Day 1 – Portland to The Dalles, Oregon, 103 miles, 8,000 feet of climbing

Ok, I’m starting to get it. You get up at the same time each day, each breakfast, stuff to the truck and head out. Today’s ride took us towards Mt. Hood, away from Mt. Hood, back to Mt. Hood and then finally dropped to the Dalles, which is on the Columbia River. The riding was beautiful and we all started together but got into groups after awhile. Jeanine and I rode together much of the day with a guy from New Hampshire, who, before this ride, had only ridden 3,100 miles in his life! He only started riding in October. Craziness. Mt. Hood is beautiful and we ate lunch in a parking lot with a perfect view of the mountain. While we were there, this guy drove by in a VW bus, with a mini-VW bus on a trailer -too cute! Turns out the mini was a go cart. The climbing was just my style, 6-7% grades, just cruising up the road trying to remember not to push too hard. I think my total riding time was close to 6 ½ hours, so not too fast, hopefully just right. I’ve only ever ridden 2 long days in a row, so after tomorrow, it’ll be interesting. This afternoon and evening, we spent hanging out at the oh so glamorous Super 8 – doing laundry, relaxing, and then headed out for a fine Mexican meal. One thing we’ve noticed is that people in Oregon are SO nice. Jeanine had a flat today and three people stopped to see if we were ok. One guy stopped and offered us a floor pump, which was great because her first tube had a leak! Even as we wandered through the Fred Meyer parking lot after buying “room snacks” and ice cream, a lady in her car waited patiently as we clued in and got out of the way. Good times continue to abound!