A new cycle buddy!

So Andrea has arrived and we are now cycling north towards Vancouver for the final 400 miles of this trip!  She flew in on Sunday evening and I spent yesterday giving her the express tour of the city.  It was also great that one of Andrea's best friends works for a small hotel chain in New York, so we got a great deal in a central hotel - the best accommodation I have had all trip!  It also gave me the rare occurrence of being able to watch TV and therefore the closing ceremony.  The coverage in America has been terrible, and everyone complains - it is very bias towards the USA and only covers sports that the country excels in - so lots of womens' soccer and beach volleyball!

The last week in Portland has been very relaxing for me, and I really enjoyed it.  It was great to stay in a hostel and meet loads of friendly travellers from all over the world.  By the end, I think they had had enough of me loitering around in the common room describing my ride in lots of detail to everyone!  Well, someone has the hear the stories, and now it is Andrea!  The only issue with hostels is you can be very unluckily to share a dorm with a snorer - which I did pretty much every night.  In all fairness to my Dad, he has stopped more recently, but it reminded me of camping trips when I could not sleep due to the noise of his snores when sharing a tent!

Two highlights of my time in Portland include a free performance of Die Fledermaus by Strauss (I am a culture vulture) and riding the annual Bridge Pedal over all of Portland's bridges.  There were thousands of cyclists and it was quite an experience to ride along empty interstates.  The ride was 35 miles and without any panniers on, I raced around pretty quickly.  I also met a lot of lovely people in the city, so to them I am very grateful.

Although cycling on a main road for all of today, it is lovely to have Andrea along.  Also, we can now see Mts Rainer, St Helens and Adams, which are beautiful.  The weather is great and in a couple of days we will be next to the Puget Sound and Seattle.  Island hoping in this area will be awesome!