Day 42, September 12th 2007 (Beverly Beach, OR to Jessie Honeyman, OR)

The morning started with a nice hot shower that I had a tough time forcing myself out of. I must have been in the shower for at least a half an hour and came out to a temperature in the low 50's. I said my goodbyes to the three other bikers at the site and was off. I was in need of a new chain so I headed to the first town, it was only about 10 miles into my ride. It didn't open until 10 and it was only 9 so I had an hour to kill at a cafe down the street. As soon as 10 hit I was in front of the shop and could only hope that they carried the 10 speed chain I was looking for. They only carried a 9 speed chain just like all of the other shops I had been to, so I was still on the hunt. I was riding on 101 and continually hoping that I might see some sign of the sun. It was nice to ride in cool weather, but the view of the ocean just wasn't as it should have been. Instead of seeing the ocean I was seeing fog, just as I had yesterday. At one point I pulled over and was able to see some dolphins in the ocean. It was cool to see, since I had never seen one in the ocean before. I continued riding and was in love with the fact that so many people were riding on the highway. It seemed like everyone was on a tour of Oregon's coast, the Pacific coast, or just out riding for the activity. The weather was supposed to be overcast and rainy for the next few days so I was glad that I had spent my time on te beach in Oregon the one day that I had. I thought I was going to put in another 100 miles today, but the idea of a hot shower sounded too good and I pulled over around 4 for another hiker/biker campsite. The day today had the least amount of climbs and was fairly easy, but for some reason I had a slight headwind. I just can't seem to find the right direction to be going to have the wind at my back. I had gone through one tunnel on the road, my second so far on the coast, and I'm not sure why they do it, but they put both of the tunnels on an uphill climb. If highway 101 is much more traveled from the north to the south why do they not only have me working so hard to get through so I don't get hit and then have me climb a hill at the same time. The highway is a fairly nice road and you can tell that with it being traveled so much they put a lot of time into making it nicer for cyclists. With the hiker/biker site that I was able to stay at for 4 dollars, there were a few more people this time around. By the time I had showered and come back to my tent, there were 10 of us. Two from the last place that I had stayed at and 7 others. Two of the cyclists were on a trip I could only hope to do someday. They were on a tandem bicycle and were biking from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina, South America. From Anchoridge, where they had started in late June, they had made it here. It seemed like quite the journey on a tandem, but they were well equipped. They had taken a year and a half off of work to do the trip, and with about 50-60 miles a day, they seemed content. They had left from Switzerland, where they were from, and traveled Europe for a little while before they flew to Anchoridge to start their trip. They spoke English very well and said that although they didn't know Spanish very well they were going to take some classes in Mexico before they went on their way to the rest of their trip. For dinner the couple had made enough spaghetti to feed the campground, and another family had started a fire to cook a huge slab of salmon. The entire campsite sat at a picnic table and enjoyed a feast. It was cool that for one night we were all one big family on the road together. After the meal we built a larger fire with some wood that a couple had picked up and we all sat around the campfire and enjoyed eachother's conversation. Everyone came from a diffferent background from Switzerland, Canada, Spain, the east coast, the midwest, and the west coast. We were all able to peacefully enjoy eachother's company and had a great evening together. I went to bed and slept great, I was warm and was sleeping on a full stomach.
Daily mileage: 61.6 miles
Average Speed: 12.9 mph
Total mileage: 2,515.0 miles