A Wild Finish

Well folks, the Zoo has done it! 75 days of biking has brought us from Harrisonburg, VA all the way to Astoria, OR.
But now I am getting ahead of myself, we last left off just one day away from our final destination.
After "touring" the Tillamook Cheese Factory (which gets a whopping 800,000 visitors each year). We left with a slightly better understanding of the cheese process and continued down the road (with 2 flat tire changes for Pick, this might become a theme during this post) to the little coastal town of Manzanita. We ate an awesome pizza dinner and then headed down to the beach with two bundles of firewood and a pack of Coors. It was the perfect way to relax and reflect on what we had done this summer, with a roaring fire and the waves breaking on the beach. Eventually we passed out around 1:30 and got a slow start the next day. We ate a great breakfast and enjoyed a brief visit from our friend Caitlin's dad who drove down from Seattle to congratulate us and check out our sweet bikes. By 12:30, we were finally ready to get on the road for the last time... but, Pick got another flat tire. I kid you not this must have been flat tire #30. SO FINALLY, the Zoo was ready to go.

We made it 15 miles before we stopped in Cannon Beach for lunch, (PB+J on the beach) and I don't think that anyone really wanted it to end because we were taking our grand old time. As we got ready to get back on the road, Pick hit a new low as he got another flat tire, any tube we threw on his bike immediately went flat, and the tire was kind of falling apart, so we waited as Jeff biked 5 miles to the nearest bike shop and returned with a tire called the Flak Jacket. Once we had the Flak Jacket the Zoo was cruising. We caught our last glimpse of the Pacific as we biked down the boardwalk in Seaside and we took a perfect and nearly no-traffic road all the way to Astoria. Our hearts were full of the memories we had created, and the Zoo really soaked it in the last 15 miles and we were whooping it up as we stopped to take pictures with the Astoria sign. We climbed the curvy streets of Astoria amidst breathtaking views of the Columbia River and couldn't have imagined a more picturesque setting to end our adventure. As we rode down Main Street with our bright yellow jerseys blazing, Jim Joyce (father of our very own Jeff Joyce) was there to greet us and take pictures.

Now, lucky for us, the adventure didn't end there. We loaded our bikes and gear onto Jim's rented minivan, three bikes on a bike rack, and two strapped to the gear on the roof! We rolled out of Astoria around 9:30 pm and drove for 3 hours to meet up with Jeff's older brother Curt in White Salmon, Washington. Curt works out there as a whitewater rafting guide for a company called Wet Planet. The Zoo was tired when they rolled in at 1 in the morning. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep as soon as I laid down that night. We all woke up to a day of hiking around the area and seeing the different mountain ranges. And the next day we had the opportunity to take an 8-mile whitewater rafting trip with Curt as our guide. It was an awesome time as we rafted Class III and IV rapids. Our trip ended with us successfully rafting the infamous 12 foot Husum Falls - the largest commercially rafted waterfall in North America!

The Zoo then packed everything up and made the short drive to Portland from where we are all departing back to the East Coast, everyone except for

Jeff - who will be staying out here in the Portland area and is trying to work with Americorps in some capacity out here.

Doug - will be spending the next 3 weeks with his family in Charlottesville before he heads out on another traveling adventure. Doug will be working as a photo-journalist for a missions agency and will be traveling to 15 different countries in South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Pick - will be coming back out to work at the Sanborn Western Camp that he worked at last summer and that we had the pleasure to visit for 2 days this summer in Florissant, Colorado. His awesome girlfriend Maureen will join him out there at the camp.

Dave - will be interviewing with grad schools as he seeks to study to become a Physician Assistant. Before then he will be working in some capacity somewhere.

Ross - will be returning home to Maryland to look for work and the next step in his life. He already misses life on a bike.

And that's it. We met amazing people, saw the beauty of this country and created memories that will last a lifetime. And I know that if we can get through something like this together, we really did find the right best friends back there at JMU.

We Really Did It.

Love,
The Zoo