"Please secure all belongings for final descent on Portland..."

Here I am.
West coast. Velo just arrived about 30 seconds ago and I now feel like a little boy on Christmas morning who just got a ....cardboard box filled with a well-weathered bike, sleeping bag, cooking stove, and other random things not worth typing out....

Today I promenaded from Joel's apt to the city (about 60 min walk), bummed around town like a local yodel, and promenaded back after i went food shopping. That was prob the dumbest thing i did today...buy groceries for the trip knowing i had an hour hike back to Joel's house....aside from that...

- passed boards for nursing...so now I can fully enjoy the trip and not worry about having to study to take the test again once I get back.
- Joel and I are officially leaving for Astoria on Friday night, camping out and getting an early departure time from Astoria come Saturday morning.
- Joel is dunna ride down the Pacific Coast portion of the trail with me...so about 100 miles or so. It'll be great to have a veteran show me the ropes.
- Just chilling out for the next few days....figuring out food rations/costs for each day, go on some bike rides around Portland, and just try to soak in the relaxing moments.

Still need to buy some things (spare tires,etc)...other than that it's just a matter of time.

(I'll work on figuring out how to post some pictures on this bloggy thing.)

On that note...time to unpack bike box and reassemble me velo and sort out all the gear...