I arrived in Florence last Friday and am in Florence again today. It’s not quite what it seems though, I took a detour inland to Eugene, where I stayed a few days and returned to the coast last night, arriving at 2am.
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The reason for my detour was that my sister, Helen, was planning to be there. On my way over I found myself in a poker game and came out with a $40 surplus – not bad seeing as I’m crap at poker. I also found a courtesy phone (I was in a casino, initially for the free drinks) and so spoke to my brother for a while before being encouraged to end the call.
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The ride inland was fairly uneventful and when I arrived (a day ahead of Helen) I was a little shocked to be in a city again. It took a while to find a decent park away from downtown where I felt safe enough to fall asleep. Cities are not always a great place to hang out with a laden bike but I met some people early on that introduced me to some people and I was given a place to stow my kit, and also for my sister and I to stay.
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Helen arrived on a greyhound bus, a brave choice of transport. It was the first time I’ve seen her since England and we both enjoyed catching up over the next few days. Pretty typical city-seeing stuff really, a climb up Spencer’s butte (disappointingly pronounced ‘bute’), a spot of bowling, a few bars and so on. Not that it mattered of course. I was on a break from my budget which made the time all the more enjoyable, though Helen bought most of the drinks anyway.
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But Helen had to leave, as is the way, and so after seeing her off I packed up my bike for the ride back to the coast. On the way out Jon (we were staying with Jon and Sherman) said “it’s funny. Here we are. I’m going to work and you’re going to explore the world”.
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I didn’t really start the ride until it was dark. I love night rides – they are a whole different thing. Of course the scenery is invisible for the most part, which makes it a ‘purer’ ride in a way. Also a more reflective, introspective, infectious ride. I was listening to Radiohead and loving it, cheering and urging Thom on, riding the high.
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And now I am here once more, turning left now. Charles Darwin was 200 on Thursday, I think that deserves a drink before I go. Cheers to you Charles.