Ride on, Highway Cat !!: SURLY, SURLY EVERYWHERE !!

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Day 1, Corvallis OR - Lincoln City OR
Dist. 126 km. Avg.18.8 km/hr, Saddle 6:49, Avg. Heart Rate 123 bpm., 4163 calories
July 16, 2012.
My first day without the Marshall Clan. I hope that they have a safe enjoyable drive back to North Vancouver. I however, will ride to the Oregon Coast and follow the 101 along the coast, then inland a bit as I pick up Port Angeles, then Victoria, Vancouver Island and finish in North Vancouver BC. A slightly shorter trip than last years Victoria BC to St John's NL, but a "must do" nonetheless.
After leaving "Towne House Motor Inn", I headed through the town of Philometh which was where we saw the parade 2 days earlier. I turned west on route # 20 and enjoyed a pretty decent road for an hour or so. Lucky for me, the weather was great, because the road conditions changed drastically, and not in a good way. I lost any hint of a shoulder, in fact, there was a ditch cut on the right edge of the white line. Also, occasionally, there were tree limbs littering the side of the road. To make things worse, traffic picked up and much of this traffic consisted of trucks. Despite passing a sign depicting a Bicycle sharing the road with cars, a motorist in a pickup truck travelling the opposite direction screamed "IDIOT" as he passed me in the other lane. I'm not feeling too welcome here in "Bike friendly Oregon"
I was getting tired as the stress accumulated. FINALLY I came to a spot where I could stop and take a break. (several hours later) Up until this point, I had no place to stop or simply relax for a moment or two, it has been steady stress for a few hours. I finally arrived at the coast highway in Newport. I rode into a Starbucks and had a nice break, Christ that was a hellish ride for sure, one of my worse to date, white knuckle indeed.
After my Dark Grande with a drop of half cream and some banana loaf, I was good to go.
FELT AWESOME to be off that hellish road and onto the 101 ! I pedalled on to Lincoln City, where I dialled in a bike friendly camp called "Devil's Lake" There were 2 areas for bikes. A small treed field near the entrance and a small field above that was accessible by a steep trail. I set up in a corner where a fence was available for me to hang some clothes. At $6.00, this is fantastic. BC has so much to learn from Oregon. The group site filled up with all kinds of cyclists. There was a retired couple with "Surly" bikes like my Shirley. They were pulling BOB trailers and were headed to Mexico from Vancouver. Very interesting couple. Another couple that set up beside me were in there late 20's or early 30's and were doing the same ride. They have been "leapfrogging" with the older couple since Vancouver. They were riding Surlys too, interesting. Surly is a brand name that is popular with bicycle touring.
It was cool to hear stories from these riders as well as a world traveller thats bin riding for a few years.
So much to learn.... HWC was dumbfounded by the whole day.