Reasons 2114 - 2423

Okay, folks. After Seaside we started to make our way south along the Oregon coast. The weather was all over the place. We put on our rain gear and then took it off and then put it on and left it on even if we didn’t need it. We rolled through Cannon Beach and stopped to see Haystack Rock. Pretty neat.

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach.

Rainy-day cycling.

As we continued on, the rain became consistently dense and ridiculous. We were motivated to keep pedaling with our next Warm Showers guests in mind.

Mark and Dee have a spacious, unique home in Bay City. They were really kind and welcoming right off the bat. We slipped out of all our drenched rain gear and put our shoes and gloves right beside an old fashioned wood stove to dry. Then, Mark and Dee informed us that we were only the first cyclists to arrive for that night. We were yet to meet Jo and James, a mother/son duo from Bellingham, WA. There was also a trio of guys from Argentina who had started in Alaska and were making their way back home.

Once everyone had arrived, cleaned up, dried out and settled, in we all shared a fantastic pasta dinner. I had the chance to try eating local crab. It was fun learning how to break open the shells. Mark and Dee have a pretty great wine collection and they were very generous with us. I was the only one not drinking, and everyone else managed to finish off nine bottles. Needless to say, everybody had a fantastic time. We had a whole lot of candid, personal conversation. We also shared the kind of hilarious camaraderie that can really only be found amongst touring cyclists that have endured hard rides in tough weather. I laughed so hard I cried multiple times and my cheeks hurt by the time we all went to bed.

Collin serving up some pasta with James.

Some of the guys traded theories on how to pick up women while on tour. At first, James, who sported a well groomed, thin beard expressed his opinion. He said that he thought that if a touring cyclist was generally ‘presentable’ he had a better chance at interacting with anyone along the way. He said that if you stayed clean and well groomed people would be more likely to talk to you. At this point, a couple of the Argentinians got pretty boisterous, opposing James completely. They joked that you had to have a thick, untamed beard and more importantly, that you needed to smell like smoke. You had to appear as though you had been in the woods for days and days. They claimed that if you appeared this way all you had to do was stand outside a bar near your bike and ladies would flock to you. We all laughed a whole lot about this theory, especially because we ALL know what it’s actually like to have all sorts of strangers walk up and ask questions about what we’re doing.

We all joked a whole lot about our experiences with coastal, redneck Oregonians. All of us had been passed by huge pick-up trucks with obscene lift kits on Highway 101. And, much of the time the drivers of these trucks would purposely drive by really closely and rev their engines hard so that they would pump a huge cloud of diesel fumes in our faces. Some of us had even had locals screaming at us out their windows to get off the road. Sure enough, a moment later we would pass another ‘Bicycle Route’ sign confirming that we share the same right of way as the rednecks. Anyway, in the midst of all the redneck stories and laughter, Mark brought out camouflage ball caps for all of us. It was pretty fun.

Sunny skies to the South and a crazy, dark storm coming in from the Northwest. Collin was busy wolfing down his lunch, and couldn't believe I was taking the time to take a picture when those clouds were rolling in.

The next day, we were set to make our way about 80 miles to South Beach State Park where we would camp in heavy rain. It was another day of dire dampness. But, about 12 miles before our destination our luck completely changed. We were plugging along in the miserable wet. I looked ahead and a car had pulled over onto the shoulder right in front of us. Collin was ahead of me and passed by the vehicle as the driver emerged. A tall, smiley woman waved at me and called me over. She told me her name was Bunny and asked if we had a place to stay for the night. She said she had a time-share condo a few miles up the road with a spare room with a couple beds that weren’t being used. I told her we had intended on camping, but would gladly take her up on her offer.

The view from the condo.

When Collin and I found the Worldmark Club at Depoe Bay we were pretty shocked that we were going to be staying somewhere so nice and high-end instead of camping. Bunny waved us over to her condo. She repeatedly told us, ‘I know this is weird, but…’ She was attempting to calm us down about staying with her, but mostly I think she was trying to calm herself down. Later, we laughed a lot about that. We also laughed a lot about how Collin had initially rolled past Bunny on the highway because he was put out by the fact she had parked in our path, and he had actually made a face at her.

Bonita, or ‘Bunny’ to her friends was such a lovely and kind host. She made us clam chowder from scratch which was so delicious. And, she entertained us with candid conversation covering a wide array of subjects. I think it took her a while to fully settle into being comfortable with us, because she was actually at the condo alone for a few hours before some of her friends arrived. It was a generous, bold move on her part to invite two strange cyclists in the way she did, but we’re so thankful she did.

Eventually, Jen and Dan arrived and the five of us ate, laughed, shared stories and opinions while playing card and board games. The three friends have fantastic rapport with each other and made it really easy for us to fit in with their somewhat crass humour and hilarious banter. We had a whole lot of fun.

Dan, Jen, Bunny, Collin and Me.

In the morning, we loaded the bikes and gear into two vehicles and drove down the coast to Yachats. Our hosts wanted to make our ride more manageable since Bunny had cut the previous day’s ride short. Collin rode with Jen and Dan, and I rode with Bunny. Bunny and I had such a quality heart-to-heart chat on the drive. We both shared stories and opinions about family, life, love and relationships. By the end of the drive we had both shed a few tears. I told Bunny that I was really proud of her for taking us in the way she did. And, she said that the experience with us was very positive and that it would most likely change her. She said she was seriously going to think about joining CouchSurfing.org as a host. I was particularly moved by that. There were big hugs when we all said goodbye.

Saying goodbye to Bunny.

The plan for the next night was to stay at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park. Possibly it was the fact that we had been spoiled by Bunny the night previous, or maybe it was just the intensity of the rain, but we didn’t camp that night. The two of us pushed ourselves as far as Reedsport, just short of the campground and checked ourselves into the Best Budget Inn. I was extremely grateful for that little, dingy motel because its wi-fi allowed me a much needed opportunity to Skype with my lady friend at home. I attempted to get some faux privacy from Collin for the conversation by sitting in the bathroom.

I took a picture of the bathroom’s fantastic wallpaper. It makes a really classy desktop background, FYI. I’m using it as I type. Enjoy.

Reasons 1650 - 2114

Spending a good weekend in Seattle was nice. Natasha was incredible, driving us to and from different places in Seattle. We head to Puyallup which is where one of Nathan’s friends parents lives. There was a really nice bike path that we took almost the whole day. When we got to Puyallup, the street that we had to take had no shoulder. On top of that it was raining, it was in rush hour and it was getting dark. We ended up on some guys’ driveway to think of our options because we didn’t feel safe. The guy who lived in the house ended up giving us a ride to our destination which was only about three miles. It was a great ride, Morgan, the guy who gave us a lift shared some of his story with us. It was really great that he would do that with two guys he has never met before. It just seemed like one of those times that God had placed in front of us. We prayed for Morgan when he dropped us off and he prayed for us.

We arrived at Grant and Jeanette Dickau’s place all wet and sorry looking. They thought it was hilarious and took a picture of us in our vulnerable state. We took showers and devoured delicious chili. They were incredibly hospitable. We were discussing our next day and how we didn’t think we could do it, so Jeanette offered to drive us closer. With the rain and not wanting to camp if we didn’t make it to our next stop, we agreed.

Grant and Jeanette.

Getting driven about 40 miles and riding the next 60 miles felt good. We stopped for lunch in a little park, with picnic tables under a roof. We stopped there to get out of the rain for about two hours. For the last hour there was a cop across the street just stting there. As soon as we took off the cop left. We weren’t sure if he thought we were part of the seedy underbelly of the cyclist world, running illegal drugs across the Washington – Oregon border.

Another lunchtime stop at a small lake.

A funny barn along the way, advertising a remedy for 'weak women.'

We strolled into Toutle River RV resort, the place we stayed for the night, with good time. The owner is part of Warm Showers and he showed us to “The Love Shack” where we slept. We had some time to watch It’s a Wonderful Life. When it was done we were both brought to tears.

View from the top of a bridge on the way to Portland.

From the RV resort we went through Portland and then went to Beaverton, which is just out of Portland. This day was our longest day yet, we rode 85 miles in total. The day was sunny and the hills weren’t bad so we made good time and had about 2 hours in Portland. We stopped at Powell’s City of Books and Microcosm Publishing.

Microcosm Publishing: Anarchist, DIY, and Cyclist literature.

Powell's City of Books.

Heading to Beaverton seemed straight forward, however we didn’t anticipate the huge hill that my GPS told us to take. Click here to see the sudden elevation of that hill. We arrived at Terry and Mary’s place in the dark, which I guess we are getting used to. Mary prepared a delicious meal for us and had baked chocolate cake for dessert and coffee cake for breakfast.

Me, Terry and Nathan.

In the morning Terry took us through Beaverton to get us to the main highway to get us to where we needed to go. We knew we had a long day in front of us, 80 miles. But, we just did 85 so we felt like the Kings of the Road. Our feeling of superiority however completely fell as we saw the mountain in front of us. We were warned by Terry about what we would encounter, but we didn’t really imagine it as bad as it was. It was by far the worst day we had. Click here to see how crazy this day was. It was 4:30 PM and we knew we only had about two hours of sun left. We knew in our hearts that it could not be done, but we kept going for some reason. We still had a hill to climb, it was our third and we didn’t know how high it would be. But we figured that a town called Seaside would be around sea level, maybe that’s what kept us going. Against all odds we did it, with the help of it being almost all downhill from the summit. We get there as it started to rain and also right when our host drove into his driveway. We get our bikes in the dry garage, get into the warm house, have some refreshments and reflect with Neil on how crazy our day was.

Tree branches along the way.

Lunchtime stop atop the tunnel opening. Nathan's sitting just below the sign.

We needed time to recuperate and figure out some sort of schedule, so we stayed an extra day at Seaside. During the day we took a walk on the beach, it was raining but to me it was just as beautiful as it would have been on a sunny day. We also tried to go to the High School football game, we showed up at around half time. I didn’t really want to go, and I had no idea why Nathan was so driven. But didn’t really seem like I had a choice, so I went thinking it won’t be so bad. We get there and we lock our bikes up, but I was only worrying that they would get stolen. Also I didn’t bring my rain cover for my seat, and I was worried that it was going to get wet. About five minutes left in the halftime show it started pouring. I wanted to go, thinking that this is just getting ridiculous. So we rode back to Neil’s house in pouring rain, we get back soaking wet. Nathan tried to comfort me by downloading the original Oregon Trail. It kind of worked.

The beach.

Me, Neil and Nathan.

It was great staying with Neil because he loved hosting people. He is well travelled and loves talking about different experiences he has had. He was a gracious and wise host.

Reasons 1525 - 1650

On Friday, October 12, we took off from Port Townsend and rode south along State Route 104 all the way to Bremerton. We took the ferry from there to downtown Seattle. We were pretty stoked to find that it’s the ferry ride from Seattle to Bremerton that costs and the reverse which we took was free. So, thus far we have paid a total of $3.50 for six separate ferry rides. Nice.

The downtown Seattle ferry terminal is only a couple blocks from the famous Pike Place market. And, for those of you who have never been, there are intense steep hills filled with old skyscrapers with lovely intricate carvings and interesting architecture. The first couple blocks with our bikes was the first time we had to walk our bikes up a hill. Disappointing, but necessary.

From there we navigated our way through and out of downtown Seattle, through surrounding neighbourhoods around to the southern tip of Lake Washington, and finally to Renton. This is where my good friend, Natasha has been living for several years. We stayed with her through the weekend and had incredibly fantastic eats, laughs, adventures and good times.

Seattle from the Bremerton Ferry.

Pike place market.

Fishy times.

Gotta have my Starbucks at the original shop. Love it.

Good times at the Gum Wall, near Pike Place.

Pier good times.

Me, sporting my sweet, Jimmy John's cycling cap I found on the floor of the downtown, Seattle Target store. Nice.

Collin's fancy-times instagram shots.

Wig times at the Velo Bike Shop.

Overall, so many good times we couldn't actually count them all. It was so great to spend quality time with an old friend. We are very appreciative for Natasha showing us such a great time. Yay.

My first animated gif's ever. Double yay.