Sunday, 17. August 2008.
I wake up to experience some of the neatest pancakes ever. Amazing pancakes made with a special kind of dark flour and nuts, with an apple/pear jam on the top. Yummy!
I leave Ebba and her roommate Kyle around noon. There was a storm yesterday night, but the sky seems to have cleared a bit. Not completely, but enough for a ride.
Today I'm riding down to Eugene which should take me about 4 hours or so. Eugene is at the end of the valley, so it's pretty flat all the way to down there. From there on I'll have to go across the hills and mountains to get to the sea.
However, sometime halfway through the trip there's a motorcycle accident on the road. Someone is laying on the side of the road, motorcycle on the asphalt, bags everywhere,... Two ambulance cars are already there and then little by little the road gets crowded with 2 police cars and a firefighters vehicle. The road is closed and they're expecting a helicopter to come pick the injured any moment. They put bright orange road cones on a field next to the accident for the helicopter to land. The helicopter takes the person away and the volunteers inform us that the road will be closed for about an hour and a half for the official investigation of what happened. I don't have much choice but to wait. Fortunately, a police officer sees me and gives me the sign to pass. He apologizes for not doing it earlier and wishes me a safe trip. Not even half an hour down the road I see a bag full of pennies. Some are still in the bag, while some are scattered around. I stop and pick them up. There's tons of pennies. Over a hundred, minimum. It's amazing what you can find on the side of the road in America. So far I found: 2 mobile phones (both non functional of course), 1 bungee rope (turned out VERY useful), 1 screwdriver (didn't pick it up, but would have been useful), a bag full of pennies and various clothing accessories. I only took the bungee rope and the bag with pennies with me. Anyway, the biking starts getting more and more difficult because of the wind. It's blowing in my direction and it's slowing me by at least 5-6 kilometers an hour. While I'd ride 25-26 kph on a flat road, now I'm barely going 19 kph. I finally get to Eugene. It's pretty much as I remember it. Not very big, nice, green and quite hippyish. Looks like a place I could easily live in. My Tom Tom helps me find Sherman, my next host. She's just come back from biking for a month around Ireland, so she is excited to have a traveller doing pretty much the same thing in the United States. Time to have a glass of water and chat a bit, the BEST vegetarian sushi I've ever had is ready. I must be looking hungry cos Sherman cuts another loaf of sushi the second I've finished the last piece of the first. We chat a bit on the couch and I check my e-mail. She suggests me her couchsurfing friend David in Coos Bay, where I haven't managed to find a place to stay yet. I e-mail David and hope he's available. Tomorrow I'll be biking probably the most dangerous route so far and Sherman sounds fairly concerned talking about the road I'll be taking. Especially since there's a thunderstorm going on as we talk.