Thursday 7 May, 10am, Portland, OR -- Brett wakes. Rides downtown. Wanders bookshop. Reads for a long time from collected journals of A Ginsberg. Buys lunch from bosnian street stand. Decides for sure to start ride in Pullman. "I'm going to do it," he says throughout the morning. Cancels flight to VA and flight back to Portland. Feels weight lift off shoulders.
3pm, Portland, OR -- V-Shop calls. Window glass arrived a little late. Won't be finishing today. Brett decides to go on long ride. Buys map. Realizes he only has one pair of clothes. (Everything that wasn't stolen is at bottom of tightly-packed Volvo back at the shop.) Also realizes his tiny clipless pedals hurt with just his tennis shoes. Instead of long ride today, Brett decides to get ready for a long ride on next day. Buys used platform pedals at The Recyclery. Looks for a Goodwill or Salvation Army. Can't find one. Rides back to hostel and checks in for one more night. Happy greets him cheerfully. Brett in bad mood, but greets him back. Brett goes grocery shopping.
7pm, Portland, OR -- Cooks dinner. Eats and talks for hours with lovely hippie named Jo who is probably not yet 70. Brett says that's his mother's name. Jo is in Portland for her granddaughter's graduation. She doesn't like motels because they're boring. She travels alone and camps or stays in hostels. Jo tells Brett all kinds of stories about trekking in the Himalayas and doing some sort of hippie dance with A Ginsberg at Naropa in the 70s. Someone nearby talks about her MySpace page. Jo says her space is 6 acres of sagebrush in Northern New Mexico.
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