Springfield to Eugene, OR 8 miles and sundry

We lazily made our way into downtown Eugene. Breakfast at the Morning Glory Cafe was fabulous. I had a tofu scramble and fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. Bill was maybe a little surprised by the alternative lifestyles represented. Lots of colored hair and tatoos.
Next was a visit to Green Gear, aka Bike Friday.


We met one of the founders and his daughter, as well as members of the staff as they were walking out the front door. I was surprised that they were as interested in our Trans Am tour as they were. One would think they would see many coast to coast touring cyclists. I also thought more of them would have done the tour themselves.
It was pretty cool to see how the bikes are made and the small scale operation, which cranks out about 10 bikes per day.


It was also cool that they were excited to show us their prototypes for new designs and to have them talk about innovations in cycling like belt drives.


I ordered the parts to convert my suitcase into a trailer, touch up paint, had them replace the chain, two of the chainrings and the rear cassette, as well as swap my rear folder tire out for another Schwalbe Marathon.


The drive train might have been saved if I had replaced the chain in Lamder, WY when that bike shop had told me it was really worn.
Lunch at Izzy's (really suffered in comparison to Morning Glory) and then hunted for a hotel downtown. Eugene is highly diversified in terms of philosophies and money, but not racially. We walked quite a ways along bike paths on the river to go see Inception (movie). I was worried about walking back after dark, especially given the large number of homeless, but it wasn't an issue. The movie was a little out of the box for Bill. It is nice to see him expanding his horizons.


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