Ride to Longview

Portland to Longivew: 58. 5 miles
Total Mileage: 79.2 miles
Quote of the Day: "Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me." -Walt Whitman

INAUGURAL bike ride of the INAUGURAL Drift West.  Seriously, if I had a dime for every time we will say inaugural I will be a rich lady.  Everyone was looking great in the new Drift West jerseys and after a route meeting we were ready to hit the road. 

My crew and I were securely in the middle of the pack (a good place to be that way you don't have to be the one to chalk the directions).  Victoria and I posed with some great Lego pillars; I then had the Everything is Awesome song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.  As we were still in Portland, there were a lot of great bike lanes leaving the city.  YAY for great biking infrastructure.

One of the best lines from the cue sheet was to head under the bridge and take a right on the next street.  Our group felt like there should be a troll under said bridge so I did a little rudimentary chalking.

The bridge!!

Lunch is always "half way" and just on schedule, Natalie had found a great school parking lot with a shaded overhang.  Because everyone made good time we spent some time hanging out and eating donated Chipotle burritos.  In true alumni fashion, Ethan, Kaitlin, Lynsey and I decided to hit up the Dairy Queen next door for some ice cream.  It seemed like the most perfect idea in the moment, but soon enough our stomachs were unsure and there was a hint of regret.  Our legs, however, kicked into autopilot and we banged out the last 20 miles to the host.  We did make a state line crossing, but because it was over the river there was no state line and no opportunity to take a picture.

 

One by one, the groups began to roll into the church and once we had the trailer unpacked we headed across the road (literally) to the YMCA for showers.  The last part of orientation we needed to complete was to create a team charter.  In order to make the task a little easier, each of the chore groups would create their own mission statements and we would then take the similarities to create an all inclusive one.  We decided to throw conformity out the window and came up with a haiku which was VERY WELL received by the group.   I mean seriously, how good is our haiku?!?