I-84 EAST.

Well a tired Laurie made it to Thailand after a marathon flight plan that went from PDX to Tokyo (11 hrs), then from Tokyo to Bangkok (7 hrs), and then an 8 hour bus ride to Mae Sot, the site of the Op Smile mission. woah. Send her email she has limited access. Might not respond right away, but I she will get them.

In more local news, make sure and check out the photos from the bonneville dam tour we went to yesterday. It was pretty cool.

I went up early with James, with the intent of running the Pumpkin run 5 miler in North Bonneville, WA. We planned to leave a little early... but I ended up showing up about 5 minutes late, and then James wasn't at the pre-determined meeting place either. Since I was late, I didn't feel like calling him right away, and he showed up at about 4 minutes to 8 (planned departure was 7:45am) The race start was 9am (as indicated on the website of the Columbia Gorge Running Club). We still had enough time to get there. So as we rolled out, we pondered a little on whether or not to take the washington side (hwy 14) or the Oregon side (I-84). At the last moment, I decided to take the oregon side, thinking the time saved would be worth the $1 toll on the bridge of the gods. I exited off of I-205, onto I-84. Only problem was, it was I-84 west. not East, like we wanted. Never make this mistake, even if your not in a hurry. Because there are no exits for miles, and then when you finally get to an exit, you can't just go over to the other side and get back on the interstate going the other direction.

Where was the damn GPS when we needed it. The iPhone sucks for turn by turn directions, unless you want to get in an accident... So we weaved through some city streets, and basically got every red light, and finally, after at least 2 U-turns, found I205, and then got on the right path. We figured we were not going to make it to the run on time, so we figured we'd go anyway, and just run, since it was on trails, and we did have time before the Dam tour at 10am.

We finally made it to N. Bonneville, and what do you know... the race hadn't started yet! so we paid our 2 bucks, and tried to keep warm for a few mintues before it got started. It seemed like if they would have started any later, we would have been late for the dam tour.

The run was good... 4 pretty much flat miles on a very nice trail with views of the gorge and then an unexpected 5th mile that was 3/4 up hill. Not like the uphill at Mac 15k, but brutal still. I ended up 3rd, and got an awesome pumpkin pie, a free 6 inch at subway (in stevenson, WA), a $5 certificate for tha bahma coffe bar in stevenson, and a coffee giftcard for Jolindas in stevenson that doesn't say how much its worth. Pretty sweet for $2 bucks for the entry fee! If you're going through stevenson, i'll hook you up w/ lunch and coffee. Let me know!

Joe Dudemans race report here.

We got to the Dam tour at 10:10, and Lee Sheldon (our professor) wasn't there yet, so all was good on a day where we could have used the extra hour that we got today!!! Too bad there aren't more days when we fall back. Wouldn't it be sweet to set your watch back an hour more days of the year? After the tour we went to the infamous Char Burger (Lee's favorite hang out) for lunch and ate the pumpkin pie that I won earlier in the day.

Bonneville dam slideshow here. (click photo for caption)

Non-acedemic plans over the next few weeks:
Vancouver fall 5 mile
Champeog autum leaves run (which distance? hmm)
Hood River turkey trot