Illinoistocht

[Day 7.1: Florence to Eugene. 80.4 miles, 2,573 ft. of climbing (129.3 km, 784 m)]
It was time to end this segment of my tour, so from Florence I headed east towards Eugene.   This ride is part of Adventure Cycling’s Transamerica route, and for much of it parallels two rivers.  It was in the 90s (> 30 degrees C) by the time I reached Eugene and I “officially” concluded the ride at the University of Oregon’s legendary Hayward Field.  From there it was a short ride to the Amtrak station where I had a few hours to clean myself up a bit, box up the bike, and get something to eat.   The Amtrak bike box is much bigger than boxes from local bike shops, and all I had to do was take the pedals off, loosen the headset and turn the handlebars sideways.  After the overnight train, I arrived in Oakland the next morning, put the bike back together, and hopped on BART for a ride to San Francisco and a short pedal to home.