Rogue Squadron

A real feature of the trip has been arriving in an area in the dark, then waking up the next day to discover a whole new scene around us that we had no idea was there. When we woke up in the forest, with light blaring in through the windows, the full impact of our surroundings was revealed.  Spindly pines surrounded the van, snaking up towards the fresh morning sky, and a short stumble towards the sandy river bank revealed a jaw dropping vista of forested mountains sloping down to meet a vast, peaceful river. Eyeing the inviting aqua green water, Tom decided it would be reckless to not take advantage of such a beautiful natural resource. We were going for a dip. After some planning we got the van running, cranked the heaters to the max ready for post swim heating, prepared the towels, stripped down to our keks and braced ourselves. After a shivering run to the water's edge, we jumped in. Once we had got our breath back, a swim in the crystal clear water, surrounded by such natural beauty was the perfect start to the day.

We fired up Spot and after few hours on the road we were entering Portland city limits. A succession of increasingly impressive bridges revealed themselves as we entered the city. A quick blast through downtown to get our bearings revealed a neat cosmopolitan area buzzing with cyclists. Bridges and bikes, we both had a good feeling about the place. The plan was to use Spot in accomodation mode for our first urban camp. Slightly nervous at the prospect, we headed for the edge of town in search of a quiet leafy residential street, preferably within walking distance of a good bar. 

After a brief recce (reconnaissance) mission, we found our location and took on supplies for Spot's transformation. With the van positioned inconspicuously between other vehicles and in the shadow of a tree, we used the wealth of resources gathered on the trip to elegantly cover any viewing access into the van. A map of Wyoming made sure onlookers wouldn't spot us from the road side, a roll of till receipt paper blocked off the view through the back windows and a spare sheet rigged up behind the cockpit completed our sealed undercover operational area. Satisfied with our handiwork, we strolled around the corner to the bar to celebrate.

Beaulahland - as we walked into the gritty dive bar, we couldn't shake the feeling that we'd heard the name before. We delved into our wallets to search through the stacks of old scraps of paper we'd accumulated over the trip. Suddenly Tom triumphantly pulled out a creased post-it note, and there it was a drunkenly scrawled remnant handed to us in a Seattle pub weeks ago. We couldn't have hoped to find a better venue: loads of character, fascinating inhabitants, the internet, and plenty of good beer to fuel an epic blog update session.

We staggered back down the peaceful street, and climbed into our covert barracks for the night. With every movement potentially leading to our discovery and arrest, we attempted to organise sleeping arrangements as quietly as possible, worried that the van's bare metal interior and formed steel structural channels would act as a huge amplifier, broadcasting our sounds over the surrounding neighbourhood. Somehow we made it through the night. The next morning brought its own unexpected problems, however...the night's drinking had taken its toll on Mike's bladder and without the luxury of an ensuite toilet, we were forced to employ our first ICOP (Inner City Operational Piss), with the aid of an empty water bottle.

The following morning we woke up to the realisation that we had pulled off our first successful urban camping operation. Celebrations were short lived however as we both had a full day of work to get through to maintain our travel funds. With this in mind, we headed downtown to find a coffee shop where we could dig ourselves in for a day of productivity.  We found Barista, a cosy little independent cafe and motored into our workload.

Having seen the early morning Portland coffee crowd come and go, followed by the lunch break crew then the after-work community, we started to wind down for the day. We pinged out a few emails to the couchsurfing community and within a few hours we had a date set for some drinks with Yu, a seasoned Japanese-American traveller! We powered through the work day safe in the knowledge we would be sitting and getting an inside rail on the Portland scene in a mere few hours!

Yu arrived, followed promptly by her friend, James who treated us to some amazing Vietnamese soup at a swanky restaurant. Then we marched to the Rogue Bar, a fiercely independent north-west based brewery. It was a paradise of custom, all-American beer labels! We explained to them our beer label quest, dismissed our hosts slightly bemused looks and set about consuming and collecting as many bottles as possible. We got drunk. Obviously.

As Yu walked us back to our car park, she explained that our beards, which were generously displayed on our Couchsurfing profile pics had made her sceptical of our demeanours.

We explained to her that even though we owned a sex-offenders van, and had uncontrollable facial hair that we were in fact trustworthy people. Her new found trust of the beards was short-lived as Mike bundled her in the back of the van. We'll let her out one day.