August 20 Crossing America

Pacific City, OR – Florence, OR distance 69 miles.
Total distance traveled through today 4,484 miles, 3,816 of them by bike.

Seagulls outside of Sea Lion Caves

Gees!  Does it ever warm up on the Oregon Coast?  Yet again today, I awake to a bone chilling cold I can’t shake while riding.  Worse, I  climb frequent hills causing me to sweat profusely drenching my
clothes through and through so when I stop my clothes rob my body of heat, almost to the point of hyperthermia.  Then I have to contend with a constant flow of motorist racing by me and there always has to be one idiot or two each day which either passes much too close or honks for me to get off the road or whatever they think they are
accomplishing.  Last but not least, I find the shoulder of many of the roads to be in poor to terrible condition.  In fact today, I can say
between Newport and just north of Waldport had the very worst paved road I’ve ever ridden in my life.   Never again will I complain about the chip and seal paved roads I frequently ride in Missouri as they would qualify as super highways compared to this section of Highway 101.  Pathetic to think the Oregon Coast Bicycle Route is supposed to be one of the premier scenic routes in the USA.  Excuse me, how can I enjoy the scenery when my body is being hammered by rough and broken pavement.  Sorry Oregon, beauteous scenery only goes so far when I have to constantly worry about my safety while riding.

Now that I’ve probably upset every Oregonian who wants touring bicyclists to come ride their beautiful State, there are a few good sections of road.  Actually, the road just to the North of Waldport was one of the smoothest with a nice wide shoulder I’ve ever ridden.  So in a distance of less then 20 miles I rode the worst and the best roads ever, I can only hope when the economy improves Oregon is able to vastly improve all of Hwy 101.  I will also state without a  doubt I’ve met and passed more touring cyclists here in Oregon then the rest of the Country combined.  Now if they’d improve the roads.
I decided to stop at a local bakery in Waldport before continuing onto Larry and my planned meeting point at Heceta Head Point  Lighthouse.  Three gals sitting at the table next to where I sat down started up a conversation with me.  The youngest one, a gal about 50, told me she and her husband were advid cyclist and enjoyed having touring cyclists to stay in their home in San Bernadino and if I were
going that far south I’d be welcome to stay a night or two.  I thanked her but said I was only going as far as Ferndale, CA.  Yet again I’m
surprised by the hospitality and willingness of total strangers to invite bicyclists into their home, it’s a very nice feeling.  As the girls departed they warned me to be extremely careful on the next 10 mile section of Hwy. 101 as it has lots of hills, curves and very little in the way of shoulder so I would be riding in the roadway much of the time.  I thanked them for the warning.  They no more then walked out of the bakery and the baker himself came to my table and asked if he heard correctly that I was about to ride south which I told him I was.  He then said, “I get a lot of riders in here and I tell them all to either ride the next 10 miles before 10:00 AM or after six when the traffic is lighter.  There are two many RVs and 18 wheelers to during these hours.  A rider was killed on this section of road just a couple weeks ago, so don’t do it.  You can stay here till it’s after six”.
I thanked him for the offer but I was going to meet a friend at Heceta.  I did tell him if I felt it was unsafe I’d hitch a ride with someone.  He told me I’d be lucky if I were able to do that as folks don’t pick up hitchhikers around here.  Again I thanked him and went ahead with my plan to ride.   After all, I am from the Show Me State and I have to be shown and it didn’t take long the warnings were well founded.  The road was a steep uphill and just like the section Larry had me ride yesterday, it had little to no shoulder and what shoulder it did have had either a guard rail or curb right next to the white line forcing me to ride in the road.  After 5 miles of stressful riding I saw a pick-up truck sitting at a scenic overlook turnout  pointing south.  I guessed at who the driver might be and asked if he owned the truck and he did.  I then asked if he’d be willing to give the Old Guy a ride to Heceta as the road was too dangerous to continue
riding on my bike.  Kim, the driver’s name, said sure but I’d have to be willing to stop at scenic overlooks during the drive.  Great!  I’m all for sightseeing and good conversation.  We loaded my bike into his truck and were on our way.  His wife, Patricia, even moved to the back seat where Kim’s mom was already, allowing me to ride in the front passenger seat.  As we drove the next 5 miles Kim and Patricia kept pointing out how narrow and dangerous the road looked to them, basically vindicating my need for a ride.  When we arrived at Heceta Head Point it was closed for renovation and Larry wasn’t there either.  Patricia noticed there was a tunnel just ahead and  perhaps it would be safer for me to continue riding in the truck until we were through the tunnel.  That’s all I needed for an invite as the last tunnel I road through was not a pleasant experience.  Once on the other side of the tunnel, Kim pulled over and I helped me get Spirit out of the back of his truck.  We shook hands and I again
thanked them for their kindness for helping this Old Guy.

Heceta Head Lighthouse was closed for renovations but still made for a nice picture

Not far past the tunnel was Sea Lion Caves which I wanted to stop and see.  As I had not seen Larry at Heceta or in the tunnel I decided to lock Spirit up out front of Sea Lion Caves where he could see it easily when and if he came past while I was sightseeing.  As I was paying to see Sea Lion Caves I handed the cashier my traveling card, I’ve handed out maybe four hundred cards during this adventure so far, and was surprised as the gal gave me back my money and said it was her treat as her dad has MS and she appreciated my efforts to help find a cure.  That made my stop here even more special.  Bonus!  While at the caves there was a pod of 4 grey whales circling just out from the overlook, got a picture of one of them for you.

Grey whale just surfacing while three others are just beneath the water

After staying at the caves for almost an hour, I still hadn’t connected with Larry.  There wasn’t any cell phone service this section of road.  Actually there has been very little chance to use my cell phone or  keep this journal up to date due to the lack of service tucked up against the coast most of the way.  It did give me concern as Larry should have arrived by now and even if he had not seen my bike he surely would have turned around at Heceta when he arrived there and learned it was closed, oh well the only thing I could do was continue onto Honeymon State Park, our overnight stop, south of Florence.  Never did see Larry all the way to Florence.  I did keep
trying to call him and finally, when I was almost to the park, we did make cell phone contact.  He was at Yachats, 13 miles north of Heceta, as he too was worried something had happened to me.  I told him I’d get the van and pick him up but Larry being Larry said he’d ride the 30 or so miles to Florence.  I again offered to go pick him up but he said to only come looking for him if he wasn’t in Florence by 6:30.  Well 6:30 came and went, still no Larry so I drove all the way to Sea Lion Caves looking for him.  I was frustrated to say the least as it was near dark and still no word from Larry.   Finally after nearly two hours of searching for him, he called.  Turns out his cell phone malfunctioned and he borrowed a cell phone from a fellow cyclists at the State park to call me.  Upon returning to camp we went to get
something to eat.  Larry picked up the tab to compensate for the frustration he put me through.  Though he did say I frustrated him too not being where we had agreed to rendezvous.  Yep, we’re even Larry maybe.  Ah nobody was hurt and life goes on.  I did tell Larry his shortcut yesterday wasn’t nearly as bad as the road between Waldport and Heceta, so he is forgiven for that one.

After a very full day it was nice to finally get to crawl inside my sleeping bag for a good night sleep.  We stayed in the hiker/biker campsite at the Honeymon State Park which was surrounded by 100+ foot tall firs which was secluded and beautiful, nice job on setting up camp by Larry, too.  A good ending to a long day.

Had to have a picture of me with the Sea Lions statue

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