Breakdown 1

Now don't laugh....... we had totalled 111miles when Ambers chain broke.

Before that I thought we were going pretty well. Slowly but surely.

First day: 20miles; After a rather eventful farewell (there had been quite a family feel at the hostel and we even had our own photographer to mark the departure), we took the bus to Tillamook out of Portland, then after a supermarket supper headed out to 101. Massive hill to start and I seriously wasn't prepared for the sheer torture of cycling with that amount of weight on the bike. I think I have my first suggestion for alternative olympics: loaded cycle pushing!

Still we made it, and the ride down was fun with a near full moon to add to our bike lights and only one near miss: a possum rolled up in a ball waiting for the unavoidable collision, which we all thankfully avoided. We overcycled our exit and ended up getting a lift to campground from a wonderful couple of opthalmists (Cape Lookout).

Second day: 30 miles. Beautiful morning with mist and sunshine with our first real look at the Pacific. Great! Pretty straight forward day, still good weather, but again we had a little too leaisurely a start (but it was a gorgeous beach). We ended up in a private RV park near Neskowin with heated swimming pool (which we didn't use as felt they were doing us a big favour: it was members only). Great hot showes though. An ex-airman of Scottish descent and his wife were running the show, demonstrating the growing crowd of retirees who have sold up and moved onto the road..


Day 3: 40 miles... so you see the way this is going. Pretty damp weather but great riding and we actually made it to our target camp ground (Beverly Beach). Buoyed by that sense of achievement we set off today with the aim of 50 miles.

However, not too far along the road... after a great lunch at a brewery, Ambers chain broke: at the aptly named 'Lost creek'. We (well, I kinda watched and learnt) repaired it but it broke again so I cycled into town and to get supplies and discovered the Laundromat had wi-fi. joy of joys!!

So, laundry done and both well fed, we aim again for our 50m tomorrow. The target distances are at some point going to have to break 100m/day (or even out round 70 - my preference) and probably involve a bus or train to make it to San Fran for Ambers birthday.

Hazards:

The 101 has in general been fine and the back roads of the cycle route gorgeous. The main hazards are debris from the road and at night drunken drivers; so we are understandably avoiding night time cycling. That said, I should sign off top get set up before it gets any later. Until my next exit..