nice day for a ride around the waterfront

kevin ahead on rollerblades, leeann towing ryker

4th of july fireworks over the Hawthorne bridge in Portland!

ryker and leeann on the left and kevin on the right

first leg: sac to pdx

so yesterday afternoon, shortly after taking this photo, I had crafted an interesting and witty post discussing the travel adventures so far (delays, character passengers, etc) and then the stupid phone trashed it all just because the phone rang. Argh.

so, the photo above is out the rear window of the last car on yesterday's train. I was seated in car 2, the arcade was car 3, and the viewing car was number 5. I never got further than car 5, though I intended to. while enjoying the view, I watched the train go around a turn and saw how long it was! too bad I never wandered all the way up front, next time.

the train was supposed to arrive in Sacramento at 11.59pm on Saturday night, but instead we didn't pull out of that train station until 3.30am on sunday morning! rawr! kudos to the conductor though, we arrived in Portland only two hours behind schedule. also, the very nice baggage claim staff guy said it'd be no problem for me to leave my bike box with them so I wouldn't have to get another one when I leave. furthermore, he said that when I come back I could easily trade it for a bigger one so I won't have to take the wheels off!

it felt great to finally push off away from the train station and start making my way to leeann and kevin's place. she had given me very clear directions for getting there via local transit, but I'm really quite stubborn. so I google map'd it and decided to ride the whopping 7 miles no matter what trouble I got into. boy, there are some MOUNTAINS in Portland! a good third of that ride was switchbacks. as kalman would say, "so ridey!" by the time I was ready to lay down on the side of the road I had hit the crest and the rest of the ride was really quite quick. downhill, go figure! got to their place sweaty and accomplished, showered, and then we all piled into her car and saw the fireworks. but not before I could enjoy some of kevin's homemade brew. yums!

Big Trip has officially begun!

this is my mom and my sister as we said our goodbyes in the train station parking lot. mom made me promise to return safely - I'm going to do my best. besides I've already satisfied my yearly allotment for cycling mishaps, ....right?

love you guys! and to my other sacramento fans: love you too, and I'll catch up with you in september!

(note the time [3:13am], argh to this train's tardiness!)

sacramento train station

my train was supposed to sweep me off my feet at 11:59pm on saturday night. at the time of this writing, the clock says 1:28am sunday. last we heard it should be here by 2:45am sunday. bleh. this happened the last time I took one of these big trains. I knew to expect this sort of thing but now that I'm in it: bleh.

I had stupidly assumed, the last few weeks, that trains don't sell out. "who rides trains anymore?" lots of people, I guess. when I checked the status, on a whim, of my desired train it had already completely sold out! the horror! so I'm a day later than intended and now an additional three hours to boot. did I mention, "bleh"?

I've never had to pack a bicycle into a bike box. let me tell you, it's less than great fun. at least I'll never again know nothing about what needs to be done in order for it all to fit. I was so pleased to find that this bike was already outfitted with petite person bars. however, their small frame keeps them from folding down as nicely as a standard set would. let's just say: that box has got some bulges. heh.

the side effect of staying at my mom's place for many days is that I regress to college-age sleeping habits. so, even though I have been (and will continue to) waiting for this train for years already, at least I didn't wake up today until 11am.

I hate having stuff to watch over. I went completely manic when Annette and I were hauling our bags from la guardia in nyc to our hostel some three years ago. I'm experiencing the same madness here tonight. thank goodness my mom and my sister are here to assure me my things are being watched while I'm, say, squashing my bike into a box. this is going to be crazy when I'm doing this by myself down the line. what if I have to use the restroom? oy vey.

this next thought has very little to do with the previous thought: I wish kalman were taking this trip with me. I haven't even gotten into the "I've been on this train forever, dear god let me be free" jitters yet. but still, he's so warm and funny. I haven't seen him for a week now and I definitely miss him. awwww...

I brought too much food for this train ride. I guess I'll just have to ride through portland to leeann's place with a plastic grocery bag hanging from my bars.

I hope everyone hopes for nice weather for me. I think Portland will treat me well...

initial sketch