Eugene, June 29

Wow, finally out of Corvallis. Really awesome town but I seriously think its some sort of black hole that keeps you in as long as possible. Took us 4 days to get out. The first day we decided it would be fun to check the town out and hang out basically which it was. Ate some good vegetarian food at a nice little place called Nearly Normals, looks like a small house. The next day(Thursday) we're ready to set out but Steve has some knee pains and we start looking for a free clinic to help him out. They're not open till Friday. Friday comes along and he doesn't get out of there for about 4-5 hours and they don't really do much for his knee. Actually the doctor who helped him was a bike expert or something and told him how he could adjust his bike so his knee's wouldn't suffer so much. Strangely it helped and his knee went back to normal. I wouldn't think going to a doctor for bike advice would be so helpful. Saturday finally comes along and we're out, we stop by the Saturday market and get some snacks. Free cookies baked in a solar oven(!!!), very cool stuff. Had some tofu burgers and ran into someone we met the first night we were in Corvallis.



After the free cookies and chatting up the Korean girl who sells pogs we ditch Corvallis finally. It's about 95 degrees out and was probably the most humid day I've felt so far. All the ice in my bottle was gone in 15 minutes and the water reverted to lukewarm after about 45 minutes. 6 miles out we see the Willamette River, and decide to try and hop in. We walk our bikes out towards the muddy shore and climb down to the water, its all mud, but cold mud so I'll deal. As soon as we get back on the road Steve gets a flat, in the middle of the road, in the middle of nowhere, in what feels like 450 degrees, with little knowledge on how to fix the tire. I could shoot this kid right here. There's a house across the way so I go over there asking for some ice and after some talking and subtle hints of our desperation out on the road, they drove us all the way back the way we came to Corvallis. See what I mean about it being a black hole? Even when we do leave, it brings us right back. These people were amazing though and so generous, As we were packing the bike the wife looks up and calls bike shops in town to see who can fix up steves bike the quickest and not only do they drive us into town but Rich, a volunteer fire fighter and paper mill worker, waits with us and has a beer and drives us back to his place for Popsicles. People are awesome. His two kids (11 & 13) do farm work in the summer planting and selling their own pumpkins.



After some orange flavored popsicles and drinking an entire cooler full of ice water, we head back out onto the road. The joys of all that are stripped from us after fighting against the sun and heat. In Harrisburg we meet someone who's touring the opposite direction of us and he's almost done. He's from New York and you can pretty much tell from his accent and his quick attitude, this guys got no time to chill.

There's more to this post but I'm out of computer time and the Eugene public library sucks and won't let me upload any pictures. When I find a better PC I'll hook up the goods.

***Edit.

Pictures
Camp situation, and why this looks like a link, I dont know.



The Center of the universe.


So I ask what kind of flower these are, the kid says, "Flowers? No man they're food" Apparently hospitals and other agencies buy these and cook them for food. They get paid 48k a month to grow these.



The Last bridge into Eugene

Corvallis, June 25

I'm in the Corvallis Public Library now using their computers and trying to avoid eye contact with the person sitting directly in front of me, not as easy as a feat as you might think. We started on monday in Portland and made it to Salem in about 8 or 9 hours. 3 of those hours spent being lost and having no idea whether we turn right left or go back the way we came. "Is this still River Road? I don't even know anymore"

Steve and I posing next to the Belafonte

I have never seen so much farm and endless fields in my life, riding through was really calming since there was nothing going on besides the occasional tractor or 18 wheeler. Which is no good for me since I have a phobia of being crushed to death by a vehicle. Luckily it hasn't happened yet, in fact I haven't even fallen into anything. Steve on the other hand crashed into 8 mailboxes, breaking on completely off its post.

"Breaking mail boxes are a federal offense!"

Finally we ended up in Keizer after being detoured for about 2 hours. We bike an hour to a park that we're told we can camp at for the night, turns out its a day park. With Cougars. We turn around and bike an hour back uphill to find a fire station. I ask for directions while subtely hinting to them that they should just let us sleep in the fire department, that didnt happen. We did get directions though and an ETA of 45 minutes. After 2 hours of following those directions we realize that they're full of shit, I think it was when I started merging onto a busy highway that tipped me off.

We finally make it to the camp site and we're so exhausted that we barely get the tent up and I collapse after a freezing cold to scalding hot shower. Sorry, no pictures...too...tired..

The next morning we start heading towards independence and we're going at glacial speeds. Our legs are worn out, the entire crotch/butt area is bruised and hurts to even sit on and we're suffering from cramps and cuts all over. Steve even lost feeling in hald his left hand, we have yet to figure out if thats something we should be seriously concerned with. After hours of biking and a sprint across an 8 lane free way, we make it to indepence. A town with a population of 5 or so it seemed. Really eerie place, nice neighborhood, nice looking houses, a half built high school and noone around. We walk into a chinese restaurant to get our chopstick on and even that place seemed deserted at first. The waiter seemed suprised to see us, I guess its hard to run a business in a ghost town.

I'm Messy

After that town it was just road and sun and farms and sun and vast plains and road and sun, forever. I'm tired of typing so here are some pictures.

Corvallis so far is really amazing. The city seems to be made just for bikers, there are bikes everywhere and not as many cars. I haven't seen a lot yet but everyone's been very nice so far. One guy we met, John, even mapped us a route to take and gave steve a bag, some pants, and some ass cream, you know, for the sores. And our camping neighbor Chase has supplied us with some food and some stories.

Till next time

Gimme the loot

I've been spending too much money. Ebay is so deals its hard to let it slide. You can buy a bike for 9 bucks but pay 80 for shipping, what the fuck, right? I'm starting to realize I cant do shit at home but eat, sleep, dance around in my room and stare out the window. I can't read or think or blog about anything in this little chair. I could be asked to read the size and brand off the bottom of a nine inch heel belonging to kick boxer hovering over my right eye, and I still wouldn't be able to pull it off, even with full knowledge of where that heel would be going if I didn't answer. Thats pretty much how unmotivated home-life makes me.

Tomorrow I'm writing a paper on my favorite topic, me! An essay as an application for entry into a free class at PCC, the illumination project, a "program designed to address issues of oppression...through classroom and interactive theatre." I can totally pull off angry black guy that refers to women as hoes and myself as "a motha-fuckin P I M P".

I need to shower, its been...4 days? I've been busy. Myspace requires a lot of my attention. Alright well this post is dedicated to Stephanie Stone, hello. She can be my noteworthy person of the day, and the first, I feel like I should have a hook to all my posts and maybe this'll be it.

Sayooonara