Meet Your Hosts- Chiara

Hello folks!

You got to lear a little bit about Bruce, now I'm going to tell you more about me.  Hopefully not too much, need to leave a little mystery, right?

I was born in Eastern Montana, 38.5 years ago.  Yes, the flat part.  Nope, not a mountain to be seen.  Nowhere near Bozeman, but thans for asking.  I lived in Sidney, MT the majority of my childhood, and it was a rad place to grow up.  I had great friends, and way more freedom than your kids have now, believe me.  I think my free-range 

I went to school at University of Montana, where there are mountains.  I started really cycling more there, enjoying getting out of town and into the mountains on my cheap bike in my Cons and cut-offs shorts.  Post college (degree in social work) I move to London, UK with my dear friend Sarah (moment of silence, she's no longer with us) where I worked and played for 8 months before teaching Enlish in Milan, Italy for a while.

Then...Potland! Where I've been ever since.  I love Portland. Man it's amazing. I moved there partically because I had couches to sleep on (thanks Matt and Katie, I know 3 months was a long time!) I've been working with small children for years there, lately as an Early Childhood Special Education taecher in the David Dougas school district.  I love that I have always worked with really diverse populations since being in Portland. Love it.  And I'm going back to my jobby-job after this trip.

So, you ask, what do I do in my spare time?  Great question.  I cycle a fair amount between touring, weekend rides, and mountain biking. I even raced cyclocross this year a bit and I liked it.  I cook.  Passably, says Bruce.  But I have really started enjoying making a lot of things from scratch that I used to buy at the store.   I paint and fix things.  I hang with my cats, Augie and Stella.  I spend with my friends as much as time allows.  I read a lot.  Books, longform articles. 

In terms of places I've been, I was lucky to live in the UK, which was a real shocker to a little Montana girl like myself.  Same with Milan, huge international city but without the benefit of knowing the language.  While in Milan I spent some time traveling by myself through Easter Europe, Croatia, Slovenia, and Hungary.  I've also spent longer periods of time in Guatemala (1 month) Mexico (1.5 months) and Brazil ( month),  I like to focus on things when I travel, so I have always worked on languages and in Brazil I studies capoeira, a martial art that I trained for 20 years.

In the last 7 years I have been so lucky to explore a fair amount of the Pacfic Northwest on my bike.  I have  been down the California coast, through chunks of British Columbia, rode from the coast of Washington through Montana with Bruce.  We totally didn't kill each other!  Matter of fact, we found we really like riding together. Hopefully just like this trip!

What do I want from this trip you ask? So many things.  I want to ponder my life decisions, and make sure I/we are headed in the direction  I/we want to be.  I want to unstrap myelf from my normal life to see things new again.  I wnat the challenge of not being able to go home to my bed for a year.  I want to seee alll the new things.  I want Bruce and I to keep having a blast even though this will not be particularly easy. I think that pretty much sums it up.  Thanks to all who are reading this!

Xo, Chiara