Day 5- Fueled By Beer and Pizza (Christi)

 September 13th, 2020

Missing our over-sized load signs

    Goodbye Hannah! We took our time packing up and blogging for our previous days ride. P.S. this is how we are blogging, in case we haven’t said that already 😊. As we were about to depart we texted Hannah for our last courtesy morning photo. My legs were already sore from looking at all the gear on the back of my bike I now had to carry. Cheers to another foggy morning! 

    Nothing too exciting happened along the first few hours of the trip, until Brandon got his first flat tire. So much for gator skins being the all-mighty tire! The highway was so noisy I didn’t noticed that the jam box had turned off, cause his phone was out of reception and I was deaf to his yelling that he was stopping for a flat. I happened to make it down the hill before I stopped, realizing he wasn’t behind me, and looked down at my phone to a text from Brandon that he got a flat. So like the nice person I am, I rode my bike back up the hill and supplied moral support, photo-taking proof, and the floor tire pump, which I had bought in Newport (add another thing I left at home accidentally). 

He looks happy about his first flat

    At this point it feels like our rides are starting to blend together, so I’ve started keeping a file in my Notes app to write down little reminders to myself about what has happened each day so when we go back to blog about it the next I remember. Some things are hard to forget though, like all the tunnels we have gone through and bridges we have gone over, both of which have relatively no shoulder and periodically cars don’t adhere to the 30 mile an hour blinking sign for pedestrians/cyclists. I felt I had to document the minimal visibility going over the bridge yesterday; check this out:

Brandon riding into the abyss

Found a cool sign outside of North Bend, OR

    Reaching the next food stop is always a happy moment! After riding for about 50 miles we hit our late lunch/dinner stop, Gino’s in Coos Bay. First impressions of Coos Bay weren’t great, road by a wrecked car at a four way stop and the town smelled like sewage. But the pizza was fantastic and hit the spot! And we saved a few slices for breakfast the next day. My legs were definitely feeling a bit fried at this point, so the break was welcomed. After stuffing ourselves with beer and pizza, it was time to take off again. According to Google maps, we had about 11 miles to go to Sunset Bay State Park, boy did this feel like a never ending 11 miles. 

    

Home sweet home for the night

    We made it to camp relatively late, so we had a little time to set up camp and jaunt down to the beach front for a quick view. We didn’t have cell reception at this point so it was a quiet night without letting anyone know we had officially made it. To end this post I’ll share some photos I captured at the campgrounds.

Day 1 of 5 without a shower due to closures

Cool jawbone doorway leading to the cultural center inside the campground (hints it was huge!).

Tunneled path leading to the beach shore.

Deer chilling in the field.

Picture states it all. Cool place in history.

Late night photo of Sunset Bay

Finally got to use our propane tank (they changed the rules for fires and we were able to use the Jetboil to warm up some hot cocoa).

Road stats: 60.52 miles and 2,594 feet elevation gain

Road kill: 1 deer, 1 snake, 1 possum, 1 raccoon

Weird thing in the shoulder: mask, Aim-n-flame torch, styrofoam cooler, 1 Birkenstock sandal, 1 Croc sandal, and a weird guy laying in the shoulder with only his head visible (he peeked over the hill and gave us a creepy smile as we rode past; we were in the middle of nowhere by the way).