One State Down - Two To Go!

Distance cycled to date: 1901 km

Flat tires to date: 6 (Jeff - 4, Keenan - 2)

Homes invited into by strangers to date - 3

Blackberry bushes spotted in the ditches since BC - incalculable

Days in the United States to date: 12

Money spent on accommodation in the United States to date: $33.50

Nearly halfway down the Oregon coast, in Newport, we have found another free Wifi signal, and so, finally, we are able to update our blog.  It's been an eventful week and a half since our last entry, with far too much to write about.  

Continuing with our theme of kind strangers - the United States has definitely shown us that kindness is alive and well with our southern neighbours.  We received our first invitation into somebody's home over the past week - and it happened as we sat outside an elementary school, trying to plan where to stay the night.  A kind teacher came out, and I'm sure wondering what we were up to in the playground, came up to us and started a conversation.  It turned out that he was an extremely well travelled gentleman, and almost immediately invited us to his house for dinner, and a clean, warm bed to sleep in.  His wife didn't even seem to mind either, and we had a great night exchanging stories with this wonderful couple after eating a delicious steak dinner, barbequed just for us.  

The next day we set out from southern Washington, and made the somewhat precarious trip across the Astoria--Megler bridge, a full 4.1 miles of white-knuckled riding, in which somehow my bike computer fell off.  We weren't too interested in risking our lives to turn around and search the bridge deck for it, and so, we pedaled our way on into Oregon, where we were greeted by more rain; the weather of this west coast.  It was great to get to the famed Oregon coast, which we had been eagerly anticipating as we rode throughout the fog-covered roads in the inland of Washington, where our scenery seemed to be either more fog, or when it finally lifted - clear cut logging.  

We took our first "weekend" of the trip, and stayed for 3 nights outside Tillamook with my friend Katherine, with whom I shared an exchange in Sweden almost 5 years ago.  It was great to spend time with an old friend, and also great to have a warm bed, and a daily shower for a change.  We were invited in to her neighbours house one night, where we were treated to another great night of conversation, food, and drinks.  It was great to meet some more interesting characters, and we certainly had a very fun night.

The weather finally changed for the better, and we saw the sun and blue sky for what seemed like the first time since entering the US.  It completely changes our outlook on this lifestyle, and just makes biking a whole lot more fun.  We suffered through a lot of rain and extremely windy days over the past 2 weeks, and while we've managed to just keep pedaling every day, the sun just makes the days so much better.

Yesterday, we finally hit the road again after our weekend and enjoyed the beautiful coastline of Oregon.  We stopped for lunch outside a Safeway in Lincoln City, and sat on a bench, eating the bagels that we had bought the day before, from a Safeway in Tillamook.  As we finished eating, a retired couple came up to us, and told us that 3 times now, they have found cyclists sitting on that same bench - and that every time, they invite them over to their house to stay.  We had only biked 50 km in the past 3 days, so we didn't think we should be stopping yet - but we couldn't say no to their enthusiastic hospitality, and so we followed them home and had a great, relaxing afternoon in their ocean front home.  After they loaded us up with as much food as we could carry, we went on our way, making our way further south.  Since we spent so much of the afternoon there, we couldn't quite race the setting sun to Newport, so we were "forced" to spend the night camped out at a highway viewpoint.  We woke up this morning to the ocean out our front door, our most beautiful camp site yet - and a park ranger walking towards us.  He let us know that camping isn't actually permitted at day-use areas here in Oregon.  Who knew?

Now that the weather has turned back to fog and rain, we know it's our cue to start moving again.  That, and the cafe that we are sitting in is putting the chairs on the tables.  So, further south we'll go, and hopefully keep you updated a bit more frequently!  We've put on our photo album from Washington.  Admittedly, it's not our best album - but that's just what we had to work with!  Until next time...