grammatronics

Hello! We, after days of going up & down & up & down & down & then up & up & up, are now in San Francisco being well-treated by my uncle Greg & fam. Some pickies, old/new:
big face, small face

windy face

beer place!

seals! (who eat salmon)

alien baby

rocks in the mist

i conquered the big tree

She Who Rides With Dairy Cows

rocks with handy storage spaces

just your standard early settler Russian Orthodox church

Our Hero

Greetings from the lovely Oregon coast! Its been all mists in the pines, waves crashing onto rocks, windswept beaches, etc, etc. You know. We hadn't been doing too bad for scenic so far, but this has been amazing. We crossed into Astoria on a 4+ mile, very nerve-wracking bridge a few days ago, and found the smoked salmon of my dreams, Josephson's. I plan to patronize this business for all further presents, birthday, x-mas, and so on, so now's a good time to start being very nice to me. We also stopped at the Tillamook cheese and ice cream factory for copious quantities of both. Along with my camp cobbler of roadside blackberries, its been good eatin' and good seein'. Though very climby. We've been taking it easy, as we do best.
scenic vista

Garibaldi(sock monkey, lower left) in Garibaldi

behind sideways Colin is the rock from the Goonies, sideways

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I've heard from some parties that this blog needs to get its ass in gear. Perhaps, I say to them. And then I say, are you riding your bike 7 hours a day? Are you comfortably settling into a minimal-computer time lifestyle, smartasses? Hmph. Well, here are some pics. DC was great, though I am a little visited-out. Being in people's homes made me eager to nest, but I soon tempered that with remembering that settling somewhere means working. Goodbye to Seattle for now, but we like it an awful lot.
Godly campsite.

tiny horsies

thank goodness Colin takes so many pictures of himself, or there might not be any record of him on this trip

So, Colin & I have managed to self-propel to Portland. Each day, we started off somewhere, and ended up somewhere else! Still pretty amazing to me. Portland is pretty great, as are our hosts Clare & Joel & baby Ella, who are putting us up despite moving to Chicago tommorrow. I saw this guy, an etsy fave of mine, last night during some kind of arty deal: Perfect children. I am also pleased to report that we are back to green, and moss, and related plant life. That whole arid desert thing was beginning to wear on me. The Columbia River Gorge was rather scenically beautiful, and rather windy.
Here, I am going so fast that my wheel has almost vaporized.

goddamn desert.

my award-winning rendering of the Tetons. Grand, they are.

kid falling off sheep at 4th of July rodeo. The best.

dashing, no?

skunks are way cute. They have their drawbacks, yes, but there's a lot going for them too: little fuzzy snout, soft lustrous fur, bushy tail, a waddle-shuffle. That whole spraying thing makes a lot of scents(haha!) if you only think about the last couple thousand years of coevolution with humans. If they weren't so smelly, I'd have a skunk fur blanket for sure, and I'd dust my house with a tail, PETA be damned. We had some curious stinky friends at a campsite a few days ago, and it was hard for me not to squeal when they scampered over to check out our little scene of habitation. No incidents, but we're pretty sure they sprayed the youth group. Haha, good skunks.

The strangest part of this trip thus far has not been biking up mountains, being unemployed, inability to check email 15 times a day, social circle consisting of 60-year olds, buying flourescent yellow biking gear I swore I'd never get, or having no income while spending money like a faucet. It has been being outside, almost always, save for searching frantically for things in the van (actually about 20% of my time), restaurants and the occasional motel. Just always out in the air, sun & shade. It hasn't been this way since childhood summers, and oh my does it require liters of sunblock.

Firstly: pictures!
After this post, they will be acessible will the other links. Thank you for your patience.
Secondly, there are 7 pairs of very well-developed calves on this trip, and mine are not among them. I'm thinking about tracing them at intervals as they get pogressively more muscely & awesome, like pregnant ladies do with their bellies. Due to calves & overall fitness level, the geriatrics continue to shame me but at least I'm getting in some pretty good distance. Not over the mountain pass however. Let's go over some highlights, shall we?