I’m behind on entries, but will backfill. You wouldn’t think that just sitting on a bike for eight hours a day would be tiring, but the last couple of nights I’ve pretty much been passing out. It’s a good feeling to be that tired when I go to bed, but it’s certainly cut down on any writing time.

We’re in Portland (Hillsboro, actually) now. It’s nice to know we don’t have to pack up tomorrow morning. I’ve even put a few articles of clothing in a drawer. Amazing!

So, today. We slept in a little later than the past few days, then got on the road. We were in the north end of Gold Bay, so we immediately were out of town. By the time we hit the next town, we were hungry for breakfast. Our plan had been to grab something super fast like McDonald’s, but there wasn’t one, so we went to a little roadside café. Big mistake. It took forever. Food was fine, but ack ack ack. We were very late getting back on the road, and between that and traffice we were very late getting to Lincoln City. The ride was stunning, though—pounding surf, bare craggy rocks on the shore, towering pines. The smell of sea and and pine mingled together.

Kris and Dean were still at the restaurant, with other writers, so we didn’t miss them after all. We had a good, although brief, visit. I wish we could have stayed longer, but they had to get back to work, and we had to continue on. We cut across to the main freeway and got up here without incident. We checked out the end of town near the hotel, which is within walking distance for me and has enough little food places so I won’t starve. We picked up a few things at the grocer store, though: cereal for Ken’s bkfst, fruit, parmesan Goldfish crackers, juice, soda, wine. We have a fridge and microwave in the room, which helps. We ate at Baja Fresh for supper, then came back and watched 40 or so minutes of a “Charmed” ep I hadn’t seen. Then we sat in the hotel jacuzzi, and now we’re back in the room, lounging. We’ll crawl into bed soon. Ken has an early day tomorrow.