PDF to SFO or Bust

  The aviators make their first appearance September 23rd, 2020     Our morning didn’t start as early as planned, but Flo shared a cup of jo with me in the morning (thanks again) so I was ready to conquer the day. It started by me walking up the gravel path to the main road, cause I was not confident I would stay upright on the bike 😂. Once we got rolling, the caffeine boost in the morning really pushed me up the hills and Brandon was wishing he would have had some. It was a short 10 miles into Fort Bragg. I will be adding this to my list of future towns to visit in a car. It was a bustling town for being 0930; we saw more cyclist in the next 10 mile stretch than we had seen this whole trip combined. Sadly none of them were going in our direction or packing gear for a cycle tour. But we had a great time waving hello as they went past.      I can’t say enough about the views on this stretch of highway 1; they were gorgeous! If I were to give someone else ad...

  We knew we had a lot of miles and a lot of elevation today, so we talked about getting on the road at first light. We missed that mark by about 45 minutes, mostly because I relied on my internal clock instead of an alarm. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Before we even left the camp we paused to take a picture, that would be the story of our first 30 miles today. It seemed like every time we turned a corner there was another gorgeous beach just begging to be photographed. As much as we wanted to take it slow and dip our toes in the water of some of these incredible beaches, we remained business like, and kept plodding along.  We were feeling pretty good about the ride at this point in the day, with the highway winding along the cliffs of the Pacific, it seemed like every hill was rewarded with an incredible vista. We stopped frequently to snap pictures. We made a stop at McDonalds for some breakfast in Fort Bragg. The town looked really neat, and had a brewpub, so I was a little sad that we didn’t h...

  September 16th, 2020      Morning view leaving the campground (above) was the last time we were going to see the ocean for a few days; we were heading into the Redwoods! It was too late to find the beach when we got to camp, and in the morning we were ready to get our day started so no sand between our toes this morning! Harris Beach State Park was very close to the California border, but first we HAD to get a hot breakfast. We hadn’t done this since Waldport, OR and it sure hit the spot!     Like typical West Coast fashion, there was a weed store feet from the Oregon-California border. This gave us a chuckle. We spent some time at the California sign trying to get a picture that both of us were looking at the camera; yes I was the problem child who couldn’t figure it out. But after a few tries we got the take we wanted and looking at the bottom post of the sign I found a surprise! I love painted rocks and someone special had left this cool rock for anoth...

First time we’ve seen the ocean and blue skies!      September 14th, 2020     Not sure why we love to torture ourselves, but the Seven Devil’s Road Brandon described in his post was no joke! Without warming our legs up properly, we were hit with multiple up hill battles that required “granny gear”. My legs were toasty by the last big hill and they welcomed the downhill portions. We continued to be plagued by fog and low-visibility.     After crossing another death bridge, we were blessed with a 2-mile stretch of shoulder completely covered with gravel. This last stretch brought us into Bandon and gave Brandon his next flat tire! Brandon with his second flat tire (as you can see).      Bandon was a cool town and will be a future destination via car. See below for some savory food pictures. It was here we finally saw blue skies after indulging at Bandon Rain Unique Craft Ciders. Bandon Rain had cool rain cloud and rain drop lights. The rec...

 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 m...

  Just some fitting product placement in hopes of getting a beer sponsor for our trip. We got a bit of a late start, enjoying having a real bed for the last time in a while, and making sure all our electronics were charged up for the next few days on the road. Once Hannah got one last picture of us we headed out. Not unlike the last few days, we hit the road surrounded in fog. Leaving Florence, it was a pretty steady climb up the highway for the first 15 miles or so, the shoulder was decent but the fog still made things dangerous, since visibility was only a few hundred feet. It was when we began our descent into Reedsport that it got really nerve racking. Suddenly, the shoulder began to disappear, and where it still existed it was broken and dangerous to ride on. We were stuck sharing a single lane with large pickup trucks and semi’s, in heavy fog, for the remainder of the route to Reedsport, where we stopped for a snack at a “biker rest stop”. A patch of dead grass next to the hi...

  Taken by Hannah Friday night, before  the fog set in With 50+ miles of riding ahead of us we were up at the crack of dawn to pack up camp and hit the road, we had a hotel booked in Florence that night to look forward to, and an opportunity to do some laundry. It was brisk and foggy as we hopped on our bikes to get started, and we had a breakfast date with Christi’s uncle at 9am, 15 miles away in Waldport, so we needed to get some miles under our belts. While her uncle had other priorities pop up, we still made it to the Waldport Cafe for some amazing breakfast to warm our chilly bones on this foggy day. Waldport Cafe 😋 There was a glimmer of hope for a good day of riding when I checked the Weather Channel app while in the restaurant and it predicted the fog clearing in the next hour, FAKE NEWS! The next five hours consisted of heavy fog mixed with light mist, and occasionally, a mild smoky haze. Based on the number of pull outs on the side of the highway during this stretch...