December 22, 2012
Florence to North Bend, Oregon
We set out this morning in the rain. By rain I mean a sort of sane rain, just normally heavy and with a manageable amount of wind. At least that's how it was at first. Through the day we got everything - heavy rain, heavy wind, no wind, no rain, blasting hail, and even some sunshine (maybe five minutes worth). Except for the slight exceptions, there was something coming from the sky at all times.
Unfortunately, all the precipitation made it almost impossible to take photos. Not only does the camera prefer not to be wet, but if you get your hands wet it gets hard to put them back into the gloves.
Our route today mainly passed by or through the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. The dunes often form a large wall or barrier back from the beach. Our road, in turn, runs behind the wall. We did not detour into any of the many camping or day use areas in the dunes, so mainly we just saw their inland side.
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Passing the dunes, I mused on whatever became of what we called Dune Buggies in the old days. Silly, of course they are still here, only they are called ATVs or maybe Quads. You can rent them at a number of places. Usually you can also get your "sandboard" as well. I assume these are for sliding down the dunes, but we did not see this in action. It's pouring here, remember. Wet sand is probably not very slidy.
Earlier in the blog I wrote that an objective of the trip was to observe the coast during the calm, quiet, and subdued Winter season. While truly we have seen some inspiring Winter scenes, the calm and quiet has usually been overwhelmed by raging storms, roaring semi trailers and heavy traffic, and wondering how we are actually going to make it through the area. Still, within this, there is still a lot of calm and inspiration lurking. Look at these waters, near Tahkenitch Lake.
By the time we reached Reedsport, our gloves were soaked and hands really cold. Here is where McDonalds shines. We were able to warm up, change gloves, and drink our soup. To be fair, we did buy a couple of food items from them as well.
We left in fairly wild wind and rain, earning expressions of awe, or maybe dismay, from various people who had been our neighbours at the tables. The road to North Bend felt quite long and lonely in the rain, but with the cars blasting by. The people in the speeding cars are very isolated from us, though there is an occasional toot, which we hope shows support or encouragement.
One part of the traffic that we got to know too well was the giant bus like RV, always towing a Jeep. On the road today was a lot more of these than we have seen before. We think these generally originate in California, and perhaps they are migrating home to breed. Anyway they seem to like riding the white line, the aged driver with his foot to the floor, blasting up the hills. The wobbly cyclists on the same hill and narrow shoulder tends to notice this!
We stopped at the first place in North Bend, just before the scary bridge over Coos Bay. We got given a double room, which meant two beds, each in a room. So now the bikes have their own room (and bed if they want it), and are slowly dripping dry.
Since there is nothing around the motel (save a great view of the Bay) we used Google Maps to locate a pizza place. I inadvertently typed "Piza" and got a map of Pisa, Italy. Then when I corrected this to "Pizza", I got a list of pizza places in Pisa. They looked great! Unfortunately I had to correct all errors, and so in the end got a pizza with what seemed like a baking soda based crust. I would say yuuch, except that after a day cycling in the rain, everything tastes great!
Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 824 km (512 miles)
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