Hello, Dear Friends!

Since our last update, we have so much to share with you that we can’t encapsulate it all in this one post. Petunia, Jame and Greg made it successfully all the way to the coast of Oregon as planned!

Upon reaching our goal destination of Florence, Oregon, Greg and I parted ways, and while Greg flew home to Jersey, I decided to continue riding south, down the coast and towards California, with my four-legged travel buddy in tow.

For the most part, I rode on highway 101, despite the narrow shoulders and sometimes unaccommodating drivers. It was a wonderful solo riding experience, and I met many other really interesting cyclists and adventurers. I had the opportunity to ride on and off with one group of friends who hailed and pedaled from Portland, and formed friendships that continue to delight and inspire me.

For the entire month of September, I rode at a very leisurely pace that accommodated exploration, introspection, and the genesis of some very amusing stories that may never be retold in their entirety.

More  unfolded than can be explained here, but for the sake of brevity, I shall say that the individuals I rode with on and off (Greg, Seth, and Alex) were incredibly kind and fun to pedal alongside (or in front of, because I’d become inured to the heat and hills and my little dog did not ever like to be be the caboose), and I was grateful to have met them and had their company and hear their tales along the way.

The long story short, I rode self-supported from central Oregon to Yosemite National Park in California, and stayed there for a few days, rogue camping and basking in the brilliance that the gorgeous valley views had to offer. I even experienced a close encounter with a coyote, who came just a few yards away from the tent, then left unperturbed and without a peep from Petunia, who was sleeping inside, blissfully unaware of the visit from her distant relative.

From Yosemite, I got ground transpo by bus and train (no shoulders at all = very scary uphill riding) to SanFrancisco, and stayed there for a few days, courtesy of my dear friend Judy, in her sweet apartment in a fabulous area of the city. I shipped my bicycle and gear home, so it was just the two of us on foot and paws, with one small bag of supplies.

Practically having stepped off of the train in SF, Petunia and I met a wonderful couple, Michelle and Sean, who showed us some great fun in the Bay Area and Oakland, and we had a rollicking good time. Petunia and I flew home at the very end of September, to return to Jersey and get back to work, bringing home an impermeable fondness for bicycle touring and immense joy for the adventures we’d had.

So much joy and delectable recent nostalgia, in fact, that we are planning on going out on another bicycle tour adventure in less than a month! So stay ‘tuned’– we’ll be touring yet again on another route, chronicling our journey here, facing new challenges and being the crazies my parents warned me about.

With love,
Jamie and Petunia, aka “Touring Tunes”