I <3 Eugene and Hot Springs!

There's a lot to catch up on from the past few days...
I guess it was three days ago now that I convinced Bryan and Paul to spur the extra 8 miles into Eugene with me and splurge on a room. I fell in love with Eugene and almost stayed. First, I got the slammin'est vegan pizza at Pizza Research Institute (known as PRI by the locals). I also sampled a couple pints of a local microbrew called The Believer. Then, we wandered over to Sam Bond's Garage, where we saw a rockin' backwoods band: slide guitar, washboard, and drums. There I was with my pants rolled up just past my ankles, my "Love, Peace, and Bicycle Grease" t-shirt, flip-flops, and beanie bouncing around to the jam. And the best part was that everybody was dressed a lot like me and smelled just as bad as I did. The next morning, I tooled around town on my bicycle (wearing the same outfit, flip-flops included) and visited about 4 different bike shops, and the Morning Glory Bakery and Cafe where I loaded up on vegan banana bread, a blueberry scone, peach turnover, and mango crumb cake. I wish I had more time to sit and try the vegan french toast. Anyway, I love love love Eugene for it's bike lanes on every street, vegan-friendliness, woodsy hippie population, multitude of bike shops, cleanliness, and fresh air. Oh and we found a Trader Joes on the way out of town where I stocked up on some hummus (Hey Molly!).
After Eugene we rode close to McKenzie Bridge along the McKenzie River, which was really moving and looked cold, but beautiful. We camped at an RV Park, and the owner, Joan, was nice enough to drive us up through the mountains to some natural hot springs. I was hoping to go starkers in the springs, but the rest of the crew was being prudish. When we got there, it was so crowded with nakey hippies passing the bowl around. I didn't want to create any awkwardness between me and the group, so I stayed in my shorts and sports bra until I just couldn't take it anymore and ripped them off. There were several pools and the water was something like 104 degrees F. There was also an icy cool water flow with a bucket so you could dump it over you and then jump into the hot spring again. That was refreshing! Oh, and don't worry, I got naked, but I didn't hit the bowl!
The next day, all of us but Jay and Ken rode on to summit Santiam Pass, and ride into Sisters. The sun was so hot, yet we were at elevations where there were patches of snow around us. The summit was 4,817 feet. I kind of took the lead and climbed something like 26 miles in 5 hours. I waited for Bryan and Paul to catch up, and we had some spectacular views of Mt. Washington on the way down. We had a 6 mile fairly steep descent, which was awesome! I was going so fast, my eyes were watering. After that we kind of rolled 13 or so more miles into Sisters, where I'm writing from. Today is our rest day. What a great town to rest in! It's a cozy little tourist-y mountain town with a health food store, bike shop, and laundromat. We got a somewhat pricey room at Sisters Motor Lodge, but you can see the Cascades from the window, and it's clean and cozy.
Tomorrow, we ride to Ochoco Reservoir, where Bill will join our group. Still blessed with sun! Happy days!!!