Jono's Travel Blog

08/09/2010 Day 8 Vancouver to Mexico

Distance Travelled: Toutle River RV Park Resort to St. Helens in Oregon, 65 km

Money Spent: $20 – food from the supermarket and 2 drinks at the bar and some snus.

I packed up all my things by 11 and set off toward Portland, I wasn’t in any rush because I had contacted a few people on couch surfing and I needed to wait for their reply to see if I could stay on their couch from the 9^th to the 11^th and because I hadn’t given much notice I wanted to be sure I had a place to stay.

I cruised over to Castle Rock where I went to the grocery store to get some food, I met a nice guy there who suggested a few places outside of Portland to go see. Vista House near Troutdale, apparently there is a gorge there 20miles outside Portland and is suppose to be stunning, I don’t know for sure whether Ill go see it, but I will have to wait and see.

I continued on and just before hitting Kelso I saw a sign outside a bar offering 4 tacos and a beer for the price of a beer, I thought it was a fantastic offer but then found out it was only offered on Mondays… shame.

I got chatting to the woman who owned and worked the place and she was so intrigued by my travels she let fed me a cheeseburger and fries for free, honestly, thanks Kris! She also gave me a bike lock that she was going to throw away too, what a great girl.

I cruised along, passing Kelso, crossing over a bridge to Longview where I got a map of Oregon at the info center and continued over Lewis and Clark Bridge that was terrifying, the shoulder of the road was littered in debris from the logging trucks and because the bridge was narrow I was unable to ride on the road; I went slowly and avoided the big chunks of wood and bark and I successfully crossed it without incident.

OREGON! 1 State down and 2 to go.

Out of curiosity I went to the tobacco shop and found what ive missed out on so much since in was travelling in Sweden. Its tobacco called snus, its basically chewing tobacco in a teabag that you tuck up under your lip. It’s got me through many of festivals as the nicotine strives off fatigue, I bought some for a special occasion at $4.00.

I stopped at the library in Rainier where I used the internet and got in contact with Shannon with couch surfing, she can put me up for tomorrow evening, but then ill have to find another place. I took her up on the offer and she even told me if I wanted to I would have a place to crash for the evening if I made it to Portland, its 50 miles. I didn’t think I could make it but I tried and pushed on.

On the way I bumped into a French dude who had cycled his way around the world for the past 10 years, he was 45, had cycled 60,000km on his bike and a damn cool guy (for a Frenchie) and I promised id meet for a drink when we were in Portland.

I pushed on passing some sort of industrial plant as the sun was setting, I went on the property to take some pictures but I was escorted off the premises also being asked what company I work for… I laughed and continued on.

Again I bumped into Fred and instead of waiting to get to Portland we went for a drink at a bar/ micro brewery down at the waterfront in St. Helens, we met 2 others at the bar, Troy and Marywether and we sat drinking and chatting about our travels. Marywether even invited both Fred and myself to her place if we needed a place to crash for the night. Very kind of her.

After a few drinks and feeling a bit tipsy we headed to her place, she managed 80 apartments and was living in a 3 bedroom apartment by herself, we chatted till 11 and went to bed.

I finally got to sleep in a bed, which was weird as I do prefer to sleep on my mat on the ground.