Tamara and I came up with the brilliant idea that we would get a very early start to the day since I had a long drive back to Seattle. It was raining hard when we got up for breakfast and the breakfast crowd was noticeably smaller than the previous day and other. Fair-weather wimps were packing up their bikes and tents to hit the road home; but I didn’t fly and drive all the way to Oregon not to ride! I have always loved sausage links and was grateful that breakfast every morning included some greasy links. I was even more grateful that Libby let me borrow her Castelli cycling rain jacket.
We hit the road by 7:30 am and the rain and wind were coming hard. We were headed into a direct headwind and my legs were feeling yesterday’s miles. Before we hit sag stop one, a sag van passed. I stuck out my thumb facing downward as instructed to do if you required a sag pick up. The van passed on by and my stomach dropped. It passed a second time and my thumb was down and my mood was out. She pulled the van to the side of the road. I begged to get in. The sag wagon driver was a grumpy old codger who first told me to try to make it to the rest stop and then told me I would be just as wet at the sag stop. Tamara pretty much told her we were getting in the van. Once in the van, she shamed us for getting in. To make a long story short, the sag van experience left a really bad taste in my mouth and I didn’t want it to sour my weekend and neither did Tamara. As she stopped to pick up more passengers, we asked to get out. The clouds had cleared a bit and the wind had let up a bit. We hopped back on the bikes and decided to do the short route. When we hit the first rest stop I suggested we loop back around and do the medium route. Tamara agreed and Cycle Oregon Day 2 was back on. Somewhere into the headwind I regretting deciding to do the medium route, but once my legs got back into a rhythm, it was good to be back on the bike. There were intermittent showers all day. I was hungry at the lunch stop, but couldn’t stop shaking from cold when we stopped. I saw the lunch band had hot water for tea and I couldn’t help myself from sneaking back to grab a cup of hot water. The rest of the ride had intermittent showers, but it was a good ride and, thankfully, much flatter than the previous day. We were both glad we decided to do the ride.
Cycle Oregon Complete!
After arriving back at the camp site, I got changed into some dry clothes and we packed up the tent. I said goodbye to Tamara and hit the road to Seattle (with a quick stop to drop off the tent).
Five hours later and I was ready for a shower and, of course, a snooze. Steven insisted on a quick walk to Discovery Park to see the sunset and it was worth the delay in sleeping. A warm shower and a real bed, ahhhhhh.