Tailwind

Glorious tailwind! The entire week we spent in Oregon,battling the vicious tailwind and frequent drizzle we were told that the windswould shift on Friday. That riding a bike would be fun again. Our spirits mayhave been tattered, but were far from being broken.

The morning we left Honeyman State Park, my sister needed tocatch a bus home to Portland, so there was some logistical stuff to sort out,but Howard and I were still set on making a full day out of it. I rode back toFlorence with my sister, ensuring that she caught the bus successfully, andnoticed that my northerly journey was met with some resistance. Could it betrue?? The winds had changed overnight and would be at our backs that day.

So when we left Honeyman, we blasted down south all the waypast the dune buggy rentals and Coos Bay to stay at Sunset Bay State Park, onthe Cape Arago Highway.  This place wasbeautiful! A short walk from the campground had some really cool trails andhidden coves to explore, and celebrate our first day cruising with the wind.

At this point, we had been seeing a few other campersconsistently, so we rode with a cyclist from Vancouver, BC, and one from NewZealand, whom is still riding with us and had become part of the group.Together, we rode a section of road called Seven Devils, which might have beena good warm-up for what was to come in California, only we didn't know it atthe time. All we knew was that there was Bacon in Bandon Oregon, and that wasthe goal. On this trip one of the many things I am learning about bicycletouring is how food-motivated you become, and how exciting it is when you getthat meal plan in mind and stick to it. I am still motivated to eat healthyfoods on the road, but after a hard day of riding, there's nothing quite likethat night out at a restaurant, or the breakfast stop 20 miles into the ride.

Anyway, our tailwinds carried us for a couple more daysthrough gorgeous Oceanside towns like Port Ordord, and we landed at HarrisBeach State Park, right outside of Brookings. It was here that we had one ofthose fun nights out, filled with some minor debauchery and a night ridethrough town to top it off. This was my favorite state park so far, and thelast of the luxurious Oregon state parks, which are all equipped with freeshowers and occasional laundrymats. It was a great way to spend our last nightin Oregon before a mildly disappointing introduction to California the nextday, explained in the next entry.