I'm back at my parents house in palo alto. I totally left the group and biked really fast to get here. then i called my parents on my cell phone from the front yard, and my dad was like, "where are you?" and i told them to come to the front yard. and there i was waiting with the camera. i think maybe they look more shocked then happy, but really they're like pretty happy to see me.

this morning i was riding along and i met this guy cameron who was also on a bike, and we were talking and stuff, and he was all, "that's an annoying noise, i used to be a bike mechanic and could probalby fix it." he lived in fairfax, and we went back to his house, and he took apart my bike and like put this crazy blue/green grease that was designed for boats, and he totally fixed this horrible, terrible noise i've been biking with since fairbanks. i had one guy in the yukon try and fix the noise, and he was kinda condiscending and like told me that nothing was wrong with the bike, and that i was "chasing red hearings" so i never tried to get it fixed again. anyways, thanks so much to cameron the world's most awesome bike mechanic. This is a picture of cameron at his house. cameron if you read my blog, send me an email with your address, i want to mail you like a thank you something. here's my email address jessieoppi@yahoo.com.

since i left the group and started biking on my own, people have been super nice to me. also, i think most people think it's totally insane to be a single, woman bike tourist. the other night i was in this camground and was talking to this guy, and he said he'd come bring me coffee in the morning and then like he showed up while i was still in my tent with this huge mug of hot coffee, and a little debbie snack, and a banana. it was pretty awesome.

hey, my mom just walked in and told me that this was the "most shocked" she's ever been. that's cool.

-jessie