Make It So

Day 86

New York, NY to Portland, OR

Distance: 2,454 miles

Getting up time: way too early (indeed earlier than any other day on the trip, including cycling days)

Celebrity encounters: one major, magical meeting with an inspirational man

One of my favourite things to read when I am at home is The Week. My favourite section… “It must be true, I read it in the tabloids.”

Well, today it wasn’t a tabloid. But, as I sat on a United Airlines flight at a painfully early hour, my bleary eyes were caught by a headline in the New York Times “Bilingual Parrot Silent About Absence”.

African Gray Parrot, Nigel, who spoke with an English accent while living with his owner, Darren Chick (great name) in California, escaped four years ago, and was recently found and reunited with Darren. On his return, Nigel had lost the British accent but was fluent in Spanish. “Now he just prattles on in Español all day,” Darren lamented. “And he bit me when I picked him up.”

I managed to speak with Nigel, who disclosed that he’s also learned to cook and plans to open a boutique Mexican restaurant a few miles down the coast. And he still speaks BBC English.  But we won’t tell Darren either of those things.

Anyhow... as you will realise from the above, Steed and I had a little assistance from a plane to manage today’s target. My return to Portland to reunite Steed with his bike box and spend a few days savouring the delights of the ultra violet state.

After a couple of fun-packed days in Washington DC with my friend Julia, I picked up a rental car, packed Steed and the Pan-y-As in the back, and prepared to drive to New York.

I filled out the rental car forms, selecting all relevant options.

“Don’t forget the EZPass,” Julia told me, with sage foresight.

Having selected the “GPS” option too, I proceeded to take half an hour searching for my destination on the bleedin’ device (it was perilously close to being thrown out of the window). Giving up on it, I decided to trust instinct and general logic as I started to navigate my way out of the DC traffic and its web of streets.

Around fifteen minutes later, my eyes wandered lazily to the gas level gauge for the first time.  After much gnashing of teeth, I swung the car round and sped back to the rental shop – sped being a relative term of course, given the circuitous route I took. My “full tank” option consisted of a little under a quarter tank, and so it was back for re-fuelling before setting out once more.

I’d woken up at 7.30am, pedalled off from Julia’s at 10am, arrived at the rental car place at 10.30am, and finally got on the correct road out DC at 12.46pm. I had taken five and a half hours to go 2.5 miles.

Cycling 4,300 miles across the US seemed like a doddle in comparison.

But it was all worth it in order to drive through the Lincoln Tunnel and into New York, and have almost a full week staying with my friend Mary-Louise. Plenty of time for eating, drinking, shopping, running, walking, catching up with lots of old friends, eating, drinking … did I mention the eating and drinking…

And then it was time to take the emotional step of getting Steed packed up in a temporary bike box for our little jolly back to Portland.

My old favourite, Toga on the Upper West Side, were fantastic, getting the job done in super-quick time, and generally being the reliable, quality stalwarts of the bike shop world that they have always been.

I was glad to see the elegant and graceful shop cat, Museo, was still around. Although, as happens to us all, a bit slower, and older than I remembered him. But all the more grateful for the strokes and scratches behind the ears than the days when he would prowl the aisles of carbon-fibre racing machines.

I am hoping that Steed’s time in the hold of the plane will be uneventful. If he comes out speaking French or Serbo-Croat, I will be suitably cautious before getting back on the saddle.

The plan for the next few days. More eating and drinking (natch, this is Portland, people, the culinary centre of the universe), hanging out with Valerie, Paul and Chipper, perhaps heading out with Steed for a couple of short rides, and hopefully catching up with a couple of the West-bounders who I passed on the trip to share stories, and a few beers.

Final blog with stats to come soon…

Meanwhile, still time for donations to the charity websites I set up to support those affected by domestic abuse.

Thanks again to those who have already donated, and more thanks for all the support which I have continued to get from blog-readers and others in completing my journey.

And on that note, I should also mention that I am sitting next to Patrick Stewart on my flight today. 

Yes… THE Patrick Stewart.

He is utterly charming and, once we got chatting, told me that he is a patron of Refuge, and has spoken extensively about domestic violence, having come from a family where his father was violent to his mother. I am slightly shame-faced for not knowing that, but feel honoured to hear him speak about his own experiences of abuse. And finding out about what he has done since to try to educate and support is inspirational.

And so the magic of this journey just keeps on unfolding. All that is needed now are a few more donations.

To coin a Patrick Stewart/Jean-Luc phrase…  please help MAKE IT SO.

Me x