Miles biked: 32 (714.5 overall)
Time on bike: 3 hours, 11 minutes, 52 seconds
Maximum speed: 29.7 mph
Roads taken: 101 South, Riverside Drive, 1st Street.
Places stopped: Sea Star Guesthouse (for the night) ... in Bandon (laundromat, ice-cream joint, grocery store for bread, library, crab shack place for Chowder, bar briefly for Cinco de Mayo and horrible karaoke).
Tuesday was a quick day on the bike. I must thank the weather for that.
I left David and Tauni's place a little before 8, and right away I knew the weather wasn't going to cooperate. Quickly, I was pedaling in a steady rain.
Luckily, I wasn't right on the coast. In fact, I wasn't even taking the Adventure Cycling route because of where I started. From North Bend, that route had me taking a few back roads through the coastal town of Charleston and then into Bandon.
Instead, since I was farther north in Coos Bay, I just hopped back on 101 and weaved my way down toward Bandon -- and the ocean.
My game plan was to get to Bandon and then reassess the situation (mainly, that is, the weather).
And everything was going according to plan until I arrived at the short drawbridge that crosses the narrow Coquille River before the town of about 2,833 people.
As I started biking over the tiny bridge, I was hit by a plethora of wind gusts that pushed me toward the center of the two-lane overpass. Luckily, the cars behind me knew what was going on and didn't try to sneak right by me.
I, meanwhile, leaned with all my might to the right while fiercly pedaling. After about 31 terrifying seconds of this, I was on the other side and en route to Bandon.
My reward? The rain picked up and completely drenched me as I took Riverside Drive into town.
After a cup of hot chocolate and some french toast at the breakfast joint appropriately named "Lloyds," I noticed on my map that there was purportedly a hostel in town.
Knowing that I was in no rush, and knowing that I was soaked -- my feet were cold and my shorts were making the restaurant's seat nice and soggy -- and knowing that hostels are usually cheap, I decided I'd give it a shot.
So I rode over to the place, which -- of course -- is no longer a hostel. Bandon, Oregon, believe it or not, had a hard time maintaining such a place. It had actually become more of a beachfront hotel, with rooms up near $100 a night.
But in a stroke of luck, there was still a single double room (a hostel-type room).
The nice gentleman at the office, red nose and all, said that another biker was already staying in the room but added that I could bunk up with him for $25. Then he said that if I paid cash, I could give him $20 plus tax. Then, when I didn't have the tax money on me, he said the $20 would do.
So I had a nice, warm room -- I mean, it was really, really warm -- and a place to shower for a reasonable price.
And I had an afternoon to burn.
So I biked up to the local shopping center and did my laundry. Then I biked to the other side of town, which happened to be quite the trek, and visited the local library (I think my "dry" cloths might have gotten a little wet, as a slight rain had picked back up).
That evening I met my biking roomate, Emmett (I hope I spelled that right). He was a cool guy from Portland, just biking down the coast to San Francisco. He was actually on a much tighter time schedule, needing to get to the Bay Area before May 12 -- and thus he planned on hopping a bus down to Brookings and the California border the next day.
Still, it was cool talking to a fellow cyclist and exchanging stories. Also, he's from Vermont and will be a caretaker at a hut in the state's Green Mountains this summer, so that'll be an opportunity to meet up again -- this time in the wilderness.
The night ended with optimistic thoughts about the Oregon weather turning a corner in the coming days.
And then I woke up...
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