Tour de West Coast - Lincoln City to Coos Bay

Well, it's either my phone, YouTube, the internet, or the universe, but something is just not letting me upload my videos from Lincoln City to Coos Bay. So, here is a synopsis of those days and some pictures! My apologies for misspellings or nonsensical sentences, I'm typing this on my phone.

--Had a great ride after I left Manzanita. Stopped in Tillamook to check out the cheese factory. Huuuuuge blocks of cheese going along the conveyer belt to be cut into smaller blocks and wrapped. So much cheese! I of course had my fair share of cheese samples. Continued to be a lovely ride, overcast most of the day and didn't rain until towards the end. I got three flats that day, plus one from the day before, so had gone through all my spare tubes and needed to patch. Btw, all the flats were in the rear, so I had to unload the trailer, unhook it, change the flat, hook it back up and reload it. So it takes like half an hour.So 3 in one day means an hour and a half of ride time- and daylight- wasted. Well, I was on the side of the road outside Lincoln City trying to patch a tube in the rain as its getting dark. A good samaitan, Dee, stopped to see if he could help. He is a cyclist, too, and knew the futility of putting a patch on a wet tube. He drove me to the camp site where I got a yurt- no sooner had he driven off than the rain turned into a full downpour. He certainly saved my evening! I was able to patch my tubes in a cozy dry yurt while it poured outside.

--- The next day, I don't remember where my goal was, but I didn't make it. The wind was insane! Pedaling hard on the downhills and barely getting 10mph was very frustrating, besides the sleet in my face. Found out later there was a gale warning on, so I don't feel as badly for wussing out. A very nice couple, who assumed I was miserable (dead on) pulled over and invited me to their home. Tricia and George let me stay in their gorgeous house with an amazing view over the ocean, where I watched the wind push the waves around instead of me! Turns out they were big into cycling, too. In the seventies, out of colleg, they loaded up their ten speed steel bikes and and travelled all over the Eastern United States. They've done lots of biking and traveling since then and wound up in Depoe Bay on the Oregon Coast because they loved it there. I took a shower, did my laundry, we went out for awesome pizza, had wine and told stories, then I slept like a log. In the morning they gave me coffee and breakfast and sent me off with lots of snacks.

-- My ride to Florence was great- overcast again, but the sun was coming through a bit. Stopped in at Bike Newport- GREAT shop, highly recommend!!! They cater to tourers, have showers and places to charge your stuff up, lots of gear, besides the guy who helped me was way helpful! I broke the mount for my brightest taillight, and he hooked me up with a new one despite it being an extra inconvenience to deal with warrantee stuff. Really liked the shop, reminded me of WB- felt like home! Kept on trucking and Camped just south of Florence in a hike rates/biker site that was totally isolated from the rest of the campground. So I was out in the woods, listening to the wind in the trees, far from any other campers or cars. Whoever was there before me left a couple microbrews, so I enjoyed some satisfying beer whike taking in nature and peaceful solitude.

-- A hilly but fun ride the next day to Coos Bay. Saw some dunes and lots of woods. Was overcast until evening, when it started raining buckets. I was cold and wet and exhausted- but Mike and Pete from Woodinville Bicycle kindly put me up in a hotel, where I thawed out and dried my clothes. A good restful night of sleep!

Shown are some photos from those days. I'm not sure if you'll be able to see them,

but one of the photos is a bunch of sea lions (which I found because I could hear them barking)

and another has a lighthouse. Best as I could get with my phone camera.