The small pioneer church and cemetery at Zena, Oregon, about 10 miles
NW of Salem, looking north.

n August of 2006, J and I drove down to Oregon to explore the Willamette Valley on our bicycles. We'd mapped out a route following the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway Route as laid out by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Our plan was to drive to the northern end of the route (just south of Portland), leave the car there and cycle south through Salem and Albany to Eugene, staying at bed & breakfasts and hotels en route.

It was a 7-day trip. We spent one night at Buena Vista House near Independance, at a bend in the road close to the Buena Vista ferry (one of the two remaining car ferries on the Willamette River). By chance we were there on a Friday evening, when they set out tables under the apple trees and serve delicious pizza home-made in a wood-fired oven, while local musicians jam. After dinner the music drifted in through the open window of our room: magic.

Pizza from Buena Vista House.

We'd planned to take our bikes via Greyhound back to where we'd parked our car: until we ran into James, the ticketing agent from hell, in Eugene. To make a long story short, I will never take a Greyhound bus again if I can avoid it: and perhaps that's part of Greyhound's secret corporate expansion plan. Instead we ended up renting a PT Cruiser, into which we somehow managed to fit both of our bikes and our gear. We shared the rental cost with another would-be bus passenger who needed to get to Portland in a hurry; it worked out cheaper than the bus would have anyway.