So I am here in Reston, Virginia staying with an old friend of jared's, we have finished the biking part of this trip for roughly a week and a half now and have celebrated every night since the biking stopped. I have been fairly poor at updating my blog this last half of the trip so let me go back a ways, to things such as Texas.
My last full post was about our stay with Justin's second cousin on the ranch, we left a few days after that post and ended up north of austin at justin's other grandparent's house. The stay gave us some good relaxation time as well as time for some crossbow shooting. We spent roughly 4 days there and after some nice house tours and a canoe ride, we went to Houston to visit Chad. So its known we also stopped in Austin for an evening downtown, nothing much happened except a few drinks at a few bars. When we met Chad our trip took a four day cage flicks and bayou detour. All the same it was fun, and I wish I had more time to discuss the finer details, but alas there is much to speak of.
From here we knew we had about 400 mi until New Orleans and roughly 1200 mi until the Jacksonville coast. We rode at a much better pace on our way to New Orleans, made it there in five days and then relaxed in a hotel. We drank and partook in New Orleansesque activities, wish I had more time to see some of the places a little bit further out of downtown. But anyways on the morning of the third day in this hectic town it was time to leave, of course jared hadn't been seen for the last 12 hours but just as check out rolled around, Jared stumbles in the room and we pack up and head back on the road.
At this point we know we are on the last leg of the trip and and only have a few stopovers until the eastern coast. After some pretty miserable nights thanks to the humidity and the bugs we hit the southern coast near Pensacola. We stayed at a nice marina south of the Pensacola area for an evening met some interesting people and we allowed to couch surf and get a good night sleep. After that we rode along the white sand beaches of Destin and Fort Walton, which was one of the most gorgeous rides of the trip to me. This left us with about 300 mi of nothing until the coast, and you may not expect this but we made it after some long days, some nice people, and a final night sleeping in a shed.
As we rode into Jacksonville we found a bike enthusiast who said we could crash at his place. His name was Todd and he really helped us with the shipping and selling of our bikes plus guiding us a around to the ocean. From there we spent a few days figuring out everything we needed to do to finish our trip, also had a few beers and lots of pizza. But after a few days it was time to get moving so we got a ride from Todd up to Savannah, Georgia a had a day of sight seeing, (by the way Savannah is a pretty cool town). This led us to another couch to surf on and left early the next morning as we took a bus all day to Roanoke, VI we passed through states so quickly it seemed kinda of weird. We flew by both Carolinas with only a stop over on the bus ride for each of them, its ok though we had people to see and meet. Now began our trip to portion in Virginia.
At the roanoke bus station we had a our first taste of the east coast coldness, but within a few minutes we were picked up by Paige and Humera, some of Jared's friends from his days out east. We got back, had some drinks, and called it a night. the next few days involved tarantulas, one of the most beautiful river views I have ever seen, more drinking, and wonderfully beat up white chevy. I suppose I don't have time for every detail but it was a great time and left me with a good feeling of the beauty of Autumn out here.
As a side note the hike we took called dragons tooth and the car rides to and fro we some of the best parts of the trip to me.
But as a common theme of this trip after any amount of time at any place we know we have to hit the road again. And so another friend of Jared's picked us up in Blacksburg and took us back to his place in Reston. This is where I stand now, two days ago we walked around The capitol and saw all the sites and tourist attractions we could stand. Yesterday we watched the rally for sanity in the heart of D.C. and were surrounded by the massive hoards of people everywhere. We stayed in the Washington area most of the day and got a nice deal to drink all you want for $10 so we were there until about 1 and then walked back to the metro station and took the pseudo subway back home. And now we take off from here tomorrow morning with much to discuss such as how we are getting home. I think, for those of you curious, we plan to get a 15 day bus pass and slowly make our way back to Portland, Or. Anyway all will be resolved soon, but first we have the issue of Halloween to attend to.
