Thursday - Day 5 of Tour - Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Today was another high-mileage day in the saddle, but by this point in the trip, hey we're pros right??....riiight!

We woke up to a beautiful, crisp, and sunny morning in Newport, which we welcomed since we feared serious cold after the chill-(brrr)-ly night before. We knew we had a long day ahead of us, something like 56 miles, which may have been our longest day yet, but today was not going to be as hilly as Tuesday. After a nice breakfast and the realization that I had lost my sunglasses, AHHHH!!!!! (NEVER buy expensive sunglasses, for just that reason, I ended up borrowing some from the tour guides that had been left over from a previous trip, pheww) Sara and I headed over the Newport Bay bridge and headed down Hwy 101 for to set out on our day's trip. Hwy 101 is a the road that extends from Seattle down through most if not all of California. It can be fairly busy, so we have to be especially careful with all of the traffic going by us. We look out for each other, Mom, so don't worry. I'm here writing about it aren't I?

The morning was a very nice ride, not too many hills, mostly just the roll of the coastline. We stopped at Seal Rock which was one of many of the nice stop offs along our entire trip. While we had our camera out, all of the rest of the group was taking group shots, and after about a million pictures, or so it seemed, Sara and I opted to get a photo emailed to us, so we gathered up our things (or so we thought) and headed along our way.

We arrived in Yachats (yah-haht-s) for lunch at the State Park (just down the street from the Landmark Restaurant, the place with the WONDERFUL Clam chowder, mom and dad, remember?). Sara called to me over to the coast with all of the crashing rocks and said "Hey, come get a picture!". So I scurried over to my bike to grab the camera, and I looked in the bike pouch... no camera. Sara had stuffed her jacket in the pouch at Seal Rock, so maybe its bundled up in her jacket... no camera.. All possible places... No Camera. NOT AGAIN!!! This was the 2nd time we've mis-placed the camera if we didnt say that in a previous post. So you know me, I"m freaking out and so p.o'ed at myself. I knew I'd left it back at Seal Rock... 10 miles back. AHH. Sara tried to calm me down, assuring me someone behing us probably picked it up and will have it for us when they arrive. Well, I'm just a wreck, you know me, when somethings wrong I have a hard time calming down until it's fixed. And sure enough while we're finishing up our cookies, our 2nd rescue ranger of the trip, Dave (another Dave), starts asking people if they left a camera. ME!!!!!!! sure, enough, just as Sara had suspected. I hate it when she's right!

So anyhoo, we finished up lunch and headed down the road. We stopped off briefly at Cape Perpetua, which was one of my favorite places the last time we were out to Oregon, but opted not to climb a 1 1/2 mile nearly straight up on our bikes, we simply looked at the cove, the tide was out so was not as spectacular as before, but still nice. so we headed on. As got beyond Cape Perpetua, we started the climb for the day, and as we got further up in elevation the fog off the ocean started to creep in around us and boy was it cold!!! Both of our chapped lips and nose were causing a bit of discomfort all around. We made it to Haceta Head park with the trailhead up to the lighthouse, but again with our funky cycling shoes, we opted against a bunch of walking and again thought towards getting on the hotel for some hot baths and naps :)

As we got beyond Haceta Head we hit our only tunnel of the trip, where we had to hit a button that set out flashing lights at the beginning of the tunnel notifying drivers at the entrance of the tunnel that we were inside, but no cars came while we went through, phew! We continued up the mountain through the fog, trying not to think about our chapped faces, and then we hit a construction stop!! The were doing some resurfacing on part of the road, so they had the 2 lanes down to one. We waited until the guy gave us the go ahead and booked it through the construction zone as not to aggravate the drivers behind us.

Right after the construction zone we finally hit our down hill and took in some yet again amazing views of the coast, with beach, craggy rocks and a few lakes just off shore. When we hit the bottom on the flats, the fog had lifted, or we left it behind and the sky was clear and were again able to enjoy the beautiful day!!

As we turned off Hwy 101 and headed to our hotel for the night, the wind off the ocean really kicked us in the face and made us work for the last 2 miles before we finished up for the day!


After some nice hot baths, that were so earnestly deserved, both Sara and I hit the hay from some serious napping. Its not like we've been active at all this week right?? Oh, was that great!

We finally came to, and got dressed for our group wine and cheese party. We all gathered in the guides room which was nice and spacious, for some nice social time with the group. We've really made some wonderful friends on this trip, many of whom we plan to keep in touch with. They've all been great about listening to all of the happenings in both of our lives and kind about giving advice and insight. The people have just been great! During the party we played a game that Sara and I throughly enjoyed, and you'll see why! Most everyone brought 3 $1 dollar bills to the party and our guide Dave gave us the instructions. He had 3 die, but not normal dice, these had a black dot on some sides, an 'L' on some sides, and 'R' on some sides and a 'C' on the other, the game was you roll as many die as you have dollars in your hand with the max at 3 (that's all the dice we had) and if you turn up a black dot you keep a dollar, turn up an 'L' you give 1 dollar to the person on your left, and an 'R' give one to your right, but if you turn up a 'C' you put on dollar in the middle, the 'pot'. With the idea being, we go around the circle as many times as it takes until only 1 person is left with money in their hand, and they win the pot. Well I quickly had 0 dollars in my hand, and not to long afterwards Sara was empty handed as well, but by the nature of the game, since other people can hand you money your not out of the game until the game is over. Anyway, it all made sense while we were playing. A few people racked up a lot of cash during the game then for some it quickly all went away, some how towards the end of the game 1 dollar started creeping around the circle towards me. and just as Joan, who was sitting to my left rolled and 'R', therefore handing me the dollar the only other person in the game with a dollar, turned up a 'C' and I WON!!!!!!! HOLY MOLEY!!!!! I WON!!!!!!! 54 dollars!!!!! And while Sara will claim that since I borrowed the 3 dollars to play the game from her, she owned part of the pot, I kindly split the pot out of the goodness of my heart with my beloved sister. You pick which story you want to believe.

After the wine and cheese party, we had again a wonderful dinner at the hotel restaurant. We sat with Grace and Larry, a super-'cute' couple who we've come to know fairly well over the trip. We had a great time getting to chat with them again over dinner about anything from AAA baseball (Tucson Sidewinders) to Grace and Sara talking about love and faith.

We're winding down after another wonderful day, looking forward to tomorrow although we will certainly be saddened to bring the trip to a close. It has been beyond wonderful so far, we will certainly milk it for all its worth.

Until then....
Cheers!


Songs of the Day:
Misty Mountain Hop - Led Zeppelin
Perfect Time of Day - Howie Day
Money - Pink Floyd

Beer:
McTarnahans Amber Ale
Bridgeport IPA