STATS
- Day: 1
- Day Mileage: 79.9
- Total Miles: 79.9
So I’m an emotional person now it seems. It began at my rehearsal dinner where I lost it. Happened again my wedding night. Happened most recently at a nursing graduation party. And for good reason it happened this morning as Megan left our campsite to drive back to Portland before flying back to OKC. It was a very tearful goodbye. And then I had a whole bike ride ahead of
It started out a pretty straight forward day. I was shooting for Ochoco Lake County Campground, just 11 miles past Prineville, where I would reach as Megan was pulling into Portland.
I sat down to have lunch and could barely eat. My nerves and emotions were getting the best of me. I ate what I could manage. I attempted to eat all of it knowing I’d need those calories, but just couldn’t. I decided then that’s there is just no way that I could arrive at a campground with 9 hours of daylight with me, myself and I and maybe no way to speak to anyone which depended on cell service. I made the call then to push ahead to Mitchell, an additional 47 miles. It was going to be significantly more than I had originally intended. Probably not the best idea to go HAM on my first day, but I needed some semblance of home, even if that just meant cell service.
I’m currently in Mitchell, Oregon at the Spoke’n Hostel, a church turned bicycle tourism advocate with bunk beds, a kitchen and a short walk to town where I had dinner at Tiger Town Brewery. I’ve been able to FaceTime Megan, text my family and message friends. I needed it. It’s only day one, but I remember the mental part of a trip like this is significantly harder than the physical. I hope to be less of a mess going forward, but it still may take some time.
Day One Bonuses
- The support to go on a bicycle ride
- A great vacation that included a weeklong bender of pizza, beer and everything else that I leaned on heavily today to get me to my destination
- Climbing an hour and forty-five minutes for that decent
- Trail angels right where I needed them
- My first pass at 4,720 ft
- The Digital Age
- Encouragement from a group on motorcyclists at rest stop
- Showers