Village Green Resort Cottage Grove

So this is the start of my travel blog for FRANCE. I was just too excited to wait to start it until I leave in January. For anyone who doesn't know, I'm going to France on either January 9th or 10th to study abroad in Poitiers, a small medieval town in the province of Poitou-Charentes, which is on the western coast of France, only an hour and a half train ride to/from Paris (omg!). I really don't know much yet as for the ...

As anyone that has had the unfortunate task of traveling with me can imagine.....in order to get to our 8am flight at Regan Airport in DC, we got up at 4am and were at the airport by 6am. So the early start made for a long day, but with Florence struggling with a cold (no fever, so it's not Swine Flu), and a sore shoulder, we were ready to get home. <br><br>The flights were right on time, and we even caught the shuttle to our car with perfect ...

Dre.. transform and roll out..<br><br>Drove up to Eugene this weekend to stoop it with Benja and his lady Rachel. ****in refreshing.. <br>I met Benj in Kathmandu almost two years ago and he's pretty much my life. So being with him was incredible. I could go into details about my amazing weekend but it's just not going to scratch the surface or begin to explain his importance in my life. <br ...

I went back up to Eugene, picked up Katie and we drove back to Idaho. On the way there we camped in the Cascades at the Metoleous River. The photos don't really show how incredible this is, at the mouth of the Metoleous the water comes out of the side of the mountain. Turn around and it's a full river.<br><br>We drove through the Craters of the Moon National Monument, also an incredible area.<br>

... oh well.<br><br>I went to the coast with my friend LaRosa, drove by my old house and found the fence I built and designed still standing :) I went to my first of several WINGS seminars, I am learning and growing a lot from these seminars and will stay connected with the program. If you're curious, google WINGS Eugene and check them out.<br><br>

... So I had better not press my luck too far... I rolled up our driveway, Tina's car was there but no Tina. As I rolled up to the garage, I felt a bump on my left foot - it was Gunter (our mini Schnauzer)! I had been discovered. My lovely wife came out with balloons and a welcome home sign. Hugs, kisses and pictures - my trip was over. 4,960 bike miles - Wow.

The Thursday before Memorial Day weekend found us in Cottage Grove, just south of Eugene. We had made an appointment to have a new set of brakes installed on the RV, figuring that 40,000 miles was enough for the original set and wanting to be sure the brakes would be top-notch for all the mountain driving yet to come. Unfortunately, the dealership was unable to finish the job in one day, since they determined that we also needed new front tie ...

... upload uses both popups AND JavaScript both in order to work right. So from a PDA with Pocket IE, it is just not possible to use. So I had to use the email client to compose all my image posting (which ended up being pretty good). Other amazing features this brought to the table: I got a couple of sci-fi eBooks from a friend before I left and installed the eBook reader. I ended up carrying around about 25 book with me ...

... ship, to Martin and Kate for loaning me money (and calming me down while in panic mode) when I was a few dollars from being completely broke in La Paz and Lima, to Leon for taking care of me while I was sick as a dog in the Amazon rainforest, to (darn, cannot remember his name, but he was a rugby player from England) for climbing another 200 feet straight up rocks after hiking all day in high altitudes just so I could say I had made it 15,000 feet, to Jim for keeping me sane when ...

... don't like the temp here and don't feel much like camping out when it's in the 40's at night. As much as I want to head to yellow stone I'm going to check the forecast carefully and if it doesn't sound warm I think I'll head more south.. 60 degrees at 60 MPH feels like 30 degrees to me!!! I'll let you know where I'm headed when I make up my mind.. DLD