BEE IN

DAY 2, Lincoln City-Manzanita, OR
Dist. 123 km., 18.4 km/hr., 57km/hr max., Saddle 6:25, Hr., 116 avg., 3581 cal.
07 17 2012,
More overcast and cool temperatures, apparently that's normal here. We found our first great views of the coast today. Stuck primarily to the 101 until Pacific City where I picked up a scenic route through Sandlake and Cape Lookout. Tons of big climbs reminds me of Ontario a bit. Found myself in a head-on collision with a bee. He hit me right between the eyes. It was an epic hit, but splatter free mind you. During the hit, I'm sad to say that a stinger was used to it's full value. Holy crap that hurt. The nagging pain stuck with me for the rest of my ride.
Was going to visit "Netarts", but diverted off the scenic drive @ #131. then back on 101 to Manzanita.
I guess that I was sweating more than I thought. Got some nasty diaper rash. Owww. Sorry, too much information eh?. I was really looking forward to stopping in Nehalem, but there was nothing available. Arrgghh. Found a crappy motel in touristy Manzanita. Expensive, but cool sea-side small town.
The owner was an older heavy man with a limp. The motel office was filled with all sorts of old pictures, doo dads and older items that one might find at a thrift store perhaps. There was a wall of old VCR tapes available for borrowing. For some reason, he asked if I like beer. Told me about the local pub. Somehow, I think that he would have been disappointed if I (Sean, a Scot/Irishman) said no, I don't like beer. Nice 'OL man.
I thought for a moment that the room may come with free beer. Ha ha, sigh...  

Colliding with a bee was not helping my journey. Damn painful. I was going to include pics of the swelling that grew, but it was too sketchy.

Nice roads here. Lots of climbing, reminds me of some Ontario hills. 

Pee break with the chicks. (there was a porta-pottie available for me, not the chicks)

Sand and rock. Very cool spot. There was a coffee shop and other shops across the highway. 

Warning board. ("Signs,signs, everywhere signs...) Sand everywhere too. HWC didn't like it in her fuzz.

"Head out on the Highway... looking for adventure..." Steppenwolf

Lunch break in sand dune ville. The sand extended for as far as the eye can see. (the eye without sand in it of coarse)

Lots of Tsunami warning signage along the 101

Ya. This will do. Hope momma's got a room. Highwaycat would prefer someplace with a stronger Egyptian cat themed community. 

San Dune Inn, Manzanita OR

I got a strange version of a clubhouse sandwich and a very "Heady" local brew which was a challenge to get down. Was cool to see, hear and smell the local and tourist vibe anyway.

Looking back at the small tourist town of Manizanita from the massive beach

I was standing on a 21 square mile sheet of glass. Notice how my coffee waited patiently

while the nice fellow tourist took my picture.

7 miles of huge beach here, reminds me of the Vancouver Island West Coast near Tofino, sigh....

 Beach rules... What about walking with I Phones ?

Some creative wall treatment within the community. Nice

More casual riding brought me to this fine abode.

Is the Hobbit home ?

A fine ride indeed
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SURLY, SURLY EVERYWHERE !!

Reset :
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.

Quality facility

HWC was excited to wear some memorabilia.

Newport 46 miles (74km) and my next break...

Log book sketch of route #20 experience. Taking pictures was not an option.

We are loving this highway

Shirley sporting the goofy "licence Plate" from "Cycling Oregon"

AAARRR. Back in Newfoundland !! ..."I smell the Atlantic". Nope, Pacific .

Tourism

more tourism

Awesome !

A standard campground past that small building. I turn left up to my Bike Site.

My tent is the small light green one. This site will fill in later...

The Ride ...
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4lb. Hammer

Sunday July 15, 2012
Ride # 2 with the gang. 
Weather was great again, but the peloton looked angry and might be out for blood ! We decided on doing the medium ride (60 km or so) which would allow lots of time to pack up and organize our separate agendas on the apre's side.
No parades to gawk at, so we pulled out a couple 4 lb. hammers for an epic ride through farm roads, secondary arteries and the occasional Highway crossing. Thomas pulled out the Sponge Bob Square Pants music chip embedded birthday card that I gave him yesterday) For the 32000 time, ha ha.
Forty Foot Billy was hammering Barbie like a man possessed! (wait, that doesn't sound good. oh well) The Peloton was 4:30 ahead but after the last time check, it looks as though the gap was crumbling. Thomster-Monster was adding fire to the furnace by staying low, and if you zoom in, it looks as though a smile is finishing the construction of a face... a face of... EVIL.  
With his "Suitcase of Courage" torn open and empty as the hearts of those demon riders ahead, Billy surged yet again to grap hold of the Peloton's coat tails or perhaps more appropriately, Demon Tails.
That's the last we saw of the Demon Riders. Billy farted a level 9.6 Flatuloid (rare) which bounced off me as I was following up his rear (serves me right) The shockwave then created an updraft effectively pushing the Demon Peloton ahead. They slipped away from Billy's slight grasp and we continued on like soldiers without artillery. We kept the 4 lb hammers because we are proud riders and would never bail in the face of defeat. Or perhaps it's because we need to burn off that huge bacon, sausage, egg laden breakfast of monsters that we woofed down earlier.
It was a great ride and Thomas seemed to be OK with his surroundings. Other riders were expressing their thoughts with waves of approval or amazement as we motored past. Damn kids get all the attention. After the ride, we packed up and and said our good byes. Forty Foot Billy, Thomster Monster and Barbie shuffled back into the caravan for the drive back to North Vancouver. I decided to get a motel in town. This would serve as my starting point for my journey to the coast and back to North Vancouver next morning.
All in all, it was a good outing with my friend Kerry and his almost 3 year old son Thomas. Perhaps, however, too much driving and more sightseeing would be in order next time. (time permitting of coarse)
And if you wondering where Highwaycat was in all this, lets just say that she played it safe this weekend and was saving her energy for the Coast. She is looking forward to the Pacific and all that it has to offer. Farm roads are so last decade...

Billy Forty Foot and Thomster Monster close in on the Peloton Demon Riders. Note his skull geometry suggesting acknowledgement of my photographic strategy...

The Demon Riders win today. But the "Suitcase of Courage" (Phil Liggett) is now restocked for another day. Phil L. is a world renowned cyclist and announcer for The Tour De France

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GIz0Cl8zEU

Lunch break at an old mill... We spent time here as it is a museum too. Thomster enjoyed crushing grain products.

Lunch break live music. This was good for all. Chickens as well.(not shown)

Billy hammers home

The team splits after a final pic, compliments of a stranger's car hood

Was a fine weekend, safe drive Marshalls !

Philomath Parade Ride

Our 1st group ride...
Sat July 14, 2012
Late morning start. No problemo as this is not a race. We stopped in Philomath to watch the parade. For me, 15 minutes is tolerable, but 2 hours is a death sentence by suicide.  Anyway, we eventually motored on.
The ride was through country roads of Oregon. Nothing complicated or difficult. It was a lovely outing for "Sunday Cyclists" but certainly not my cup of tea.

Morning Sunshine !

A better look at our setup...

40 Foot Billy and Thomster out on the highway...

Billy off the highway

Back at camp

Cycle Oregon Weekend 2012

Day 2, Drive from Kelso to Corvallis OR.
Friday July 13, 2012 :
The Dodge Caravan performed great on route to Corvallis OR. from North Vancouver BC. Weather and road conditions were also great. I did all the driving, as Kerry is a born navigator (hmmmm), also, his time was freed up to aid Thomster Monster when aid was needed. Thomster, by the way is the 3 yr old (officially in a few days) boy created by Kerry and his wife Karen. (his real name is Thomas). Thomster Monster did quite well during the longish drive. We stopped a couple times to let him run around and raise hell. And Hell was indeed raised.
We arrived in Covallis OR around 4 pm and got set up at the University site. There were two large open fields with room for around 2000 participants (don't quote me on that #). We threw our tents down near the slew of porta-potties. Within waking distance was a field set up with a band stand to listen to live music and tents for massage, bike products and also a beer tent. We sat for music that night. Thomas enjoyed the company of others more than the band. Kerry played policeman while I vegged peacefully. The weather was perfect for live music, too bad that the band sucked. Content was good, but execution was not.
Organizers and others alike got up to speak about the history of the Cycle Oregon infused with arguably humorous stories. zzzzzz...
All meals are included in the package, unfortunately, beer is not.

Sun is overexposing the shot. Anyway, my tent is the small green one at the right, Kerry 40 Foot's tent is the blue one to my left. This area will fill with tents later.

Thomster Monster with his fav toy. A Tonka Truck. Not exactly as depicted.

Caravan Man

Day 1, North Vancouver BC to Kelso OR
Thursday July 12 2012
Me, HIGHWAYCAT  and Shirley decided that it was time to broaden our horizons and share some  experiences with other living beings...
The living beings that I speak of are :
Forty Foot Billy, Thomster the Monster, Tonka Too Much, and Broadie Barbie.
In a fine rental Dodge Caravan, we headed south into the land beyond THE GREAT LINE. Once passports were put away, we were free to roll along the I - 5 as joyfully as we desired.
We stopped for a boo at a Craft Fair in the Portland  OR. area. A great spot to stretch our legs, see the sights, barf, find snacks and mingle with our southern counterparts.
After some behaviour modificational asserting, we were back on the road. (Car seat physics)
Town of choice to bail on was a groovey village called Kelso. (Groovey, because we were tired and lost all stamina required needed for a larger journey))
It was 9 pm ish, so we dialled in calories and I found some watery American Beer as we settled into Motel Happy Time as Le Tour De France transposed into the motel room walls to my delight.

Highwaycat is excited at the prospect of crossing the great line...

Thomas let it all out at the craft market

Thomster and 40 Foot seek ice cream while Tonka waits in the foreground. This at the ferry to Bremberton. In a bid to escape the super nasty I-5 for a while.

Kerry met an interesting fellow while waiting for the ferry. Lets call him Clam Chowder Head Ned.

Thomster and Billy 40 Foot on the ferry to Bremberton WA. That's me in the window's reflection. The guy to the left in the white T-Shirt was a Syrian spy. I know these things. The red bag to the right is my handlebar bag. HWC is hiding inside. She's afraid of new people.

Looking back at Vancouver's buddy, Seattle

A father-son moment

Down time at Motel Ooo Lah Lah Kelso OR. Tour De France on the box. The only Brit to win ever ? Not positive however, Bradly Wiggins seals the Yellow Jersey. Nice. Love the sideburns. Thomster is waiting for an Armstrong comeback....