Day 1 Notes Astoria - St Helen

Susan, an ABB staff member holds up a giant maple leaf from one of the trees that grow out here in the Pacific Northwest. She wanted to be sure the riders from Vermont know what a REAL maple leaf looks like! She is also holding Fox Glove a beautiful flower that I saw several times today growing along side the road. See my Flickr photo album for a close-up of the Fox Glove. This above photo was taken during our Route Rap this evening, just before heading over to the restaurant for a pasta dinner.
This is the first of many of these Welcome America By Bicycle signs on the marquees of the motels we will stay at.

Today was a great day. I am blessed. We all arrived in safely today, much to the relief of the staff and crew. This really makes their day when all their riders have had an enjoyable and safe ride. My chain was skipping pretty badly today. I thought I needed some cable adjustments. When I would shift I would get a slight "clunk" sound on the chain and it would skip and I would pedal about a half turn before it would engage. Took my bike out to the mechanic van and Jim measured my chain and it was way over due for a new chain. These should be changed as often as 1,000 miles of riding. Well I've had this bike since last September and I think I had over 4,000 miles on the chain. I thought when I took it in to the bike shop for a once over before mailing it out here that they would have checked the chain and measured it to accurately gauge if it had stretched and needed replacing. Apparently not, and that what was causing the problem today. Now things are running very smoothly. I was thinking about something one of the riders (I don't remember names yet at this point) said. We bikers have 4 "H"s that we are most concerned about and that can really have an impact when we are out for a bike ride. I was riding along and I was thinking about that. As a kid I belonged to a 4-H Club. 4-H is an international organization of youth that teach you to remember some important things in life. I was involved in many a 4-H project. Everything from raising chickens to public speaking contests, to learning hand sewing. The H's stand for: Heart, Hands, Health and Home. Over the years in 4-H club we learned many lessons that concerned those important words. Now as a bicyclist I am more concerned about these 4-H's: Hills, Headwinds, Heat, and Humidity! Today I dealt with the first H -- Hills. There were a few long ones, but only about 5% grade, which isn't bad at all. There was a scream'n downhill coming into Rainer that over looked the Columbia River and the Lewis and Clark Bridge that spans the waters into Longview, Washington. Some were taking that hill at about 48 mph (so said the one fella at dinner tonight). I held it down to 38 mph. I stopped mid way down hill and took that photo of the bridge. You can see a big logging operation right there along the river on the Washington side.I was riding along near Scotty this afternoon. Christine was nearby too. I saw Scotty stopping up ahead and come to find out a BEE got into his helmet. Dangerous thing. We had a guy on the 2001 cross country that went down when a bee in his helmet distracted him and before he could stop safely he lost control of his bike. He broke some bones and had to abandon the trip. So glad this did not happen to Scotty.Banana count for today: 3 YUMMYRoad kill for today: Not much of anything except a lot of pieces of wood bark that flies off the logging trucks. Had to dodge that many times.Weather: Cool to start, but only wore a light windbreaker jacket for a while. Nice 69 when we arrived at the motel.