September 17/18 - Going home

Thursday - Amsterdam to Keflavik, Iceland to Portland, Oregon
Our flight doesn't leave until 2 p.m. so that's give us plenty of time to pack.

Notice the umbrellas. It is really only a little misty but we had a zippy tailwind all the way here.

Now it's really raining but we don't care :) (9:05)

Love these boxes! You put them together by following the numbers and they are big enough you only have to remove the pedals and take the handlebars off the stem.

Time to get started re-packing.

Two hours later.

This is the really tough part, moving through the terminal with these nice, big boxes.

We were hard to miss! Notice that this is desk #20. We left the elevator next to desk #3.

We had plenty of time to talk to our neighbors. Even later, after we passed through security, several people talked to us because they recognized us as the people with the bike boxes. Done with check-in at 12:10.....good thing we got an early start! We still needed to go through security and have lunch.

Headed to Iceland. Our seatmate, Dirk, is Dutch but now lives in Malta but spent most of his teenage years in Portland, Ashland, and Forest Grove, Oregon. He actually knows where Sweet Home is!

And, about 3 hours later, there it is. 

So far, so good......one of them is just a little wrinkled.

It is a balmy 50F in Keflavik....scheduled departure is 5:15 pm

Once more we have all 3 seats to ourselves between Iceland and Portland so Donna gets her window seat and Doug gets his aisle seat.

It will be quite awhile before we see land again.

Donna entertained herself for quite awhile making purple pictures for Tia on the touchscreen coloring book..... 

....and taking cloud pictures....there were just so many different kinds!

Almost there......the Columbia River. Arrival time 6:15.

It took us an hour to get through customs and to get our luggage. There is a short person behind there somewhere.

Doesn't look much more wrinkled than it did in Iceland.

PDX also has a bike assembly area but it is outside. 

It took another hour to get everything put back together and repack.

The sun went down an hour ago but our head lamps did a good job of showing us the way.

It is now 6 am Amsterdam time (9 pm PDT), at least that is what our bodies are telling us. It has been a LONG day!

Friday, September 18 - Portland to Sweet Home
Well, we woke up at 4:30 PDT and decided that the prudent thing to do would be to rent a car to get home. Riding another 3 days with body and brains in different time zones wasn't going to work very well. Our hotel didn't serve breakfast until 7 so we rode about a mile to one that was already open.

Portland has some darn nice bike facilities too.

And coffee on almost every corner.

It all fits! Just a couple more hours on the road. I-5 was pretty good for a Friday and we were home by noon. Nice to be back in our own place but what a wonderful trip it has been!!!
July 17 to September 18 (64 days)
2012 miles (3245 km)
0 flat tires
10,400 pictures
Gallons of ice cream, good coffee and peach tea
Miles of smiles
Countless Angels of the Road

And thank you for following us and being our blog Angels even when you didn't know where we were!