By the Numbers

I am using Sports Illustrated’s weekly column as inspiration for my first blog:

3 – Hours of sleep I got Wednesday night before waking to get on a 5:45 plane.

10:38 AM PST – Time my airplane landed in Portland International Airport or PDX as I grew to know it as.

60% - Amount of Drew’s body outside the car as the gang pulled up to the curb. Drew was holding a “Welcome Home* Pete *not” sign and sitting out the window of the passenger seat.

53ºF – Approximate temperature of the Pacific Ocean at Cannon Beach. After leaving PDX, the journeymen culminated their cross country trip by driving to the clear blue waters of the Pacific. After eating at one of the top 50 pizzerias in the country (supposed), we went down to the beach, changed in front of the crowd and sprinted to the water’s edge.

1 – Waves bodysurfed by each of us, as that was all the time we could stand in the water.

3 – Pounds of taffy and jellybeans we bought at a candy shop the town of Cannon Beach. After purchasing this, we listened to a very hippie woman tell us how she let’s her sons use blow guns with microwaved m&m’s instead of paintballs. She also tried to get us to buy decorative swords and all sorts of Indonesian instruments.

$6000 – Price of massage chairs Drew and I sat in while Rezzie returned his wireless card at Verizon and Eli and Marshall went to Radio Shack.

3 – Number of personalized name license plates that were given during the gift exchange Thursday night. Other noteworthy gifts included: A stuffed marmot, A honey bear pint glass, a wooden voodoo dude playing golf, eatable moose droppings and a boomerang.

10:10 AM – Time Drew flew the coup. Leaving the journey again with 4.

4-1 – Score of the Netherlands vs. France soccer game, in favor of the Dutch, which we watched from the Thirsty Lion, a very cool pub in downtown Portland.

2 – Number of my cousins we saw while in Portland, 4 if you include a cousin’s husband and son. We went to see George’s warehouse where he sells sailboats on Friday afternoon, and Kate’s house just outside Portland Saturday morning. Her son Oliver just turned 1 and is adorable.

6 – Number of Oyster shooters we had at Corbett St. Fishhouse, a delicious Packers fans only restaurant where the Blackmans took us. Chile-fried catfish = delicious.

7 – Number of Friday Night Lights episodes Dan watched while in Oregon.

592ft. – Height of Multnomah Falls in Crowne Point state park. We drove to the hills Saturday morning to see the sight and hike through Oneonta Gorge.

47ºF – Approximate temperature of the water flowing through Oneonta Gorge. We had to hike over rocks and fallen trees through the gorge, but most of the time we were in water above our ankles.

4.5 ft – Depth at the deepest part of the river in the gorge. We walked/swam through this part on our way the to waterfall at the end of the trek. It was a great hike though we couldn’t feel our feet for most of the way. We couldn’t go under the waterfall however, because of the incredible volume of water coming over the falls.

10:15 AM – Time we left the luscious living arrangement at the Blackman homestead and hit the road for Cali. We had a great dinner at the house with Eli’s bro and fam Saturday night, and delicious Dutch babies for breakfast this morning (similar to German pancakes).

796 – First exit we saw after entering California on Route 5.

73 – MPH written on the speeding ticket (1st of the trip) given. The actual speed was a bit higher.

14,167ft – Height of Mount Shasta, which I was admiring the beauty of when I realized the flashing lights in my rear view mirror.

8 hours 55 minutes – Travel time today so far.

3 – hours left of driving before camping for the night

Alas, I’m out of relevant numbers so I’ll leave you with this:
A man knocked over a basket of eggs at food stand. He offered to pay for them but the woman didn’t know how many were in the basket. All she know was that when she put the eggs in 2 bags, 1 was leftover. When she put the eggs in 3 bags, 1 was left over. When she put the eggs in 4 bags, 1 was leftover. When she put the eggs in 5 bags, 1 was leftover. But when she put the eggs 7 bags, none were leftover. How many eggs were there?

-The Rook