early- maybe 630am or so. That way I can also stop for an early lunch and hopefully catch the Euro final somewhere! My handlebar bag will be stuffed with fig rolls, Haribo and bagels for the way, and I am taking a pack of Gatorade powder so I can mix my own energy drink. With the temperature close to hitting 100F, I think the biggest challenge will be to stay hydrated throughout the ride!

Gotta go, will hopefully inform you of my progress over the first few days soon! (With the aid of my Starbucks Reward card, which gets me two hrs of free wireless in any Starbucks each day. Yay!)

Additional info

I'm still in the UK but I can report that I have successfully completed my charity bike ride from Cambridge to Oxford and back, over two days. That ride was about 85 miles per day, which seemed fine apart from the strong headwind on the first day.

 

I'll be leaving for Portland this coming Thursday (26th), where I have bought a touring bike. For those of you interested in bikes, I have opted for a Surly Crosscheck, the sizing is a bit of an issue but I hope I chose the right frame size! I'm getting it from Revolver Bikes (www.revolverbikes.com), the guys there have been extremely helpful and I can only recommend their shop if you ever wish to buy a bike in Portland! They have added a third chain ring on request, and changed the tires for 28mm Schwalbe Marathon Plus... I am hoping to minimise the number of punctures over the 4,250 miles!

 

I'm taking a bus from Portland to Astoria, OR, where the Transam officially starts, on Saturday. If all goes well, I should be on my way on Sunday! My flight back to the UK is leaving Philly on August 28th, so I have only given myself about 8 weeks for the actual tour. That means I will aim to ride on average about 90 or 100 miles a day, which allows me to take one rest day per week. Of course that's all still subject to change, I'll just have to see how it goes once I am on my way!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog, which will mostly cover my progress as I attempt
to cycle across the US this summer. I will be going along the
Transamerica route, see www.adventurecycling.org for more information.