Well, it’s been quite the journey and I can’t believe that it’s already over. Yesterday I rode the final 100 miles into Beaverton, and home.
It was certainly a bittersweet homecoming.
Since Hearst Castle, I continued my ride up the California coast and headed into San Francisco to meet up with some friends.
Along the way I drove through a smoky Santa Cruz and stumbled across a forest fire and the media frenzy that surrounded it.
After arriving at the UC Berkeley campus where I would be staying with a very gracious Ryan Knutson for the next two nights, I was immediately nostalgic. I know that I just graduated a couple months ago, but it already seemed like I was an outsider on a college campus. The four years of irresponsibility were over. The real world never loomed so near.
From San Francisco I continued along the coast and into the Redwoods where I set up and tore down camp for the last time. Humboldt Redwoods State Park had incredible showers, but I had of course left my towel back in San Francisco. The roads along CA-1 were incredible but the minivans putsing along at half the speed limit were more than a little annoying, so it was nice to get onto 101.
On Tuesday I left the Redwoods and continued into Oregon along the coast. A stopover in Eugene for a night meant that a familiar 100 mile freeway stretch would be my last ride.
And wouldn’t you figure, it wasn’t until I was in Beaverton, less than 5 miles from home, that I was almost run over. A minivan was turning left and crossed my lane without seeing me. A frantic swerve and the luck of the dumb driver finally noticing me and I escaped without a scratch.
Wouldn’t that have been ridiculous?
1 response so far ↓
1 Kyle // Aug 19, 2009 at 11:36 am
when were you in eugene?!? and yes, that would be ridiculous.
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