June 18. Ready to rock and roll.

After 1,444 miles of driving and 2 ½ books on tape, we arrived in Astoria, Oregon about an hour ahead of schedule.  We drove almost seven hours today and never saw the sun — just rain and wind and 57º temperatures.  I’m sure the weather will improve tomorrow (and the next day and the next day).  Since we didn’t pack up our bikes, we didn’t have to unpack and reassemble them.  That made it much easier to get registered, pass the safety check, sign a bunch of release forms and pick up our jerseys.  I haven’t met everybody yet but it looks like the riders range in age from about 20 to about 70.  Also found out that one of the rules of participation is that we’re not allowed to flip obscene gestures to motorists at any time for any reason.  I hope that doesn’t slow us down too much.