Day one Tomorrow

Great flight over to the USA on the A380, we arrived half an hour late so of course missed my connection to Portland. I then had to check in and book the case and bike onto the Air Alaska flight, this took over an hour and then a further half hour to get through security. Take off your shoes, body scan, pat down, explain insulin pump, have same pump tested for explosives WTF  ?? Airports are slow moving places here but the staff are polite and the big surprise is that everyone just accepts it. 
I had 3 days in Portland. (Voted the best biking city in the USA) it rained solid for all 3 days so I didn't even get out on the bike. There are bikes everywhere securely locked up  on bike racks on the streets. Out on the streets there are whole lanes dedicated to bike traffic only too.

Caught the Greyhound bus west to Astoria. 

If you want to see where the homeless live go to a Greyhound terminal. Weird thing about the weird people in the Greyhound terminal is they are all deaf, well they must be, why else would they all shout at each other when just talking.

 

The ride across America starts tomorrow in Astoria, Oregon. We all met up there today and had long safety talks and talks about motivation and the days ahead. There are 38 riders on this trip we look like a group of seniors on holiday, many of the riders wearing dayglo yellow of course. 

We were all given a name badge to wear

Then we all made our way to the seaside to dip our wheels in the Pacific ocean - it is a coast to coast ride  !! 

On the way to the beach I saw this amazing sign

Not sure if this is one facility or two  ?? 

Tomorrow is Day One, we were given the days route and then I realise that of course we are working in miles not kilometres and feet not meters - have to get my head around that.

On the road again  !!