Sauvie Island

A ride was proposed online for a trip out to Sauvie's Island. The rider's that responded are so strong and fast I decided to meet them on the road. If I started with them it would be the last time I'd see them. I headed out from my house just after 8 am and after 23 miles of riding still hadn't seen the others. I pulled into a 7-11 to use the bathroom and pick up a snack. I'm trying to remember to take the GPS off the bike everytime I stop. It would be too easy for anyone to steal it. While I'm at the counter waiting to pay for my snacks, I set the GPS on the counter and promptly knock it to the ground. Great!! I've only had the unit for about a week and it was very expensive. Not only for the unit but the extra larger memory chip, maps and the DVD player I had to buy to use the maps. As I'm finishing my snack the rest of the gang rides by - I yell at them to stop and we all regroup. All but one was on a recument bike. There was one upright, 6 recumbents and me on the trike. As we get going I notice all I'm getting on the GPS is elevation. Something is wrong. We get to Sauvie's Island and one woman who I'll be riding to the coast with decides she wants to go back. I decide to ride back with her so we can talk over our camping and route plans. It really is a lovely day. We're riding on Hwy 30 which is pretty flat, it has a lot of traffic and a wide shoulder. We try to carry on a conversation but the traffic noise is too loud. Almost back to NW Portland we stop at a subway for a snack and the restroom. I'm messing with the GPS and can't figure out what is wrong. Edna and I talk over plans for riding to the coast and we decide to leave a week from Wednesday and set up camp at the Big Eddy Campground. It's really exciting talking about this ride. We will be going with Edna's husband Dave and Mike, a guy I rode with last year. Dave and Mike can ride at a faster pace and Edna and I can keep each other company at the rear. We'll come up with a menu for Wednesday night so we can divvy up the food and gear to share the load. Edna has just bought a TI Rush frame set and needed to go over the Coventry Cyclery to pick out components - very exciting!! REI was just a block away and head over there to see if anyone can help me with my GPS. There had been a big bike ride earlier in the day and REI was packed. Somehow I managed to get 2 guys to help me. I went outside with one guy and then he passed it on to another after he couldn't figure out what was wrong. At one point the second guy asked how old the batteries where. I replaced them yesterday and I asked if maybe the batteries got jostled but he said there was clearly power and so everything looked ok with the batteries. After walking around and pushing buttons for about 20 minutes he suggested I take the unit back to where ever I bought it. He said the units are expected to sustain 5 foot falls. The drop from the counter to the floor couldn't have been more than 3 feet. Boy was I bummed - I bought it on EBay and didn't know if there was any kind of warranty. All that money and now I'd have to spend more. Would I even have it fixed for the ride to the coast? As I'm riding home I start thinking about what someone would suggest I do before sending it somewhere to get fixed. Certainly, they would want me to put fresh batteries in it. This got me to thinking I should check the batteries to see if they were seated firmly. Sure enough, one of the batteries had come loose - just a bit. I felt it click into place, put the cover back on, and voila, the GPS starts to work perfectly. Yeahh!! Wow, what a relief!! I'll have to come up with a better system for how to handle the unit off the bike. The ride overall was really good. The temperature was close to 90 and I was slathering on the sun screen all day. I'm using a 50 spf and surprised how much color I'm getting. At least I'm not burning. For someone so fair, I'm actually getting tan. Not exactly attractive tan lines though. I was stopped a few times by people asking about the trike. At Zupan's on Hayden Island I stopped for a snack and talked to a few people. The ride through Vancouver was surprisingly quiet. Got home around 5 pm.

Something around 60 miles for the day.