Day 75, August 1st 2008, beginning in Portland, Oregon

With our hidden maiden held captive in the room (to avoid the hefty $10 surcharge) Paul and I went to check out what breakfast there was. We had arrived too late, breakfast was over. Oh well… there was fine cuisine down the road… Denny's. Turns out Denny's Friday morning crew is not nearly as sharp as the weekend team and we suffered because of it. With the wait before anyone noticed us, combined with the extremely long time it took to get our food once we ordered, we were there for 2 hours. The home of the grand slam disappointed this time around, but we're not giving up on you just yet Denny's.

Before we left the parking lot, Meghan had an accident trying to hold up my bike, which I've been told is quite heavy. She would survive, but the bike had won this battle.

We had to stow the bikes somewhere since they wouldn't fit in Meghan's rental and the plans were to head south to Eugene to meet up with some friends. I called a bike coop which was right down the street and they gladly agreed to hang on to our bikes for the weekend. Meghan followed us and we rolled down to the shop where we dropped off the bikes and took little receipts for pickup on Sunday. They were cool guys down there so we figured we'd buy something when we returned.

After the bike coop we went to the science museum in Portland. [PICTURES] It was a lot of fun. We saw two movies, one planetarium show about extreme planets. Paul and I particularly like this sort of crap, and Meghan seemed to enjoy it as well. We also saw an IMAX about dinosaurs. Another hit. There were tons of logic games; many were quite tough and left us stumped for a while. They also had a segment about the developmental processes of children in the womb. Very neat, and amazing how early on some things form. Fingernails by 6 weeks or something crazy like that. We also took a run at the aging machine, a little computerized simulation of what you will look like as you age, and incidentally Meghan and I have since decided to start seeing other people. is that Mrs. Bansavage???

After the museum we were Eugene bound. We grabbed some Burger King and have apparently become completely inept at ordering via drive thru since it's been so long as it took us about 10 minutes to place a 4 item order. We eventually got it right.

It was about a 2 hour drive or extremely long biking day. We have certainly found that 70 mph will get you places faster than 15. Fun.

We arrived at Joel's place, where Mandy (both friends from Uconn) tends to spend most of her time without much trouble. It was nice to be greeted warmly by familiar faces after a long time. They introduced us to their friend Gered, but everyone calls him Burns (last name… go figure). We went inside and the girls chit chatted back and forth I'm pretty sure for 30-35 minutes without breathing while Joel gave us some of his home made brew which was delicious as well as some traditional American Lager (Bud Light).

We hung for a while having a few beers while playing Texas Hold 'em. I don't think Gered lost a hand, and was making everyone else drink a lot more than he had to.

After everyone started getting hungry we headed out to a bar to get some food and drinks. We saw an Olympian on her way to Beijing and no doubt celebrating before her departure who was a friend of Joel's and Burns's. The area is sort of a hub for runners; both Joel and Burns were there training for running. Fun. Meghan and I got sampler's there trying all of their different beers, and we all got some food.  We also saw Manny looking good in Blue.

We left there and headed to another bar for a bit where we met Hannah, one of their friends. The place was okay. Joel bought us more drinks, but we didn't stay too long because we felt the music was a bit, to use the technical term, whack.

Last but not least was Max's tavern, which is what Moe's in the Simpsons is modeled after. We saw many bicycles all over the place, and people were taking them out for the night. Many a hippy on bike, it's a good thing. Joel decided to pose by some for our entertainment.

Max's was one of those bars with free (my favorite four letter word) peanuts. That always makes for a good time throwing them around and whatnot. Joel and Gered again treated us to some lovely fruity concoction of two different beers. It was really good…some sort of raspberry thing.

We headed back to Joel's apartment after the peanut tossing lost its luster. Apparently our presence caused Mandy to party harder than she had in a while. Joel welcomed us to stay forever because of it.

We also went for a late night dip in the apartment jacuzzi which was a no-no. We are oh so mischievous though. It was a relaxing ending to the night. We were all plenty tired and ready for bed after that little excursion, so we headed back to Joel's apartment and crashed.

We were very fortunate again to be with such great hosts who showed us a great time in Eugene. We may have to change our plans and hang out for another night instead of heading back to Portland. Time would tell, but one thing was for sure….

Life was good.