Seattle to Portland, Ditty Bops Style
Abby and Amanda are my new heroes. They ride a steady, easy pace without drafting and go slower when they are tired, sick and sore (like Sunday and Monday) but they just keep going and they never complain, never give up. They always keep their good attitude and are some of the most positive, beautiful spirited people I’ve ever ridden with.
We three were rolling at eight the next morning, riding through the country with the roads mostly to ourselves. The weather was clear and warm and we stopped in Winlock for photos of the World’s Largest Egg. Not that large really but a very nice woman from the town came down and took pictures for us. Amanda couldn’t resist the Woman’s World Log rolling Champions sign so I took a picture of her with her guns. Peaceful, quiet riding with a sense of adventure and an eye kitschy Americana.
We all had Mexican for lunch in Kelso and based on our glowing description of the morning’s ride Boo who drives the van, shoots the video, handles the merchandise and eats really, really hot Thai food decided that she would ride with us after lunch. She only started riding since they were on the tour but she is strong and rides pretty well. Unfortunately from Kelso the route follows Highway 30 all the way to Portland. So while there is good shoulder/bike lane to ride on it’s very loud from all the traffic and the views are pretty much strip malls and light industrial. Boo rode with us about half way to Portland or 25+/- miles before rejoining the van crew who were sleeping under a tree in the parking lot of a shopping mall.
The last twenty-five miles were really, really tough for Abby and Amanda but they rode rock solid all the way to the hotel. They had ridden across the country doing their shows and promotional events for 4,500 hundred miles and then had taken four days off before flying to Seattle to do a show then jump on their bikes for back to back hundred mile days. All that while posing for pictures, shooting video for their documentary, keeping up the blog and doing the cartoons. Now they had a cold, their butts were sore, their knees were aching and who knows what else but never lost their sense of joy and were always on the lookout for something interesting or fun. I’ll ride anywhere, through anything with them.