January 26, 2012
Florence, Oregon: Riding at Last
We cruised in heavy rain over to the coast from Eugene, following Highway 126, through Mapleton. Signs warned of water on the road, but we didn't see it. Later we heard that there was severe flooding at Mapleton town, but all is well at Florence. We slept at Honeyman State Park, near Florence.
This is a section of the coast with extensive sand dunes, and activities likes sand boarding and dune buggying. We got on the bikes and cycled North for a couple of hours, then back again. This model obviously doesn't get you anywhere, but your muscles, bottom, gear that you are trying out, etc. does not actually care where you got to.
This is not to say that we didn't reach "anything". We very significantly reached the Shed Bakery in downtown Florence. We subtitled our blog "Powered By Pastries" and we are likely to stop at most bakeries. Only thing, maybe we need to show a little restraint when we get there.
The Shed is operated by Becca, a very welcoming person and good baker. Oh well, maybe we will be saving that restraint for the next bakery. Becca had baguette coming hot from the oven, and really yummy muffins and coffee cakes. Our first baguette of our (sort of) European tour!
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In case anyone is getting confused about how this is a blog about a European tour, or even a bike tour, what is going on is that we are doing some day long training runs and gear testing as we move in our van down the Oregon/California coast. We will not actually head over to Europe until May 20, but no doubt will still have lots to say before then!
The town of Florence also gave a preview of hoped for townie joys to come: wafts of wood smoke, aroma of fish and chips, garlic, coffee. The sea side environment here seems to spawn that kind of thing, together with wooden shake sided houses, and for some reason quilt shops and flag/banner shops.
Actually, maybe the quilts and banners make sense. It's chilly here, with the moist sea breeze. The breeze itself activates the banners, and as we already knew, hinders cyclists heading from the South. The same strong breeze makes a sculpture of the numerous wood stove smoke stacks, which all have rotating wind guards of a distinctive style.
The beach and ocean of the Oregon Coast, of course, is always impressive. Today it was no less so. The breakers look really wild, and with the breeze we soon pedalled home to our van and so were able to take shelter in this McDonalds - where in the conditions even their version of hot chocolate tastes good!
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