December 20, 2012
Yachats, Oregon: Our Age of Aquarius - it's watery but not the end of the world.
The TV is full of specials about the Apocalypse, coming tomorrow, which is variously cited as the end of time on the Mayan calendar or the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, based on the Zodiac. Hmmm.
The forecast had promised an end to the storm during the night, but when we looked outside at 6 a.m. it was still going strong. The wind had dropped just a bit,but the heavy rain continued. It was still mad dash just to get across the parking lot sort of stuff.
So this forced us to do some quick thinking. The first bit was a no brainer - there was no way we could head out on the highway today, again! The second bit was to assess whether we should be carrying on, at all. And if not, how do we actually get out of here?
If we were not carrying on and assuming we could get out of here, where were we going? Home? San Francisco then cycle South? San Diego then cycle North?
What we came up with was only an interim answer. Rain had delayed us and would likely do it again. Could we make up the lost time, could we improve our speed? So it came that we decided to dump our camping gear, and by losing weight hopefully pick up speed. Besides, the weather did not seem to want us to camp out anyway.
This is what you call the "Russian Sleigh Ride": The wolves are chasing you as you rush along in your sleigh. To go faster, you throw stuff overboard. Of course, when you end up throwing your cariboo robe, you will freeze to death even if the wolves don't get you!
In our case, even throwing stuff overboard would not be that easy. We would need a big box and a call to the post office showed that they did not have one. A call to the grocery store nailed down a box, but in the pouring rain how to move boxes variously from store to motel to post office, or some variant of that?
Help came in the form of the motel owner, Dennis Lambert. The Ya'Tel Motel is a small independent, whose brochure has the slogan "Our personal touches make difference". This was certainly the case for us, as Dennis drove over to the store, collected a box for us, then ferried us to the post office. At the same time, he hauled out his packing tape and marking pen for us.
Shortly after that, the weather gave us a break with a window of sunshine. We used it to check out the small hardware store and used book store near the post office. Everyone was glad to see the sun, and I asked the lady in the hardware how many days of window there might be before the next storm. Her reply was "chilling" - zero days. "Well c'mon now", I said " if you really had to guess, what would it be?" so she explained that the weather went in slices as you looked up and down the coast - hail here, rain there, sun there, and that the pattern could change instantly. " Oh".
The sun actually did hold up, at least long enough for a look at the surf, and at some of the buildings around.
So what is the plan, actually? First, there absolutely is not allowed to be a storm tomorrow. If the world (or our world) wants to come to an end with a Mayan style Apocalyse, it will have to do it without a storm! Then we will try scooting over Heceta Head and into or beyond Florence. We will keep looking at the weather, and when we reach Coos Bay, we will either get on a bus to Smith River and Eureka, and then to San Diego (thanks for the Guestbook tip on that, Robert Whitford), or we will just continue South by bike.
Going to San Diego and heading North has the advantage of going in the correct direction as far as winds are concerned. Everyone here is amazed that we are now going the "wrong" way. They have seen many Crazyguys on bikes here, they seem to imply, but seldom any this dumb
By the way, this is still fun and an adventure. We are clearly too dumb to find it otherwise!
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