GOING OUT FOR COFFEE, 162 TIMES ACROSS 7 STATES

Paul Peloquin never met a Dutch Bros. barista he didn’t like. And he’s met a lot of them. Especially in the past three days.

In Eugene alone on Saturday, Peloquin met Danielle Thompson, Justin Ross, Mattie Schnurr, Stacey Norton, Jake Brigl, Lance Risser, Kyle Risser, Kassie Rusco, Mary Mete, Jayson Shaver, Cody Bradley, Jeff Cholewinski, Shaina Levy, Jordan Jones, Savannah Boyd and Clayton Kayser.

And those Dutch Bros. baristas work at just seven of the 27 Dutch Bros. coffee stands that Peloquin stopped at Saturday, between Eureka, Calif., and here.

And he still has 107 stops to make between today and Wednesday to reach his goal of visiting all 162 Dutch Bros. locations in 162 hours to raise money for a Salem women’s shelter.

“I wanted to get the word out about this,” said Peloquin, right after pulling his Yamaha FJR 1300 motorcycle — the one plastered with Dutch Bros. stickers such as “I see Dutch people” — into the Dutch Bros. stand at the corner of River and Irving roads just after 4 p.m. “I thought trying to visit 162 Dutch Bros. in 162 hours would gain some interest and give me a chance to talk about Shelly’s House.”

Shelly’s House provides drug-free transitional housing for women just released from prison. Peloquin, of Monmouth, serves on the board of PRISM Inc., the nonprofit organization that operates Shelly’s House.

Peloquin, 47, is a former corrections officer at the all-women Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville who now works for the state Department of Corrections as a training and development specialist.

Two years ago, he rode his motorcycle to all of Oregon’s 14 prisons in 21 hours and raised more than $4,200 for Shelly’s House.

But this time, he wanted to take it to another level.

Last week, he rode all the way to Colorado Springs, Colo., where on Thursday he began his journey from one Dutch Bros. to another.

He rode from there to the Phoenix, Ariz., area, then up through California.

If he makes it, his trip will take him through seven states.

“Damn, man, that’s insane!” barista Bradley said, after Peloquin pulled into his Dutch Bros. at West Seventh Avenue and Olive Street. “162 Dutch Bros. in 162 days?”

“162 hours,” Peloquin clarified.

“I was gonna say, that would take awhile,” Bradley said.

“I could walk that,” Peloquin said.

But why Dutch Bros?

Peloquin said he fell in love with the trendy coffee company that employs hip, young baristas when he had his first mocha in 1998 at a Medford Dutch Bros.

He’s recording his seven-day, seven-state journey on a website he created for the 5,000-mile trek — www.twowheelsfortransition.org.

You can see where he’s been, as well as link to his blog, where he posts photographs he takes of baristas at each stop holding an eraser board on which Peloquin records whatever number stop he’s on, as well as an orange hand puppet he calls “Mr. Happy.”

He also collects a receipt at each stop, most of them for $1.50 tips he gives the baristas, not for coffee.

He usually downs his favorite, a triple-shot mocha, at his first stop every morning.

He typically has just the one drink each day, although he’s been offered plenty of free drinks along the way.

“Do you want any coffee or anything, it’s pretty chilly out here,” Boyd, a barista at the Franklin Boulevard stand asked Peloquin.

“I’ve been to 49 Dutch Bros in three days,” Peloquin said. “I’ve had plenty of coffee.”

He did admit to having two triple mochas on Friday. He needed that second one to ride the 148 miles from Redding, Calif., to Eureka between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. to stay on schedule, Peloquin said.

His goal is to raise at least $8,400, double what he raised in 2009.

As of 7 p.m. Saturday, 24 people had donated $1,685.50, Peloquin said, calling on his cell phone from Roseburg, where he was hitting all five Dutch Bros. there, along with the one in Sutherlin, before heading back to Eugene on Interstate 5 to spend the night at a motel.

Today, Peloquin is scheduled to visit all five Dutch Bros. stands in Springfield, between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., and the one he didn’t get to in Eugene on Saturday, at the corner of Coburg and Willakenzie roads.

Then he’s off to the six Dutch Bros. stands in Salem, before hitting the ones in Keizer, Woodburn, Tigard, Beaverton, Tualatin, Oregon City, Portland, Vancouver, Wash., Gresham, Hood River, The Dalles, Kennewick, Wash., Pasco, Wash., Walla Walla, Wash., and La Grande.

Monday’s schedule includes 11 stops in Idaho and five stops in Washington. Tuesday he starts at 5 a.m. in Kelso, Wash., then plans to make 28 stops in Oregon again, from St. Helens to Klamath Falls.

The final stop is scheduled for 12:19 p.m. in Grants Pass, the birthplace and headquarters for Dutch Bros.

“It’s supercool what he’s doing,” Dutch Bros. spokesman Dave Morris said.

The company is working on some sort of grand finale for Peloquin’s last stop.

Morris said he’ll have a “decaf” ready for Peloquin.