The trip continues…
Based on the insistent recommendation of Jayne, I met up with Gail and Eric who took significant trips across I think nearly all the continents. They put me up for a few days and I reinstalled windows and brought life back to one of their laptops. daveg mobile tech support– always on duty! They were quite an interesting couple who had limitless stories of travels to places I hope to see one day.
Gail and Eric and ultracute doggles
I pretty much think it is impossible to have too many shower nozzles. Apparently Gail & Eric also agree.
They suggested a great ride around the base of the cascades in Oregon for my route towards Portland.
Twisties for miles
It was an amazingly scenic ride. The problem was that the higher in elevation, the cooler it became. I ended up having to cut back towards the flatlands because I don’t have cold-weather gear.
Mountain Lake in Oregon
I eventually made it to a suburb of Portland, Oregon to stay at Jayne and Stefan‘s house. I met them at the Horizons Unlimited meeting. Jayne is an American who did some very interesting work in Afghanistan and Stefan is from Germany and has probably seen everything worth seeing in all of Europe. They’ve been married for a couple of years and moved to the USA last year. Both of them have a substantial online presence, so make sure you check out their sites.
We had tons of fun over the couple of days that I stayed at their house. We also had some quite interesting meals:
German Breakfast
The German breakfast was a treat as it reminded me of my travels with Theo on my way to the tip of South America.
Stefan grilling German style
We also enjoyed cooking outside with a type of grill I had never seen before. There was a pan for the coals with a pyramid made out of poles suspending the grill surface with chains. The cook gently spins the cook surface so that everything cooks evenly over the coals. Ingenious!!!
German style BBQ
Look at the meat spin!!
The Great Cornhole Fest 2010
The only way to top off such cooking was with playing many games of Cornhole. It is a very simple game. You toss bags filled of corn or beans onto a platform. If the bags stay on the platform you win 1 point.  If you make it in the elusive hole you win 3 points. It is game which is much enhanced by slight inebriation.
Sink the bags into the hole
Jayne watching while her husband Stefan goes for the glory of Cornhole
On to portland……
Locksmith with finally found keys
Whats with the missing keys, did I miss something?
heh, good eye. I forgot to remove that picture. I was going to tell a story about having to call AAA again to try to pick my steering column lock as I stupidly lost my keys for a few hours. Just as he was starting to take a good look at the bike and how to cut the lock, I found the keys buried in one of the vents of my riding pants.