Friday, 15. August 2008.
I wake up fairly early (for my standards. that probably means around 11 am) and get myself on the bike. Portland is the last big city for a while so I want to check the record stores here as I won't be doing that for a while.
The first three stores go fairly uneventfully. However, the Discourage records abounds with good vinyl. I don't even have the courage to check the LP section, but the 7" section is full of American, European, Asian, South American, Australian Punk and HardCore. It's not cheap or anything, because I guess the owner bases his prices on Ebay prices, but with dollar so low it's still OK.
I end up getting about 140 dollars worth of 7"s. The problem is, I don't have the time to go to the post office which means I have to drag an extra box of stuff all the way to Salem. That's life, I guess.
So I get back to the apartment, get myself ready, greet Dixie and hit the road again.
Tom Tom proves to be a major pain in the ass indicating the steepest roads around so I just ditch it and choose to ride down along the highway 99.
I get to Salem at 11 pm but as soon as I ring my bell in front of my host's house I feel I've come home. There's a whole welcoming committee who are really excited to see me and the moment I set my foot in the garage I know this is good times.
The Gatorade keeps flowing, the ice cream keeps coming and good conversation keeps good company until bedtime. There are five people there beside me: Rose (my host), Laura Love (one of the funniest girls I've had the chance to meet), Laura (Rose's younger sister), Patrick and Travis (who has just hitchhiked across the USA in 104 days).
Good, good times.