resting in Idaho/washington boarder

We're are just about a week in to our trip and we attempting to take a day off in the Clarkston Louiston area on the boarder of Washington and Idaho about to head onto the 12. The trip has been getting better with each day, or at least easier. Since i dont have the time to divulge into every ride we have I'll just talk about one in Oregon on the 730 i think it was. We rode about 30 miles straight through to Umatilla (which by the way is an awful town in my books) but on the way we just rode through endless vast dried up fields. It was actually really hot and dry and dusty, and about halfway through the rode Justin's trailer's tire pops and we have to change it and right as he is finishing up he looks back and sees a 30 foot tall dust devil heading straight for us, we all kinda scream holy shit and justins trying to get the wheel on his bike and we look around jareds already jumped on his bike and about ready to ride away without us. Luckily the mini sandstorm went around us. It was one of the more funny things to happen. The sandstorm came bike and combined with some smoke from a fire around the area. Had to bring out the bandito hankerchief to keep the dust out of my face but still a fun ride. Anyways thats a story of one of the more entertaining rides.
One of the nicest thing about this trip is that people give tons of handouts to cross country bikers already slept on some guys lawn when we couldnt find camping, and last night me and jared got about 8 beers for $5 dollars after talking to the bartender for a while. Riding has become easier i guess although at times still unbearable long and painfully hot. Not getting the greatest sleep but enough to stay up the next day, we have also been getting pretty good at conserving the right type of food without spending to much money. Lots of summer sausage and outmeal. We are about to ride into our 3rd state and ride the 12 straight through the top of Idaho over to Missoula and then down to yellowstone, that should definitely put our survivability to the test seeing as how that rode is about 200 miles of uphill with almost nothing on it. Anyway I can't type to long this time and im to lazy to check mistakes on this post but im having a lot of fun and seeing some really amazing rodes.

Oregon Trail

We left early the morning of the seventeenth and drove through to crater lake stopping by at san luis obispo and San Francisco. The drive was beautiful but very cramped no fist fights yet so thats good i guess. Driving up the 1 past SF was far more beautiful than I had expected, the sunset was blazing red but we soon ran out of gas and had to reroute back to the 101. The rest of the drive Justin and I switched driving and we rolled into Crater Lake at about 5 in the morning. We cleaned up and took a small hike to the ridge of the crater and took a couple hour nap until the sun became unbearable. The view was actually quite beautiful and I'll try to add pictures later when I can. After that we drove off the park and camped at place near Diamond Lake. After some much needed rest and a delicious hot dog over a wonderful fire. Next we drove down the 5 straight to Portland we rolled into Justin's Aunts place at about noon on the 19th. Since then we have been site seeing and finishing up collecting our last supplies. We depart tomorrow morning its suppose to rain, its good to start the trip off rough I suppose. But Portland has been wonderful to us, everything about it is beautiful sad to see it go but we need to move on at some point. I wish i could divulge more and post some pictures but I have a limited time on the computer. Finished packing so for all those curious I'll right a short list of things i'll be carrying:

-flannel, thermal, windbreaker, two wet resistant shirts, a white cotton tee, three bike shorts, a pair of jeans, some thermal bike pants, three socks, a couple pairs of boxers, a hat a beanie, gloves, wool socks, a blanket, sleeping bag, maps, obvious cosmetics, my camera, my phone and corresponding chargers, a tape recorder as my own journal, a captains log, medical supplies, a cribbage board, and most importantly some whiskey and Frisbee golf disk.

I probably forgot some important things but thats the gist of it we take off bright and early tomorrow and will have no definite place to stay until we reach Colorado so it may be some time til i come back to this blog, but keep posted I am sure I'll have some interesting things to talk about it shortly until then see ya.

sorry for poor writing in a hurry

less than 24 hours til departure

In roughly 14 hours I will be leaving the humble dwellings of my Newbury Park home. Accompanied by two old acquaintances Justin Mckelvy and Jared Loyd we will through our bikes in the back of his truck and begin the drive up to Portland for the beginning of our Cross Country bike trip. We have crater lake and the northwestern coastline to aid us in our 15+ hour drive up to the starting line. At the moment I don't have much to say since I haven't really left for the trip, but I will try to keep this updated at least 3 to 4 times a month.