Hello Mr. Pacific Ocean, how are you today?

Hello Team,
Well...we're still alive, big high five to us on that.  If you all have been following my facebook rants you will know that we scraped the initial plans of biking from Portland, to Salem, to Corvallis and then Eugune.   Turns out that biking out of Portland is like trying to escape from David Bowie in the Labyrinth, i.e. fucking impossible. After some extensive research and some heavy contemplation we opted to take the Tillamook commuter bus from Portland to Tillamook, OR near the coast.

On the bus to Tillamook

I know, I know, I know...why didn't we just try and bike it?  Well kids, we spoke with a reliable source by the name of, David, at the Community Cycling Center in Portland and he told us that due to the lateness in the day (it was about noon by the time we got there) and the fact that Portland is a roach motel for bikers, you check in, but don't check out AND our goal is to RIDE DOWN THE COAST, we all agreed that this was our best option.  Call us cheaters, call us lazy, call us whatever you want, but I regret nothing.  At the moment I'm sitting in Stimulus Cafe in Pacific City, Oregon and I feel rather pleased.

Current view, so suck it

Between Portland bus waiting and now we've seen pretty much every type of climate you can imagine.  We arrived in Tillamook last night at about 5pm to a steady downpour.  After a few confused moments of gathering our whits we happened upon a campsite.  We meet Barbara, a lovely older gal, who seemed a little shocked to find 2 young ladies inquiring about campsites, in the rain, on bicycles.  She told us we COULD pay for a patch of land for the night out in the open OR we could walk 20 feet and post up under the bridge.  HMMMM...that was a tough one....dry, free and directly next to us??? OR pay money to camp out in a field where cows graze, in the rain.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Fast forward 10 minutes later>>>>>
 Tents are erected, camp stove is set up and vegetable parmesan is on it's way to being rehydrated for our eating enjoyment.

Bridge Life

We had some extra special luck since it steadily rained all night and we have yet to scotch guard our tents SUPER well....again...I know, I know, I know.

I set up my 1 man tent and Lani set up her 2 man tent and off to bed we went.  It didn't take long for me to realize that sleeping under and bridge in a one person tent next to creepy, old, rusty lawn furniture and network of spider webs COMPLETE with enormous spiders wasn't going to fly and I subsequently knocked on Lani's tent to bunk up with her.  A decision we were both extremely pleased about.  I mean...if we're gonna sleep under a crazy bridge, in some town we've never been to under the advice of some stranger (even one as kind and demure as Barbara) we we're gonna do it within inches of each other.

We woke up to the sounds one might hear if you were to be, say, sleeping under a bridge...the thudding and whooshing of cars, trucks and the occasional big rig flying over us made for an interesting night sleep to say the least and I use the term sleep liberally.  Though neither of us slept well or really wanted to get up we decided to pack up camp and make some really nasty dried eggs for breakfast, in the hopes of finding greener (and quieter) pastures.  

We hit the 101 about 11:30 and headed south.  For the most part we were in farm country, nesteled in a valley between the Cascades and some hills near the coast.  The smell of cow pies every hundred feet or so really reminded me of biking through parts of rural MN... fantastic. 

Oregon or MN?

We decided to deviate from 101 after 15 or so miles to head west towards Cape Outlook, on the recommendation of David from CCC in Portland.  After 5 minutes on this road we quickly realized we MAY have made a mistake.  It was a steady climb for the better part of an hour an a half, making almost no progress and feeling like I might keel over and die at any point.  Still determined, we trudge up and up and up and up, until finally we had to stop to catch a breath, eat some food, drink some water and have a deep conversation about what the hell we were doing.  We kept experiencing extreme shifts in temperature, from high humidity to freezing head winds to SAND DUNES??? and we seemed to be making no progress.  

Wait....sand dunes?

Heading up hill....sucks.....

We reviewed the map and learned that we were on the only road in and out of the Cape Outlook region and then we really got pissed.  We were trudging up this hill only to take a picture near this spot and then ride back down again?  Apparently that's the case, we even confirmed it with a car we flagged down that was heading up to the cape.  We saddled back up and headed back down the hill we had been painstakingly climbing up with 100+ pounds of shit for the last hour and half.  

.....

2 minutes later we were back on track and heading south again towards Pacific City.  We maxed out at top speed of 31 miles per hour on that fucking hill...even with a head wind.  After a few more hills and stops to try out my "you go girl" pee funnel we landed in Pacific City, OR and have landed a nice little spot to camp for the night with a resident of this fair city named Don.  He offered to let us camp in his yard/on the beach, which turned out be free reign of his BEACH HOUSE that was under construction.

Ocean...Ocean...Ocean...and 2 nerds

That's where we are for now kids.  Tune back in for more adventures on a god damn bike.

-Marge and Lawn Gnome