Day 1: Macon, GA to Americus, GA

Day 2: Americus, GA to Florence Marina State Park, GA

Day 3: Georgetown, GA to Ozark, AL

Day 4: Ozark, AL to just south of AL/FL state line

Day 5: AL/FL state line to Fort Walton Beach, FL

Day 6: Fort Walton Beach, FL to Pensacola, FL

Day 7: Pensacola, FL to west of Mobile Bay, AL

Day 8: West of Mobile Bay, AL to Bay St. Louis, MS

Day 9: Bay St. Louis, MS to New Orleans, LA

Day 10: New Orleans, LA

Day 11: New Orleans, LA

Day 12: New Orleans, LA to Baton Rouge, LA

Day 13: Baton Rouge, LA to Port Barre, LA

Day 14: Port Barre, LA to Elton, LA

Day 15: Elton, LA to Lake Charles, LA

Day 16: Lake Charles, LA to Beaumont, TX

Day 17: Beaumont, TX to Houston, TX

Day 18: Houston, TX

Day 19: Houston, TX to Nelsonville, TX

Day 20: Nelsonville, TX to Bastrop State Park, TX

Day 21: Bastrop State Park, TX to Austin, TX

Day 22: Austin, TX

Day 23: Austin, TX

Day 24: Austin, TX to Portland, OR

From 30,000 feet the Grand Canyon and the Rockies look like toy landscape models. Except if you jump off of either one of them, it’ll kill you.

Flying over Oregon was beautiful. The pilot took us right by Mount Hood. It’s covered in snow now and towers over everything else in the Cascades. I got a nice picture from the airplane window.

Portland has amazing public transit. I took the MAX train from the airport to downtown. The great thing about it is that the train goes directly to where everyone is. There are no train stations or turnstiles or any of that business. You just step into it from the sidewalk. Ticket machines are located everywhere, and there are random inspections, but other than that it’s just based on the honor system.

I approve.

Sarah picked me up near the city center and we lugged all my crap to her apartment. I took a while to unwind, take a shower, and put on some semi-clean clothes. She took me back to the train and we rode up to the hills and walked down through the arboretum/park. Trees! Swingsets! Views!

For dinner we went to a dinner theatre and saw Stranger Than Fiction while we drank beer, ate chips and salsa, and I inhaled a turkey bacon sandwich.

This is life in Portland.

I haven’t even been here for 24 hours and I love it already.

Finally around 2 pm I got hungry and decided to eat at La Copa. My waitress there was very nice, and they weren’t busy, so we chatted for a bit. Turns out she’s in a band called Little Aurora. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to listen to them on good speakers yet, but they sound interesting.

Most of today I tried to find someone to box up my bike. Kinko’s wouldn’t do it. UPS wouldn’t do it. But the gigantic bike shop not too far from Caleth’s apartment did it. I decided to bring the bike with me on the plane instead of waiting on it to be shipped to Oregon.

We went out on the town tonight. Got 3/4 lb burgers at Casino El Camino, on the recommendation by Patrick. Hit several bars afterwards until we finally ended up at a place called Headhunters. Leatherbag was playing and they were really awesome. Alt-country type stuff. After the show as I was standing outside talking to a photographer, the lead singer came up to me and gave me a copy of their album. Nice!

Caleth and I then drove up into the north hills to visit some friends of his. They were all really nice and welcomed me to Texas, except for this one girl, whom Caleth said I would like — she was being a pill. He told me I should ask her out to lunch the next day, so I did (via voicemail) and she never called back. Some people…

Anyway, we were up until about 3:30 am, enjoying the Austin night life. According to sources, Austin may have the highest amount of bars per capita of any major city in the U.S… Even if it’s not true, it seems like it.

I made it to Portland, OR. It’s at least 1000 times better than Georgia. No, I’m not kidding in the least. I already love it here and am definitely not looking forward to the day that I have to move back east. One good thing is that at least I no longer have to worry about where I want to live when I finish grad school. I’m already here.

The family that I’m living with is amazing. I live on the second floor of their house and share a kitchen with the step dad who lives on the third floor. I couldn’t have picked a better living arrangement if I had tried. But the best part about living here is the people. Matthew and his wife Tina are two of the greatest individuals that I have ever met. And their five kids are adorable and incredibly smart… I love them already. I’m definitely lucky to be living here for the next 4 1/2 months.

My job seems like it will be awesome as well. I got the grand tour today and start actual work tomorrow. It’s a 15 mile ride, but they are loaning me a truck to use when the weather is bad. No complaints here.

I’ll finish typing up my trip journals soon and also sort through and upload some of my pics.

Georgia: Deer

Alabama: Possum

Florida: Armadillo

Mississippi: No Data (swept away by Katrina)

Louisiana: Beaver and Rabbit (tie)

Texas: Everything (everyone drives a big truck)

I woke up this morning to the sound of a park ranger’s truck. They left a note on the picnic table telling me that I needed to pay for camping on my way out. Since I saw signs that indicated the fee was $4 per person, I thought I’d be honest. So I stopped at the office and paid, only to find out it’s $12 per campsite and $4 per person. What highway robbery.

The 32 mile ride to Austin was painful. I thought I would never make it. But I did.

I found my way to the downtown area, picked out a place for lunch, and took a rest. A girl came in not long after me, and I asked her for some advice on what to do in Austin. She sat down, introduced herself as Courtney, and we had an hour-long talk about Austin, biking, art, music, and other things. She said that later in the afternoon her roommate would be working at an art gallery down the street and that he might have some more advice. So I went there later too, where I met him and his friend Robin. Robin suggested that I eat at a local vegan restaurant that has an all-you-can-eat for $12 every night. I think that’s a good plan for tomorrow.

The library here has free internet. I reserved one of the 15-minute terminals and used it to buy a ticket on Southwest airlines. Austin to Portland, $100 total. Tomorrow I can disassemble my bike, box it up, and send it to Portland through UPS. This is the end of the road for the bike trip. I never thought I’d make it this far and I figure I should quit now while I still have good memories of the trip. Plus I can start my job in Portland earlier and make more money. Maybe I’ll upgrade to a motorcycle.

Riding from the middle of nothing to the middle of nowhere near Austin can be described in one word: hills.

Combined with a constant 20 mph headwind, today was my least enjoyable day so far. I averaged maybe 8 mph, almost half my normal pace. As the storm front moved in, so too did the cold damp wetness. I felt like giving up 1,000 times today. But I pushed on.

Knowing that I couldn’t make it all the way to Austin, I decided to stop at Bastrop State Park, about 30 miles out. Darkness was moving in so I quickly set up my tent, gathered what clean clothes I could find, and took a long hot shower.

Though I wasn’t hungry, I crammed down a peanut butter sandwich and two cans of tuna. I know I needed it. Being on the road is a strange thing… you don’t really get hungry… at least, not like the normal growling stomach type. But you know you need to eat. Yet you don’t really get full. It’s more of a love/hate relationship with food right now. Hard to explain.

Just like Madonna’s body has probably been telling her to lay off the damn yoga, my body is telling me that Austin may be the end of the road. I’ve pushed myself so far for so long that, this time, I think I’ll listen.

Tonight I camped under an oak tree in the middle of a field. The sky was clear, the moon only a sliver. One by one I watched the stars come out until, looking up through the screen in my tent, I saw Orion staring down at me. At that, I went to sleep.