We spent a lot of time reminiscing about last year’s ride, telling jokes, recounting snippets of trivia and other humorous moments from last year’s escapades.

Before going to Dick's we stopped in at McMenamin’s and had some micro-brews and dinner. Not a bad place to spend a few hours as it is quite elaborately set up with not only a restaurant but a hotel, wine tasting room, movie theater, etc. Turns out the McMenamin’s buy up failed farmlands or places of historic interest and restore them. The hotel was particularly impressive in its styling and restoration. All the hallways, doors, and fixtures have unique artwork imbedded in them. Some of it quaint, some pastoral, some with interwoven messages but lots of it really bizarre! We all got a tour of the rooms and none seem to have private baths or TVs but all are decorated with beautiful period furniture and art.

John Peabody stopped by.  He's a friend of Dick’s from their riding club. He seemed a bit apprehensive about doing a long distance trip but I do not think he will have any problems. We will probably be the worst experience he’ll have what with our biting wit, sarcastic comments, and bizarre attitudes.

Merle also showed up and it was nice meeting up with him again. He looks good and looks happy to do a trip again.

DAY MILES/TOTAL MILES: 19/19                 AVG SPEED: 12         WX: PARTLY CLOUDY

After turning in the U-Haul in Astoria, we all hit the road. It took me no time at all to settle in to riding a fully laden Betty Boop. She still handles herself well even loaded down with almost 50 pounds of gear, food, and water.

But the smell! PEE-WHEW! Astoria must do quite a bit of fish processing or drying or something but it was rank! I can not imagine living downwind of that! Goodbye property values!

We went to Fort Clatsop for a little sightseeing. Having just read the adventures of Lewis and Clark through their journals, much of this was very interesting to me. The word Clatsop is Indian for the flat-head Indians that populated the area back in the early 1800s. They used to flatten the head through use of boards clamped to the forehead. A most unusual appearance for those having undergone the flattening process. Once inside the Fort I was able to mentally project myself back almost 200 years to imagine how miserable those poor bastards must have been during the winter when they saw the sun only 6 days out of 120. They experienced rain EVERY SINGLE DAY except 12! Throw rain, cold, unsanitary conditions, lack of food, lack of showers, fleas, and other biting insects into the mix and you have miserable conditions indeed. When the men ate, supposedly they’d kill an elk and about 8 men would polish it off—to the tune of 6 to 8 pounds of meat PER MAN PER SITTING!!

Got to check out the rooms, some quill writing exhibits, a film about life back then, candle making exhibits, skin tanning exhibits, and a flintlock demonstration. Well worth the side trip!

Met up with Sharron (Dick’s wife) at Fort Stevens where she’d verified spots at the hiker biker sites were available. It was just like the old times again, as if no time had passed: set up the tents, unload the bikes, eat, and bullshit about the day. Even got into a philosophical discussion of homosexuality and marriage, homophobia, politics, etc.

Based on all that in such a short period of time I’m afraid John may not quite know how to take us just yet.

Went to the beach and caught up on my journal while waiting for the sun to set over the John Iredale wreck.  It wrecked in the early 1900s while waiting for weather to clear up prior to its going up the Columbia River. At the time it sank, it did so in 20 feet of water. Today there is no water. Just sand. Wow! Believe it or not there actually were people playing IN the water! NUTS! It was freezin’!

Ended up disappointed as the sky was too cloudy for decent photos. Too bad!

Got up early out of habit but realized that one of the things that might make this ride more enjoyable is that there is no need to hurry and leave camp or hit the road. It’s generally cool and foggy (or cloudy) so it’s best to wait a bit before putting in serious miles. Granted, if you are on a mega-miler day, things may be different but we were on a 40-50 mile per day basis which translates roughly into 3-5 hours on the saddle so none of us were in a hurry.

Contrast this to last year when I’d be up early every day in an effort to beat the winds or heat or thunderstorms.

Got my first jolt of caffeine at a concession stand within the park and then rode to Seaside to have breakfast at the Pig and Pancake. YUM! Doesn’t the name just conjure up wonderful visions of scrumptious food? I loved it. Had a good breakfast, too. Not the best I’ve ever had but good.

Lounged around waiting for Dick and John to show up. We all then toured the boardwalk area which was full of tourists with quite a few in short sleeve shirts. Obviously they were not walking far.

Saw the site where Lewis and Clark had a salt operation running. Having run out of that most valuable commodity, they sent some men down the coast from Ft. Clatsop to boil sea water in an effort to get salt as a by product. For all the time they were there, the men managed 4 large buckets of salt used to cure meat and flavor foods.

If you want to read an interesting book that details the Lewis and Clark expedition, try this one: THE JOURNALS OF LEWIS AND CLARK EDITED by BERNARD DeVOTO published by Houghton Mifflin Copyright 1953 and renewed 1981.

The men needed to go 14 miles south of Fort Clatsop because at that time the Columbia River’s discharge was so big that coupled with the prevailing winds and currents, kept the water too sweet at its outlet. Only 14 miles south were the men capable of finding a spot not affected by the flows of the river. Nowadays a jetty just outside Astoria directs the flow considerably further westwards and it has greatly affected the beaches, too. Witness the wreck of the John Iredale and that it used to be in 20 feet of water when it beached. Now it is buried. All the result of the jetty, wind, wave, current, and sand action.

Am also keeping a sharp eye out for tall buildings or bridges to jump off just in case I need to put myself out of my misery should the stock market continue to gyrate like it did today. DOW down 300 and NASDAQ down 64. UGLY! (Just kidding about the tall stuff, though!) Note: little did I know then what further surprises were in for me!

So far Oregon is a very pleasant place to ride. Lots of roads have wide shoulders or bike lanes thereby making the state very biker friendly. It is also ecologically concerned and its citizens routinely recycle many objects.

Took a small detour and went to Ecola Park. GEEZ LOUISE! Somebody should have warned me about the hill! For the first time in my touring time I had to walk my bike! Last year I had too much pride to walk so therefore I ground up the hills but this one was another story. I attribute that partly to lack of conditioning prior to beginning the ride and part to the slope of the hill itself. What a bitch!

I did learn one thing though: no hill is so steep it can not be walked! Thanks for that one, Dick!

Since Ecola Park was situated so high up, the view of the Tillamook Head Lighthouse was great. It was built in 1881 for $125,000 and is now a bird sanctuary. They also allow you to bury your ashes here for only $5000---but only after bird nesting season. So time your death appropriately!

Had to go through the Cape Arch Tunnel. Don’t try to be macho, walk your bike through this thing. You’ll be glad you did. It’s dark, it’s uphill, and the traffic really does not pay attention to those cute little lights warning motorists that cyclists are in the tunnel.

Learned something else, too. Oregon State Parks are highly sought out by the locals and tourists. Ft Stevens had 600 spots and all of them were full. Nehalem has 204 and when we checked in at 4 PM only 20 were available. This was about the only park that had vacancies virtually all the way to LA! Thank goodness for hiker/biker sites!

Now on to the day’s events. Stopped for breakfast at the Bunkhouse Restaurant just outside Nehalem. We were all supposed to meet there but Dick blew past and I only saw him at the end of the day. Climbing a hill today, John stood on his pedals and promptly snapped his chain. We spent ˝ an hour messing with it and finally got it cobbled back together. I had flashbacks from last year: it’s still a hassle remembering where all my gear is in the panniers! A bit of a nuisance that could be ameliorated by compartmentalized panniers but those are out of my budget’s reach. So I will suffer through this for several more days. The problem was exacerbated when I was helping John and couldn’t locate my chain tool. AAARGH! So now I believe it will help to put my rain gear, tools, and food only in my front panniers, though. At least I’ll know where that stuff is.

Since the other guys were so far ahead and by this time wondering what happened to us, I told John we needed to invent a story about having met up with a couple of middle aged women at an overlook and that they offered us drinks and engaged us in cycling conversation as that was one of their interests, too. We’d also embellish it by saying they’d come to the campsite to visit us later in the evening. John was a bit apprehensive (well, he IS married!) but……

About 7 PM Dennis and Dick wanted to know where the women were! What a hoot!

Rode through Tillamook: a tourist trap! I just do not see where anyone can get their knickers excited about a cheese factory, especially an automated one, but there they were, all lined up to watch machines convert milk to cheese. And then happy to spend oodles of dollars at a cheesy (pun intended) gift shop. Capitalism truly is great here!

Those of us that met up in Tillamook did our grocery shopping at the local Safeway only to have to lug that food up and down hills to the campsite. Never go shopping when hungry!!

The hills here are a bit more than I bargained for. Hopefully in a few days I’ll be better conditioned. I am not so sure they are worse than the Ozarks but they come a close second.

The sight of the day today were innumerable blackberry bushes sending feeler branches into the roadway in a vain attempt to grab a purchase and take over. A seeming "Man vs. Nature" thing that resulted in the bush losing as cars mangled the feelers. It really needed to be seen to be appreciated.

Cruised through the town of Garibaldi and as I passed a parked police cruiser I realized there was a dummy inside. Yep, just like those dummies you see advertised in the in-flight magazines of many airlines. It was pretty impressive as it slowed traffic down with many drivers not even realizing what they’d just passed. The dark tinted windows allowed just the shadow of a figure to be seen.

Turns out that going through Garibaldi when I did was a good move. At the end of the day I heard on the news that the whole highway was shut down for several hours due to a head-on collision between a semi and a car. No word on the condition of the occupants.

Took the Three Capes route and highly recommend it. Very scenic and not much traffic. If you are in a hurry you can scoot south of Tillamook but the detour only adds a few additional miles. Even the climbing was worthwhile for the views obtained.

While I was on the route John and I heard this really loud chitter-chatter sound. Looking around thinking it was coming from the woods I see this raccoon in the middle of the road with its back arched, looking very upset at something. He/she even got up on its hind legs acting very defiantly, still chittering and chattering as if scolding us. Then it scooted into the woods.

Conclusion: whereas in the East I had to contend with mad dogs, I guess out west it’s raccoons.

Just when you think you’ve seen everything!

Ended the day at Cape Lookout Park. The broken record repeated itself today as all the sites were filled up so again we went to the hiker/biker sites. Hey, for $3, it’s a good deal. The walk to the showers and rest rooms in most H/B sites is a bit longer but the price is right.

Our particular site was good tonight, situated in the woods with plenty of space for tents and gear. Just a bit of a dirt trail to get to it.

Tonight turned into one with a festive note. Earlier in the day we’d loaded up on salad mix, mushrooms, cukes, tomatoes and radishes and made one hell of a salad. Dick and John made dinner in their cooking kits and we all ate like kings. Washed it all down with a bottle of Merlot and a bottle of Fumee wine. Also got firewood and built us a nice fire. Now THIS is bike camping!!

Well, they showed up today! Hooray! It is really cool to have the gang back together again. Chatted for a while, helped set up their equipment (Merle has a B.O.B. and a new double vestibule tent) and then Merle and his son, Tom, went to get something to eat.  I went to sleep as I was quite tired.

Why was I tired? Climbing. But a good tired feeling, not an exhausted one. Fortunately the scenery was beautiful and the weather cooperated. I find it hard to believe we are having such good luck. The first hill leaving Cape Lookout Park was a pain. Had to do 700 foot elevation gain in 2.7 miles. (6% more or less)

Take a breather at the 1.1 mile point and enjoy the great views from the Anderson’s view point.

Stopped at Cape Kiwanda Park just outside Pacific City. A fantastic place to spend a couple of hours wandering around, walking the dunes, climbing to the top of the bluff and then grab photos of the surf pounding the cape.

I should have arrived a few hours later to capitalize on the position of the sun and even better would be to return in winter when the surf is really aggressive and puts on spectacular displays.

After hiking the dunes a bit, I took in the fishing boats coming ashore, literally gunning it onto the sands and just before hitting the beach, throttling back the engines. Those things MUST have to have their bottoms replaced every few years. No way they can continue to take the abuse of acting like amphibious landing craft without doing some damage to the bottoms. Maybe they have false, replaceable bottoms?

Had lunch at the Pelican Pub. Decided I am not a micro-brew aficionado. They ALL taste the same to me so I see no sense in spending more money on cutesy, artsy-fartsy beer. Give me a Sam Adams any day.

Biked into Devil’s Lake State Park (yep, full again!) The H/B area is up a steep path but once there, the space is large, open, clean and with picnic benches and fire pit.

Got here a bit early so there was plenty of time to set up camp, dry out the very wet tent and fly, eat, B.S., and so on. The beach at this park is a bit unusual in that the back half of it is strewn with large rocks and tree trunks (just where DO all these tree trunks lining Oregon and California’s beaches come from?) The front half of the beach on down to the water’s edge is fine sand. So where did all the rocks come from? Probably erosion. I don’t know.

Started off the day by doing laundry. YECH! What a boring thing to do on the road but does give me a chance to catch up on reading or journal writing. All of us hate doing wash. Gather all the clothes, sort them, put money in the machine to buy soap, put money in the washers, wait. Take the clothes out, put money in the dryer and wait. Check the dryer so clothes don’t melt. Take some clothes out. Wait. Put more money in. Check again. Take more clothes out. Wait. Put more money in. Wait. Put more money in. Check clothes. Some are still damp. Take damp clothes out. Screw it, let them air dry. Let’s go! This is boring!

Fortunately, there was a café nearby so we whiled away the time drinking coffee and eating breakfast. I finally had the dreaded pancakes. Been putting it off as long as I could because I recall having burned out on them last year.

Was able to catch up on news with Merle and Kurt.

Talked to Merle about his BOB. He likes it, it’s quite practical and the only disadvantage is having to ship it. I guess you can box it and have it go as check-on luggage. The tent he has is also a smart move since it has two large vestibules with individual entries. This allows him to put the BOB on one side and have access to it from inside the tent. Plus it is sheltered from the elements and prying fingers.

Kurt still has most of his gear from last year and felt "inadequate" since all of us have new stuff. We ribbed him quite a bit about it and he took it gracefully.

In a sorry testimony to progress, it’s not bad enough that many of these coastal towns are jammed with traffic for months but Lincoln City recently decided they were going to become a 4 season town by approving a new casino. Now the summers will be filled with beach tourists and the winters with gambling tourists. What is it with people and gambling? Is it really so much fun to lose money? Damn, I just don’t get it.

Got to Boiler Bay where I’d read that you could supposedly see a ship’s boiler during low tide but my friend, Mr. Fog obstructed the view. Did get to see several whales, though. Good thing I brought along my binoculars as I’d have been hard pressed to see much of anything. None of them breached but they did show themselves and they did spout.

Scott took one of his mystery pictures of the whales. Those are the ones where you take a picture of something after it’s no longer in the viewfinder and when the photo comes back you can show it to people, point to a blank spot and claim to have seen something there, embellishing your story as you go along. By now I am sure he’s up to a whole school of blue whales cavorting in the water.  So I took one of Dennis and Kurt doing the same thing.

Headed up Foulweather Cape where winds can kick up to 60 MPH in the summer and 100 MPH in the winter. Saw that the road to the Otter Creek Byway was closed so Kurt and I plodded up the hill. The byway looked like it stayed down low and skirted the hill but the closed sign scared us off. Dick and John stayed behind at Depoe bay to have lunch and since we didn’t see any grocery stores we kept moving. Dennis was following behind us and climbed for about 150 feet or so and then I watched him peel off and go back to Otter Creek. As Kurt and I huffed and puffed uphill we saw Dennis way down below cruising on the "closed road" and hugging the coast line. Sure looked like a good way to go.

By that time I was already too committed to the hill I was on so I continued climbing. At the top, Kurt and I detoured off 101 and picked up Otter Creek, which was open only to pedestrian traffic to see Devil’s Punchbowl (kind of disappointing and no photo op). We then headed to the campground. At the "THREE TIMES AS MUCH" store and found out we were the first ones there. HMMM!?!?! "Where were Dick, John, and Dennis?" I wondered.

It turns out the path Dennis took was washed out after several miles so he had to double back and climb the pass, too.

We even ran into Vulker again. He was with us the past two nights and from the Bavaria part of Germany. He had just finished his obligatory military service and decided to tour the Pacific Coast since it is so well advertised where he’s from.

As we went along during the trip we observed that people we’d meet one day would be run into several times during our ride simply because we all had different ideas about how fast to go so when one set would slow down, the others would catch and vice versa. Much different from last year when everyone was in a hurry to get from point A to Point B and once seen were never seen again (unless they rode with you!)

Had a very stimulating Conservative vs. Liberal conversation with John. Turns out he’s a die-hard liberal with a tinge of conservative tendencies. I was sure I could have converted him if I’d have had more time. You know how it is, some people have that look about them that pleads for some salvation and I believe he needed to be saved from the lies and hypocrisies of the leftist media we’re exposed to. Having done that, redemption and salvation would be a piece of cake. Right, John?

It was hard for me to imagine a man who worked as a game warden for many years and then choose one of the bastions of liberalism, Oregon, to live in. I mean, here’s a guy who’s had to pull his gun on people---almost always a field of work in which conservatives have a stronghold.