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7 AUGUST
We
spent the rest of the day and that night at Erik's place in Portland. His girlfriend
Traci lives there too, along with her son Dustin. A woman named Zia owns the
house, and her fiancé Travis lives there too. We slept in the basement
and hung out with the cats.
Erik drives a tow truck (kind of ironic) and he helped us get the U-Haul turned in and our gear shipped home via UPS. Kind of a pain in the ass and expensive to boot, but it was easy to throw some duct tape around my Givi cases, slap the mailing labels on them, and put them on the scale for the UPS guy. Jason had to box all his stuff up; we both hung on to our duffel bags to carry home with us on the train.
Dustin is 4 years old and a lot of fun to be around, though he is a pain in the ass at bed time. The house, in a bad but not terrible part of Portland, is owned by Zia, who is Traci's friend from way back. Zia plays in a band called The Dandy Warhols, who I never heard of but she played some of their stuff for me and it's pretty good. Travis has amazing Elvis sideburns.
We took them all (sans Travis, who had to work) to "breakfast" at about 2 p.m. and then Erik dropped us off at the Portland train station after we hit a few places to find me a cane. Between the back and the dizzy spins I'm having trouble walking, and carrying a big duffel isn't going to help.
We
caught Amtrak's "Empire Builder" train, which goes from Portland, OR
to Chicago, IL. We've been on the train for 30 hours and have about 33 to go
before we reach DC. Sure, we could have flown in a fraction of the time, but
Amtrak was only $225 each, while even Southwest's coast-to-coast flights on short
notice cost more than that. Besides, it's going to take us some time to heal
up and somehow, flying home just seemed like it was going to end the trip too
soon. Several days on a train may not have been the best idea, but it was better
than cramming our aching and bruised bodies into an airplane.
The scenery out the window here on the top floor of the Empire Builder is pretty impressive, but I can't help think it would be prettier from atop a motorcycle. Hotter, sure, but prettier. We've met some cool people on the train and the food is good. My dizzy spins have subsided somewhat, but I'm still very much off balance. The medication for it helps me sleep, and I bought some magazines and a couple books before we got on the train in Portland.
Gas Log - 13 July - 14
July - 15 July - 17 July
18 July - 19 July - 20
July - 21 July - 22 July
23 July - 24 July - 26
July - 27 July - 28 July
29 July - 30 July - 31
July - 1 Aug - 2 Aug
3 Aug - 7 Aug - Wrapup