We are spending the night tonight at Half Moon Bay State Park knowing that this is the last night for sleeping in the tent, not having a warm shower, and cooking a well balanced meal from one pot!
The last few days have really helped us define this trip as an adventure. Despite a day of rest last weekend, my Achilles tendons, yes both now, were getting much worse. We made the decision that no vacation was ment to leave one of it's travelers wounded or seriously injured, so we looked into other ways to knock out some miles. As much as Scott would have enjoyed hitch hiking, we settled on renting a one way car to get on our way. The adventure part comes in when we realized that we couldn't rent a car out of Eureka without bringing it back to Eureka. There is one thing we could rent though... Can you guess? A U-Haul! Yes, we drove a 14 foot U-Haul from Eureka to San Rafael over the last few days with nothing but our bikes and gear in it. We sctually left the tent pitched and just pulled it out for a night of sleep! Thankfuly we got back on route today though.
Our drive was much faster than if we were pedaling, but really due to the giantness of the vehicle we went about the same speed. We did stick to the bike route which was great. We drove the Avenue of the Giants and saw amazing Redwoods. We drove the 50 extra miles of the Lost Coast which we wouldn't have time for on bikes, and we drove on HWY 1 from where it begins in Leggett! We had 2 fun nights of camping, last night 2 dudes shared their dinner, fire and camp chairs with us because they thought the U Haul story was just that funny! (and they felt bad that we were going to have a can of soup for dinner).
Today felt great to be back on the bikes. My Achilles still hurt, but having the days of rest really helped. We met my friend and former UC Davis Professor, Paul, in San Anselmo and he was our support vehicle for the day! We ditched the bags in his car and really enjoyed the day through Sausalito where we stopped for our first Mexican food in two weeks and had a great trip over the Golden Gate Bridge :) (video to follow soon). From there it was through Daly City and then back on HWY 1 to Half Moon Bay! Almost 60 miles of riding seemed like nothing, but with visions of an electric toothbrush and a pillow tomorrow's 50 miles may seem long! Paul is here camping with us tonight and will ride us in tomorrow. Along for the ride tomorrow will also be my friend Terri who is going to ride from Aptos and meet us along the route to ride home with us! Yaaaay friends :)
Visions of our home are sure to dance in our heads tonight!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Our adventures accross the state line, but first...
My favorite cartoon as a kid was Anamaniacs. One thing they did was "good idea, bad idea" where a skeleton character would act out a good idea and then a similar bad idea. So as one of my all day thoughts, I came up with some good ideas and bad ideas for cars and bike tourers...
Good idea: when you see a bike tourer honk softly to let them know you are behind them.
Bad idea: blare your horn as you go by to let the cyclist know that they shouldn't move into your lane!
Good idea: if you want to cheer a bike tourer on, drive by them and then give a honk and a wave.
Bad idea: stick your head out the window and make noise while flailing your arms right as you go by the cyclist. (I had this happen and I nearly jumped off my bike into the car with fear!)
Good idea: ask a tourer where he's headed and give him words of encouragment on his epic adventure.
Bad idea: try to high five him while driving! (ok this one didn't happen but it's what Anamaniacs would have done!)
So, yesterday we started on the road to California! No joke, for the first 40 miles we had a wonderful, beautiful, unadulterated, blissful tail wind! It was amazing how we flew down the roads with no trouble at all. Our bodies were going through the motions but didn't have to work hard at all :) we rocked into California just after lunch and suddenly the birds were chirping more, the waves were surfable, there were lovely flowers everywhere, and people were singing as they walked down the road! Ahhhhhh home state :)
We camped outside Crescent City in a redwood forest state park only after being frightened up a decent size climb by the traffic and a complete lack of shoulder! All in all we road 93 miles and did it 1 mile/ hour faster than any other day of our trip! We had a good night and were on the road this morning at our usual 8:22 am.
Today we made it 80+ miles to Eureka, ca and will stay here for the night. We had a fun day of riding through trees, small towns with populations of 60 and awesome ocean views. One scenic route was closed due to mowing, but because we were on bikes they had no problem with us being on it! It was an awesome 10 mile stretch where we were the only 2 people on the road! Giant Redwoods to ride amongst and no cars; it was beautiful!
With the gnarliest side wind ever, we road our bikes leaning hard into the wind into Eureka. We're off to the Lost Coast Brewery for a good time and then to a laundry mat for a better time! Yaay clean clothes!
Sorry for any typos, the iPhone won't let me spell check.
Good idea: when you see a bike tourer honk softly to let them know you are behind them.
Bad idea: blare your horn as you go by to let the cyclist know that they shouldn't move into your lane!
Good idea: if you want to cheer a bike tourer on, drive by them and then give a honk and a wave.
Bad idea: stick your head out the window and make noise while flailing your arms right as you go by the cyclist. (I had this happen and I nearly jumped off my bike into the car with fear!)
Good idea: ask a tourer where he's headed and give him words of encouragment on his epic adventure.
Bad idea: try to high five him while driving! (ok this one didn't happen but it's what Anamaniacs would have done!)
So, yesterday we started on the road to California! No joke, for the first 40 miles we had a wonderful, beautiful, unadulterated, blissful tail wind! It was amazing how we flew down the roads with no trouble at all. Our bodies were going through the motions but didn't have to work hard at all :) we rocked into California just after lunch and suddenly the birds were chirping more, the waves were surfable, there were lovely flowers everywhere, and people were singing as they walked down the road! Ahhhhhh home state :)
We camped outside Crescent City in a redwood forest state park only after being frightened up a decent size climb by the traffic and a complete lack of shoulder! All in all we road 93 miles and did it 1 mile/ hour faster than any other day of our trip! We had a good night and were on the road this morning at our usual 8:22 am.
Today we made it 80+ miles to Eureka, ca and will stay here for the night. We had a fun day of riding through trees, small towns with populations of 60 and awesome ocean views. One scenic route was closed due to mowing, but because we were on bikes they had no problem with us being on it! It was an awesome 10 mile stretch where we were the only 2 people on the road! Giant Redwoods to ride amongst and no cars; it was beautiful!
With the gnarliest side wind ever, we road our bikes leaning hard into the wind into Eureka. We're off to the Lost Coast Brewery for a good time and then to a laundry mat for a better time! Yaay clean clothes!
Sorry for any typos, the iPhone won't let me spell check.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
A mini vacation from our vacation
We are taking a rest day today in the lovely and quaint town of Port Orford and it really does feel like a vacation from our vacation. We slept in, had 2 cups of coffee, watched a Discovery Channel show on sharks and iced! The plan for today is as follows;
1. lunch 2. walk on the beach 3. Watch the new Robin Hood movie at the tiny movie theater 4. eat popcorn that smelled SO GOOD as we rolled passed it yesterday 5. take an ice bath 6. take a nap 7. dinner 8. more sleep!
Off to relax!
-L
1. lunch 2. walk on the beach 3. Watch the new Robin Hood movie at the tiny movie theater 4. eat popcorn that smelled SO GOOD as we rolled passed it yesterday 5. take an ice bath 6. take a nap 7. dinner 8. more sleep!
Off to relax!
-L
Lincoln City to Port Orford
It's been 2 days and we've ridden 181 miles since the last post! The pictures were uploaded in Newport, OR where we stopped to get Scott his new wheel set :) The bike shop was great and even had it's own bike tourer lounge with showers and a washing machine! On the road again we had the flattest day in a long time and spent most of the day along the coast. Georgeous views and lots of wind later we made it to Honeyman State Park where we grabbed a hiker/biker camp site and made camp for the evening! We had lots of friends for the evening, about 7 other cyclist, but we were way too tired after our 80 mile day to say much of anything to anyone! We were plesant ofcourse, our moms taught us much better than that, but nothing more than "hi" and "nice tent".
We were up before anyone else and on the road with the goal of Port Orford. It was tough going in the begining: our bodies were having a hard time getting along with our saddles, Scott's shoulder was super sore from days of sleeping on it wrong, and my achillies was NOT happy to be working again. There was one point about 2 miles in that I was going down a hill just as slow as I had gone up it! I just couldn't go :( A quick stop pulled us back together and we were on the road again (please sing the song if you feel so inclined)! We knew it was going to be a long day so we set milage goals to achieve before we took breaks; at 25, 50, 75 and done. We did a pretty good job of sticking to that and I think it gave us both good focus to keep pushing our 100 mile day.
10 hours on the bike later I had the opportunity to think about the day of riding while Scott fixed his second flat of the day... I'm hear to tell you that like all endurance events whether it be go kart racing, driving, hiking, studying, or in our case, bike riding, focus can be hard to maintain. For us there is always the fear of being blown off the road or rolled over by a logging truck that keeps us alert, but it's hard to stay engaged enough to want to keep going. For me I've worked to pick out the type of vehicle that will be coming up on us next. I'm pretty good at playing this one person game and I can now distinguish the sound of a car, truck, truck with trailer, van, RV, giant truck, and motorcycle :) Scott and I have had fun conversations as well. Yesterday we named our bikes as though they were ships: Scott's is the Perserverience and my is the Merriweather. Scott has also sang lovely songs to me and I think he's working on a blues number which will be released tomorrow.
... back to our day yesterday: yes Scott got 2 rear flats, but they got changed pretty quick with not too much trouble. We crossed a record number of bridges, the most memorible (but not in a good way) was the bridge leading us into North Bend. It was so windy that I got off to walk and still thought that I was going to get blown over! We decided that the sidewalk was the best option despite the large sign that read "sidewalk closed" because there was no room for our bikes and the cars at the same time...It wasn't so bad, they were doing construction at the end so we jumped into the traffic lane and made the cars wait! This scared the sh!# out of me and I did yell in terror at one point, but the wind was too loud for anyone but myself to hear.
We arived in the tiny town of Port Orford at around 6:30 and checked into the Castaway Motel. It's your typical funky motel, but it has great views and is an awesome place to stay for 2 nights. Yes, you guessed it, a rest day!! We went out for dinner at the Crazy Norweigen and had the most amazing fish and chips dinner, cream of green chili soup, salad, as well as homemade pie :) Yaaaay calories! We watched the sun set for the first time on our trip and hit the hay before 10pm making sure to turn the alarms off.
-L
We were up before anyone else and on the road with the goal of Port Orford. It was tough going in the begining: our bodies were having a hard time getting along with our saddles, Scott's shoulder was super sore from days of sleeping on it wrong, and my achillies was NOT happy to be working again. There was one point about 2 miles in that I was going down a hill just as slow as I had gone up it! I just couldn't go :( A quick stop pulled us back together and we were on the road again (please sing the song if you feel so inclined)! We knew it was going to be a long day so we set milage goals to achieve before we took breaks; at 25, 50, 75 and done. We did a pretty good job of sticking to that and I think it gave us both good focus to keep pushing our 100 mile day.
10 hours on the bike later I had the opportunity to think about the day of riding while Scott fixed his second flat of the day... I'm hear to tell you that like all endurance events whether it be go kart racing, driving, hiking, studying, or in our case, bike riding, focus can be hard to maintain. For us there is always the fear of being blown off the road or rolled over by a logging truck that keeps us alert, but it's hard to stay engaged enough to want to keep going. For me I've worked to pick out the type of vehicle that will be coming up on us next. I'm pretty good at playing this one person game and I can now distinguish the sound of a car, truck, truck with trailer, van, RV, giant truck, and motorcycle :) Scott and I have had fun conversations as well. Yesterday we named our bikes as though they were ships: Scott's is the Perserverience and my is the Merriweather. Scott has also sang lovely songs to me and I think he's working on a blues number which will be released tomorrow.
... back to our day yesterday: yes Scott got 2 rear flats, but they got changed pretty quick with not too much trouble. We crossed a record number of bridges, the most memorible (but not in a good way) was the bridge leading us into North Bend. It was so windy that I got off to walk and still thought that I was going to get blown over! We decided that the sidewalk was the best option despite the large sign that read "sidewalk closed" because there was no room for our bikes and the cars at the same time...It wasn't so bad, they were doing construction at the end so we jumped into the traffic lane and made the cars wait! This scared the sh!# out of me and I did yell in terror at one point, but the wind was too loud for anyone but myself to hear.
We arived in the tiny town of Port Orford at around 6:30 and checked into the Castaway Motel. It's your typical funky motel, but it has great views and is an awesome place to stay for 2 nights. Yes, you guessed it, a rest day!! We went out for dinner at the Crazy Norweigen and had the most amazing fish and chips dinner, cream of green chili soup, salad, as well as homemade pie :) Yaaaay calories! We watched the sun set for the first time on our trip and hit the hay before 10pm making sure to turn the alarms off.
-L
Friday, June 11, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Rain sucks but hotels rock
Yes folks that's right we're in another hotel :) No, we only rode 80 miles today but 60 of it was in non stop rain and the only way I could get myself to keep going was to think about a hot tub. We found it too in the greatest hotel EVER (pretty much). If you ever are in Lincoln City, OR do yourself a solid and stay at the Surftides Hotel. www.surftidesinlincolncity.com
For less than the Best Westen down the road, we got an ocean view, hot tub (!!), and a great clean room, WOO HOO! It's so nice to know that tomorrow we can wake up, put on dry clothes, have a dry breakfast and not freeze in the process.
Back up 14 hours to our morning... we did put on wet clothes and pack up our wet tent in the wet rain and eat a wet oatmeal breakfast under an eve that wasn't wet, but was cold! We must have looked as sad as we did last night because a ranger let us into the meeting hall and cranked up the heater as hot as it would go! Oregonians are so cool.
We started back up the hill to the 101 south and were on our way. It was in the first 30 minutes of riding that I was brought to my childhood days of the Oregon Trail computer game. You all know it, I even bet Polly age 12 knows it. I never made it all the way to the end of the game because I spent too much time trying to cross the rivers and I would never know what to do with my sick family members... well today I was the sick family member and we thought about our options... leave her behind, trade her for a few cows, or shoot her and put her out of her misery. Lucky for me Scott didn't want to carry a gun for 1,200 miles! What is my problem you ask? I had no idea until it was too late, but I spent the first 300+ miles with my saddle too high which lead to a super sore Achilles tendon which has lead to an immobile lower left leg from mid calf down. I've gone from descent, fluid pedal strokes to mashing my feet up an down getting most of my power from my hips (many may know this is not good!) Scott lowered my saddle 2X today and I could start to pedal without wanting to throw up in pain, but I still think bartering me for cattle could have been a better choice! I've been icing, massaging and have an ankle wrap for tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes.
Despite the pain we road 80 miles today and we'll have to keep the miles up if we want to get home! The goal is to be in California by sometime on Sunday and I think we can do it... More rain tomorrow, but the rest of the week should be nice :)
The "Really, Did We Just See That" award today goes to... a cow just starting to give birth in a field on the side of the road! Really!? Just one pair of legs had started to emerge as we road by... wow.
On that note, I'm out!
For less than the Best Westen down the road, we got an ocean view, hot tub (!!), and a great clean room, WOO HOO! It's so nice to know that tomorrow we can wake up, put on dry clothes, have a dry breakfast and not freeze in the process.
Back up 14 hours to our morning... we did put on wet clothes and pack up our wet tent in the wet rain and eat a wet oatmeal breakfast under an eve that wasn't wet, but was cold! We must have looked as sad as we did last night because a ranger let us into the meeting hall and cranked up the heater as hot as it would go! Oregonians are so cool.
We started back up the hill to the 101 south and were on our way. It was in the first 30 minutes of riding that I was brought to my childhood days of the Oregon Trail computer game. You all know it, I even bet Polly age 12 knows it. I never made it all the way to the end of the game because I spent too much time trying to cross the rivers and I would never know what to do with my sick family members... well today I was the sick family member and we thought about our options... leave her behind, trade her for a few cows, or shoot her and put her out of her misery. Lucky for me Scott didn't want to carry a gun for 1,200 miles! What is my problem you ask? I had no idea until it was too late, but I spent the first 300+ miles with my saddle too high which lead to a super sore Achilles tendon which has lead to an immobile lower left leg from mid calf down. I've gone from descent, fluid pedal strokes to mashing my feet up an down getting most of my power from my hips (many may know this is not good!) Scott lowered my saddle 2X today and I could start to pedal without wanting to throw up in pain, but I still think bartering me for cattle could have been a better choice! I've been icing, massaging and have an ankle wrap for tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes.
Despite the pain we road 80 miles today and we'll have to keep the miles up if we want to get home! The goal is to be in California by sometime on Sunday and I think we can do it... More rain tomorrow, but the rest of the week should be nice :)
The "Really, Did We Just See That" award today goes to... a cow just starting to give birth in a field on the side of the road! Really!? Just one pair of legs had started to emerge as we road by... wow.
On that note, I'm out!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Cold wet rainy
Today was, well, cold, wet and rainy. We only road 45 miles, but couldn't shiver our way through any more. Oregon State campgrounds have free, VERY hit showers and Scott and I both hung out in one (separately moms) until we could feel out feet again. I think I was in there for about 15 minutes and didn't feel too bad about it due to all the rain!
When we got to camp there were a few old guys on 3 different BBQs grilling up ribs. We chatted for a bit and when we came back form the showers I think we looked pitiful enough that they invited us to join them and their group... Rad! We had a great meal of smoked ribs, slaw, potatoes, green beans, as well as birthday cake and ice cream! To thunk that we were going to have freeze dried Masala and we ended with BBQ! Needless to say good food and good company in a warm and dry room changed out spirits for the much better.
We're back on track tomorrow with a 90 mile day planned as well as the Tillamook Cheese factory as a quick stop! Did you know they make ice cream?!
Keep your fingers crossed out clothes dry for tomorrow's ride...
When we got to camp there were a few old guys on 3 different BBQs grilling up ribs. We chatted for a bit and when we came back form the showers I think we looked pitiful enough that they invited us to join them and their group... Rad! We had a great meal of smoked ribs, slaw, potatoes, green beans, as well as birthday cake and ice cream! To thunk that we were going to have freeze dried Masala and we ended with BBQ! Needless to say good food and good company in a warm and dry room changed out spirits for the much better.
We're back on track tomorrow with a 90 mile day planned as well as the Tillamook Cheese factory as a quick stop! Did you know they make ice cream?!
Keep your fingers crossed out clothes dry for tomorrow's ride...
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