Heading to the Northwest (June 13, 2016)

Much to my relief, another summer of bike touring  is starting tomorrow ... 'cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane ... and flying off to Portland, Oregon.

I say "to my relief" because after last summer's not-so-enjoyable bike trek, I really thought that maybe I would never do another ride.  In the back of my fuzzy low-performing brain I knew that touring is one very big element of my life that I dearly love, but again, last year ...

Fortunately, about six weeks ago, Kim Basinger and I talked about doing a ride somewhere this summer.  Kim and I have done two extended rides together, and with her encouragement I managed to pull my moping self-indulgent head out of my ass and agree to once again "get out on the road".

So we are meeting up in Portland tomorrow and heading out on a two-and-a-half month ride around the Northwest ... Portland, Bend, Crater Lake, Ashland, Eugene, Astoria, Olympic Peninsula, Vancouver Island, Glacier National Park, Banff/Jasper, Vancouver, Seattle.  Or something there abouts.

Kim and I travel quite well together as she is a detail-oriented person, where as my planning skills are at the far (other) end of the "detail-oriented" scale.

It is always nice to get out of the desert heat, although I am not too excited about the predicted overnight mid 30's and rain later this week,

Sooo ... all my bags are packed, I'm ready to go ...