day one: success!
Andre and I drove to Florence to begin my adventure.
We arrived slightly before 11, went to the beach, to see the ocean, and he let me loose with a fanfare of opera and horn-honking!
One of my dad's cousins has a place in Eugene, so I decided to blast there and delay the inevitable side-of-the-road camping for as long as possible.
Luckily, route 36 is absolutely gorgeous and verdant. I never realized Oregon was so green! Baby blue skies, crystal-clear lakes and huge open valleys made the 78 miles to Eugene go by in a flash.

I am now sitting downtown, agonizingly typing this on my kindle ("experimental" internet browsers aren't ideal for blogging), as I devour pizza and wait to meet up with Elyse, my dad's cousin!

I am going to say farewell (and apologize for any spelling mistakes, this infernal machine makes spell checking hard).
Check back for more exciting stories next time!
Love, Malcolm