August 12, 2022
Day 112, to Grand Ronde: Wine not?
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Friday stats
Start: Hotel Corvallis, Corvallis, Ore.
End: Wandering Spirit RV Park, Grand Ronde, Ore. Elevation: 334.
The Daily Progress: 51.9 miles
Uphill (duh, Chris ... why did it take you so long to come up with this shorthand for "cumulative climb"?): 1856 feet
Downhill: 1823
Ice cream and beer: NA
Wine flavors: A flight including a Pinot Blanc, a Pinot Gris, a "mermosa bubbles," a red blend and a marechal foch, which I don't think I've ever had before but did not like very much.
Lodging expenses: $18
Food expenses: $25 for brunch?, $42 for wine and charcuterie, $13 at a gas station, $8 for cherries
Friday feeling
After today's ride, which covered a normal distance of about 50 miles, we have only about 140 miles to go to reach the end of the TransAm in Astoria, but we have a week to get there. That means ... This bike tour is officially shifting into full-on "bike vacation" mode. I think we're now actively seeking out reasons to stop along the way and go shorter distances each day.
So when Dani suggested today that we stop at a vineyard 14 miles before the destination we were aiming for, I figured why not? I would normally not want to have much wine at all if we were planning to ride much afterward, but the weather has gotten surprisingly cooler (it feels like the start of fall, which is awesome and probably short-lived). And honestly, if we had to stop riding shortly after the vineyard and not go as far as we planned today, it would not have mattered. We have plenty of time.
Tomorrow we should reach the Pacific Ocean, completing the one clear objective that I had when I first started putting together ideas for this tour in 2020. There will be plenty more to do after reaching the ocean — continuing to ride up the coast toward Fort Stevens and Astoria, turning inland toward Portland, and finally boarding a train to back to the East Coast — so the adventure is far from over, but I guess this means, by this time tomorrow, I will have done it. I will have crossed America. (Ah, the future perfect tense. Don't we love it?)
I have been thinking a lot in the past few days about what I want to prioritize when I return to normal life in D.C., but as I write this, I realize I need to focus on these last few days in front of me — on each day as I'm living it, on each mile as I'm riding it. What a gift it all is. I've been through so many parts of this country and seen so many natural wonders and experienced the kindness of so many people and so many communities — and there are still many more to see in this last week. It is a strange feeling for me. I've never been days ahead of schedule. I will fight my instinct to just keep pedaling, and instead try to stop myself often and smell the flowers, watch the birds and read all the signs (I missed a sign today, but luckily, Dani took a photo of it). Let's see what's in store.
Dani's daily digest
Today's ride was a mix of bucolic back roads and busy highways (though usually with decent shoulders). It was also a mix of up and down. The weather hovered right on the cusp of cool and warm.
We took two big breaks. The first was at a coffee shop in Monmouth called The Sippery. We each got a latte and the veggie bagel, which was a darn good sandwich (a toasted bagel with hummus, arugula, cucumber, pickled red pepper, and roasted red pepper) and a steal at $4.25.
Our second break was at the Chateau Bianca winery. Here we split a flight of wine tastings, and then a glass of their red blend (my favorite from the flight) and a charcuterie board on their very Instagrammable patio overlooking the vineyard. We should have taken a photo of the wine list so we could remember what we had.
Today we are staying in Grand Ronde, which is adjacent to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation. We passed a historical marker on the highway that summarizes a sad and all-too-familiar tale of the US's mistreatment of indigenous people.
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We arrived at the RV park with plenty of time to do laundry (for real, in a machine), fix Chris's bike (Blue's front shifting cable was fraying), and relocate our camp (to allow some folks to build a Friday night fire in the hiker/biker camping area's fire pit) in addition to the usual camp chores.
Tomorrow is a big day. If all goes according to plan, we should reach the Pacific!
The interpretive sign: The Grand Ronde Indian Reservation
Here is the text of the interpretive sign mentioned above:
Indians inhabited Oregon's inland valleys for thousands of years before Euro-Americans began to arrive in the late 18th Century. In the early 1780s and again in the 1830s, diseases spread by seafarers and fur trappers swept through Oregon's valleys killing most of the native population. The opening of the Oregon Trail in the 1840s increased pressure to remove the remaining Indians from their homelands.
In 1856 the U.S. Government created the Grand Ronde Reservation, and in the winter of 1857, federal troops forced the native people to leave their aboriginal lands and march to the reservation.
The Grand Ronde reservation, originally 70,000 acres, was later divided into individual parcels for the Indians, and "surplus" land was sold to non-Indians. In 1954, the Grand Ronde Tribe was "terminated," and all but 7 1/2 acres of the Tribe's land was sold. Termination meant the U.S. Government no longer recognized the Tribe or its people as Indians.
In 1983, after a prolonged and dedicated effort by tribal members and their supporters, the U.S. Government restored the Tribe to federal recognition. In 1988, Congress re-established a 9,811 acre reservation in the mountains north of Grand Ronde. The Tribe has since acquired additional land, built a community center, and developed education, health care, and other programs for tribal members. The Tribe has also embarked upon an ambitious economic development program as part of its plan to achieve self-sufficiency.
Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 4,250 miles (6,840 km)
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