Day 182 - 192, Portland (Oregon) to Crescent City (California)

Day 182, 30 km

I went downtown Portland and discovered many second hand stores. They call it Thrift stores. I did not find good waterproof shoes for me. But I found The Recyclery. There I wanted to buy some more spokes but when they heard how far I had gone I got them for free.

Then I went to a cinema and saw a movie called Silverlining Playbook, which I enjoyed very much. It was raining a lot when I went back to my warmshower hosts! 

Day 183, 30 km

My host were planing to hike with friends in the weekend so I called another warmshower host, Bich and she said I could stay at her place. So I left Julia's and Bob's house.

 During the day I explored Portland some more. I liked to bike along the river!

 I also found really big thriftstores, but no 100% waterproof shoes.

 There were many bikers everywhere in Portland and they also had an interesting sculpture made of old bikes.

 In the evening I came to Bich's and Justin's house and they suggested to take me out for dinner. We went to a nice place where they made their own beers with exiting flavours.

 We had a really good time there.

 Day 184, 20 km

Next morning Justin showed me his talent of making Cappuccinos.

He was a coffee fan  with a professional machine and knew a lot of his hobby. He had a book about how to taste different kinds of coffee, so we tested three different kinds which he had roasted by himself.

 Here you see our equipment

 And here you see the machine.

 A perfect shot has to come out in a certain way which you can watch.

 Finally I left their house to spend one more day I Portland. My plan was to see some famous gardens.
I started with eating a Pizza. When I had told the shop owner that it was my first american Pizza I got it for free!

 In the Rose Garden I still found some roses. But not many were blossoming in December...

 But the Japanese garden already was closed for the day when I arrived and the Chinese Garden as well. So I called Bich and said I was interested to join them to a restaurant that evening again.

 We went to a place where they were playing live music.

Day 185, 10 km

I left Bich's and Justin's house to go further south. On the way I visited Portland Waldorf school. They were very happy that I came and asked if I could talk about my trip immediately for grade 9-10 and in the afternoon for grade 11-12. I said I could if I could stay the night. So I spent the day in the school and I believe the pupils liked my lectures. Anyway I liked to tell about my adventures...

 The science teacher invited me to stay for the night in his house, very close to the school. It was a really nice family living int the house.

Behind the house they had a huge Sequoia. But they are growing fast, I was told that it probably it was mot more than 100 years old.

Day 186, 100 km

Next day it was raining a lot. I passed many orchard which were flooded. I also found apple trees with tasty apples.

I found a shop which sold rubber boots which I could put outside my common shoes, which i found a good solution.

In the afternoon I arrived at my next warmshower hosts, Mark and his wife who live in Independence. They had a huge garage with space for my bike, my tent, two cars, ten more bikes...

 ...and even an aircraft!

 I had a wonderful warm shower an an relaxing afternoon.

Day 187, 135 km

Next morning I got a real american breakfast:

 Then Mark and his wife showed me the house from behind. It was situated at a taxiway to the airport.

Then I continued on my trip. My hosts had recommended a very scenic road down to Newport, which is on the coast.

 In the beginning the sun was shining.

 But soon clouds were coming and it begun to rain.

All trees were completely covered with moss and lichens which show that it must rain a lot there. 

In the middle of the day I got lost in the mountains (suddenly google maps did not work any more) and I asked somebody for the road. He sent me in the wrong direction so I made about 15 miles more than I had planned. It was not so easy with all my heavy boots and rain-clothes but finally I arrived in Newport late at night.

My warmshower host Kadence was in a pub and thought I could come there too. Her boyfriend picked me up at their house and I was shown a pub which actually also was a home brewery. 

 They even sold all kind of equipment which you need to make your own beer. This seems to be very modern in Oregon right now...

Day 188, 60 km

I waited in Kadence's house until the famous Newport Bike Shop opened at 10:00. Then I bought a new derailleur

 Since it was raining a lot I spent some hours in the shop. Touring bicyclists were allowed to use the shower and the wifi!
But at 2:00 pm I decided to continue south although it was raining.

 At many places the I had a good view on the ocean from the road 101.

 I thought the weather could not get worse so I did not hurry.

 Instead I really enjoyed the views. I found a good sleeping place near the beach. It was raining all night long.

Day 189, 105 km

I started early but discovered that I had a flat tire. I found a tiny piece of metal in the tire which I could not pull out. Instead I tried to sand the inside so the metal disappeared. After the second flat I thought I had succeeded (which I found out I had not two days later). The bad thing was that I had forgotten my spare tires at Bich's house in Portland. She had promised to send it to her parents in law who lived in Coos bay, where I was going that night.

 In the middle of the day I visited a place called Sea Lion Cave. I took an elevator through the black lava rock 60 m down into a lava tunnel, which was partly filled with water. There were hundreds of sea lions! In the cave they had shelter from the bad weather outside,

Then I continued on route 101. I passed several railway bridges built of lumber

 In the evening I saw a memorial with a wise saying. 

At 6:30 pm I arrived in Coos Bay. Justin's father told me that my parcel with the tires had arrived three hour before me and that I could visit an exhibition with wooden carousel animals if I wanted. I really wanted to see it so we went there at once.

 Here is the artist with his grand son.

 And here is one of his creations. He told me that one of his animals took about 800 hours to build. And there were more than ten different animals in this exhibition! As I had come a long way to see them I got a special guiding from him.
Outside the exhibition there was a funny bike leaning on a tree, which actually seemed to work!

Day 190, 60 km

Next day Justin's father helped me to get a new sim card for my phone. The one I had bought in Seattle did not work any more, nobody could tell me why.

Then he showed me all his houses and projects inside. Since houses were not so expensive in Coos Bay he had bought two of his neighbors houses! After Lunch I said good buy to him and his wife and continued south. It rained a little when I left but soon it stopped. I biked until it got dark, then I slept in my tent.

Day 191, 100 km

The road was good and there was almost no traffic. Only some pickups with boats on trailers. Many young guys seemed to hav a tradition to go fishing on Saturday mornings. They went to rivers coming down from the mountains.

 The views on the coast were awesome!

 And even the villages I passed had nice spots.

 I had no rain the whole day.

 And a lot of space on the empty roads.

 Finally I stopped to clean my bike and my panniers after all rain.

 Now the sun was shining!

 I wondered why the the roads often had cracks although the seemed to be newly paved. Of course, I suddenly remembered, I was riding along the San Andreas Fault!

 The sunset was very beautiful.

 Then I spent another night in my tent.

Day 192, 60 km

Again I discovered that I had a flat tire when I wanted to start in the morning. The piece of metal apparently made a new whole in the tube when the tire was becoming thinner. I thought that I could make it on my first front tire from Stockholm to California which is about 15000 km. But only 30 km from the border I decided to take one of my new tires instead.

 It was a cold morning but the sun was shining from a blue sky.

Several hours I follower the trail of another bicycle in the dew but i never found it.

 At some places I was tempted to take a bath.

 Finally I reached California!

Now the day was really warm and sunny! On the fields were growing young crops and they even had artificial watering!

 In some gardens I found Californian Christmas decoration.

 And I also found remainings of old Redwoods (can you see my bike in front of the big old stump?)

But soon I believe I will find even bigger Redwoods...
I arrived in Crescent City already at 3 pm and now I am staying at Gerry's house, another member of warmshowers.