We left our Motorway motel at the crack of dawn and opted to have breakfast on the road at a diner in a small town called Cottage Grove. These small American towns that are all so similar throughout the US but for their own cultural quirks never fail to make me feel a sense of escapism. I imagine anonymously holing up in one of the many colourful little clapboard houses that line the streets and falling into a small town rhythm; Breakfast at the diner with the locals, a job in a shop on the main street, a beer at the bar after work, and, repeat! Whilst it sounds blissfully simple and relatively free, I do have to wonder how long it would take for me to feel the yearn of the pace of my current life. The grass always seems greener elsewhere and the beauty of the bike is that it enables mini bite size opportunities to sample these lifestyles, rather than just romantically fantasizing about what they would be like. For the moment, I think I will take London, UK, over London, Ohio.
Our trip today…
We had a relatively short ride to Portland where we are spending 2 nights to rest up a little as we have been riding for 5 consecutive days. I made a bit of a mistake in assuming that Max’s riding stamina was the same as mine and I subjected my boy to long stretches of 200-300km without stopping in order to make distance. He quietly endured this but a few days ago I could see that it was taking its toll and so we now stop every 100km for a coffee/soda which in some respects is actually nicer as it slows everything right down. My personality is to tackle things hard and fast. Its the same with my pastimes and having Max along has enabled me to slow things down to his pace which has resulted in a new perspective which I am enjoying. I think I may adopt more of this into other aspects of my life.
We got into Portland early afternoon, headed out for a walk and an early dinner at a restaurant called Pearl Tavern which was great. Portland is beautiful and tomorrow we plan on doing some exploring and some activities.
