Gearheads

On a scale of 1-10 I'd say that I'm a level 7 gearhead. Gearhead being defined as someone who loves the process of buying new stuff for whatever activity they are getting involved in. I know that wicking material is good and cotton is bad, but I still have both in my bag. I wear spandex bike shorts on the trip, but still have the same ones from my last tour.

One of the first things that I do when we meet other cyclists is to check out their gear. Of my 5 minute conversation with Lars from the Netherlands whom I met on some back road in Washington, I failed to answer all 10 of his map related questions (I don't carry a map, don't look at the maps, I just follow Alex, KC, and Nina in front of me) but I did pick up on his uber cool, extra expensive, metallic silver Ortlieb panniers. Yesterday as I was climbing a huge, long hill, I heard a clanging noise behind me and three minutes later a voice called out, "where are you biking to?" We carried on a conversation up the hill and I found out that they were Josh and Joe from Portland who were doing a week long tour just in Oregon. The entire time they were behind me and I kept my head down and focused due to the steep grade of the hill. At the top of the hill we paused for photos and I saw them. They had gigantic backpacks on with milkcrates duct taped to their bikes with their pots and books in them (hence the clanging), and were wearing rolled up khakis and Asics and Vans respectively. For those of you who aren't familiar with touring gear, this would put them at level 1.

We are starting to meet more interesting people. We were chatting with a woman at the table next to us in a little cafe in the town of Pacific City. After we were done with our meals she asked if she could sketch us, since she liked to sketch adventurous people. I said sure and after the others saw her work they too lined up to sit for Joanne. She was a retired art teacher who lived in hawaii, but 13 years ago moved to Oregon and now paints on commission. She was in the area painting sea scapes. Although we all looked very similar (her style is reminiscent of 1950's Dick, Jane and Spot illustrated books), we each got to keep our little drawings for free and it was a touching little moment on the trip.
I hope everyone is doing well.
Cheers,
Leigh