More pics

Scott is still working so I'll post a few more :)

1. a shout out to the Robertson Clan- others associate bacon and Christmas :)
2. Welcome to Oregon
3. Lauren's best Washington face
4. Mom and Nancy for a Port Ludlow beer stop!

OK it's noon and we're finally leaving... hope we can get 60 miles in today.

Bikes and Beyond goes way above and beyond!

We're hanging out at Bikes and Beyond in Astoria and they are super helpful. they have somewhere for us to leave our bikes, Scott is reliving his days as a bike mechanic and having a grand time with the other mechanics as he trues his wheel with new spokes and I'm hanging out on their computer uploading a few pics :)

1. waiting for the ferry yesterday
2. (left to right) riding DOWN a hill on day 2
3. Our awesome camp on day 1
4. A stop for beer before the Hood Canal Bridge ala Mom and Nancy
5. Big smiles before the adventure begins!

** A quick note on the Totally Tubular Jerseys- they rock! Not only are they sporty and fashionable, but we are riding faster in them, people throw flowers at our front wheels as they drive by, we always smell good wearing them, and someone shook Scott's hand to thank him for looking so handsome on his bicycle! Ok, not really, but I did roll around on the ground stretching yesterday and it stayed perfectly clean :)

Holy Toledo to Astoria, OR

Yesterday we were up and out 10 minutes earlier than the day before... Nice teamwork got us moving quick :) We road through Toledo and made our best holy faces to complete the phrase. Yea, we know it came from a different Toledo, but it made me happy!

From there it was more big hills and one very long climb with a ripping descent into a tiny place who's nane we can't remeber but had a population of 36! 20 minutes, a great snack and a well deserved leg rest later we set out to make it to Oregon, aka the Oregano State. (we later found out that the state moto is "she flies with her own wings" but we think that's lame so we're sticking with Oregano.)

A quick jaunt through a town we could only remember as Cat Helmet and a ride over a gnarley bridge to Puget Island we were as close as we could get to our next state with out a ferry. The ferry took us the rest of the way over the Columbia River and there we were on Oregon!

30 miles later and we were checking into the Norblad Hostel... Don't be fooled by the marble entry, this place is funky! It was the first hotel built in Astoria 80 years ago and I'm not sure they've done any remodeling since then. Despite the apperance and strange odor it was the nicest place $40 could buy! There were pillows AND a hot shower and a crazy neighbour named Marvin to boot.

We went out to the Fort George Brewery for a rocking dinner and awesome beer (maybe you could tell from the last post that we each had a few) :) The rest of the evening consisted of saltwater taffy and the season finale of Glee and then sleep!!

Today we are hanging in Astoria waiting for the Fes Ex truck to arrive with new spokes from Easton (thanks Jen and Adam) so we can get back on the road. We are both pretty anxious to get going as we would have already ridden 25 miles by this point, but it is nice to relax in clothes that don't invlove a chamois! It was raining and is souposed to continue through tomorrow, but it's stopped for now and we have fingers crossed that the sun will find us!

If the truck isn't here soon I'll head over to the library and post some good pics!

-L

More about today tomorrow

Scott broke another spoke today, but more are on on their way to Astoria, WA (ya, we're in Oregon). So, we'll be waiting for them and we'll have time to blog... Right now it's time to sleep after an awesome meal and great beer at Fort George Brewery! (it's a boring picture I know)

Big miles to Lewis and Clark State Park

Yesterday was a big miles, big hills, big wind, and a not so big highway with BIG trucks! We road 101 miles and it took all day! We rolled out of camp at 8:20 and keept a good pace into Shelton despite the big hills. We keept trucking through and made it outside of Elma before stopping for a well deserved bottle of chocolate milk and an apple :) Onward to Oakville where we stopped at a little coffee shack and had our lunch and chatted up the shack girl who was amazed that we had been in Seattle 2 days before. Bellies full and we set out on our highway section where we had lots of friends... Trucks being those friends, but for the most part they were pretty nice. Mist would move out of the way and some would even wave... Wow! They don't do that in California. The highway took us into Centralia which I swore was Critronella. Out of town and into more hills which FINALLY brought us to our state park and some other bike tourers who we hung out with for the evening. It was lights out by 9 and Scott and I couldn't have been more proud of our day!

On a side note I was chased by 2 different sets of dogs yesterday; we saw deer, bunnies, orange chested birds, snakes, slugs, cows, goats and horses; Scott broke a spoke on his rear wheel, and I paid $1 for and ice cold shower which reduced me to tears! (I got over it with the help of beer).

The slug

GeoTagged, [N47.45275, E122.82521]

Please excuse the experimental photo uploading

Port Ludlow to Towana State Park

Day one pedaling was a great one. We left early with a full belly thanks To my Grandma Joyce and Uncle Tim, and a wonderful send off from Family and friends! Mom and Nancy even drove out to the edge of Port Ludlow to give us a beer and one last cheer!

Of course since it was our first day it had to rain, which it did for most of the day, but it really wasn't that bad. The light rain continued for most of our riding time, but let up shortly after we stopped for lunch :) A nice lady outside the grocery store thought we were pretty crazy and gave us a bananna for some extra courage along the way... Potassium maybe, but courage maybe not.

We had a short stint of going in the wrong direction in Bremerton, but a few of my high school friends would agree that the home on MXPX is a great place to be lost in! Yes, I was singing in my head for most of Bremerton... Maybe that's why we were so lost!

We had about 12 miles after lunch and now are settled at a great State campground in an awesome tent site nestled in trees with a babbling stream as our only noise! Best $14 spent all month! It was a short first day today of 60 miles, but we figure it will be best to ease our legs in and build up to the big miles we need to acomplish to get back to Santa Cruz! My brother Schuyler has been convinced to pick us up in a few weeks if we are in a pintch :) thanks Sky!

Tomorrow is a bigger milage day, closer to 85, and we'll see how the legs take it!

On a final note, I'm sorry about the lame picture in the last post. The I phone app that I got claims you can include pictures from the phone, but what I uploaded and what you see are very different! So in an effort to experiment I've taken a picture of this slug to see what happens when the picture is already on the phone, then uploaded. If it too sucks we'll upload pics on facebook.
- Lauren