BENGARLAND!com

January 23, 2007

I woke up this morning to the sound of a park ranger’s truck. They left a note on the picnic table telling me that I needed to pay for camping on my way out. Since I saw signs that indicated the fee was $4 per person, I thought I’d be honest. So I stopped at the office and paid, only to find out it’s $12 per campsite and $4 per person. What highway robbery.

The 32 mile ride to Austin was painful. I thought I would never make it. But I did.

I found my way to the downtown area, picked out a place for lunch, and took a rest. A girl came in not long after me, and I asked her for some advice on what to do in Austin. She sat down, introduced herself as Courtney, and we had an hour-long talk about Austin, biking, art, music, and other things. She said that later in the afternoon her roommate would be working at an art gallery down the street and that he might have some more advice. So I went there later too, where I met him and his friend Robin. Robin suggested that I eat at a local vegan restaurant that has an all-you-can-eat for $12 every night. I think that’s a good plan for tomorrow.

The library here has free internet. I reserved one of the 15-minute terminals and used it to buy a ticket on Southwest airlines. Austin to Portland, $100 total. Tomorrow I can disassemble my bike, box it up, and send it to Portland through UPS. This is the end of the road for the bike trip. I never thought I’d make it this far and I figure I should quit now while I still have good memories of the trip. Plus I can start my job in Portland earlier and make more money. Maybe I’ll upgrade to a motorcycle.