Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Chehalis, WA - Naselle, WA (89 Mile day!)
I was woken up early by my good old friend Tom Weber, at 4:30am. I say "old" because he is 70 years young and still out riding me! And I say "good" because he may be reading this on his iPad! I was very tired and the sun had not yet come up! I slowly got up and moved around like a zombie for most of the morning and loaded my stuff into the van! Breakfast was provided by our wonderful church host at Faith Baptist Church! We had pancakes, eggs, sausage, orange juice, and oatmeal! A great and healthy way to wake up and start the day! We said a cheerful Oyee for the church as a team, and then hit the road around 6:30am! The first 20 miles weren't very hard, but took a good amount of time. I road with my buddies Mike Haiderer and Carmen Price. We kept up the same pace to the second rest stop and even had Sarah Robbins join the group! After the second rest stop I saw a post office and decided to pick up some stamps to mail letters to various friends! However, after buying some wonderful stamps, that for some reason were from Arizona, poor Carmen got a flat tire. We changed it quickly and then we were back on our way. It took us another 40 miles to catch up with Mike and Sarah. Finally we all road in together! It was a long ride, but it was nice to get off the saddle and have a shower and some lactose free chocolate milk! We had a delicious meatloaf, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and salad provided by the host church! They had plenty of food! And plenty of cupcakes!!
After being stuffed I helped clean some dishes while Tom supervised! Then a big group of us riders went over to the girls building to do a yoga video off of Jenn's computer! It was a great stretch! I went to bed at 10:21pm, but our fearless leader Allen was still working hard on the computer! He's a tough guy!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Naselle, OR - Tillamook, OR (82 mile day!)
Another early morning, waking up around 5:10am for our 5:30am breakfast! I decided not to have Tom wake me again today, since he kicked me yesterday! However, I fell back asleep and didn't wake up again until 5:20am. I zombied around to the van and then to breakfast. We had oatmeal along with a breakfast mix of some sort, it was very delicious! I may have over eaten a little. I headed outside looking for my bike and found that Mike had pulled a clever early morning prank on me! He put a "Sale" sign that I found on the side of the road next to my bike, out in front of the church! He some how new that I am most vulnerable during the early morning!
We sang a song for the devotion lead by Sher! The first 20 miles went by pretty fast and the group stayed together for the most part! At the rest stop we all tried to throw our banana peels into a nearby tree for them to hang out! But then Tom came up on his bike so we stopped before he yelled at us! Mike and I decided to stop at a Goodwill along the way to buy a rag for the "Ragman" story for devotions tomorrow! However, they were closed. We rode on, then caught up with Tom and missed a turn together! He blamed me, but then I reminded him of his GPS that's mounted on his bike! After catching up I rode with Sarah for the last 20 mile leg of the day! I got a back flat tire on a steep downhill! It was a little scary because I was going around 30mph when it happened. We stopped and I changed the tire while Sarah gave directions to some other cyclists across the road, who also had a flat, via her iPhone! We spent extra long at the last rest stop and I had 3 cupcakes! Then on the way into Tillamook we stopped at the Tillamook ice cream / cheese factory! We shared an Udderly Chocolate Malt! It was very delicious! After that however, the last 5 miles were a bit slow! We rode past a giant Air Museum off in the distance. It was used as a cliff hanger in WWII. The people from the church said that at one time it was the largest hand-made wooden structure in the world! That night we had breakfast for dinner and paid $2 for showers at the local YMCA. I bought Allen a shower!Mike and I cut up an orange shirt that he bought at a thrift store to use for the "Ragman" devotion tomorrow morning! And that night at dinner Sarah made me some delicious pancakes covered with peanut butter, sliced bananas and honey! MMMmmm, time for bed!
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Tillamook, OR - NewPort, OR (75 miles)
Started the morning with a 6:00am breakfast! It was nice to sleep in a little bit, a good reprieve! Again I was in early morning zombie mode, but managed to get a bagel from the end of breakfast! Covered it with peanut butter and was ready to go back to bed! ...but instead had to mount the bike and start pedaling! Mike and I led the devotion for that morning, we read the story of "The Ragman" --->http://www.angelfire.com/tx2/jbrown/ragman.html Then we handed out pieces of an orange shirt that we had cut up to use as rags. Some of us tied them to our wrists, I tied mine to my ankle, along with my Road ID band, and magnet necklace, I think it all looked pretty great! I lead the Oyee to thank Bethel Baptist church for hosting us! We had a pretty good start, but I spent too much time at the first rest stop and found that the dumpster was filled with ice cream that the shop had just thrown away... it was very tempting to eat some of the snickers bars/ klonidkes! They were still "luke cold" but I decided in my better judgement not to! So we headed on! Carmen got 2 more flats that we promptly changed! And then we headed on (again)! Sarah Doren and Tom Weber were sweeps today! (meaning that they stayed behind everyone and were the last to the church! But they get the reward of being first for dinner!) The last rest stop of the day was at a "view point" along the Pacific ocean! It was a beautiful sight, and they're were even whales out in the distant shores that we saw every now and then! It was a very great rest stop! Maybe one of the bests in FCBA history!
We pushed on to the church! Before heading to the pool to pay $2 for showers, a few of us decided to go to the local bike shop in Newport for some maintenance and new tubes! The bike shop owners was very gracious and gave us all a 10% discount when we told him that we were riding for a nonprofit! Then he even offered all of us that were there a shower upstairs in the shop! It was very kind of him, and about four of us all had nice hot showers for free! Sarah Robbins went in looking for a new seat, but they didn't have any softer ones in stock. So the owner took one off of an old bike and gave it to her for $20! There really are wonderful people out there! We came back to the Presbyterian Church for a spaghetti dinner provided by their youth group! I warmed up one of my double chocolate chip muffins that I picked up at the start of the trip in Seattle! It was a delicious dessert to a delicious meal! I also went to the local walmart and picked up some rubber bands to help store my patched tubes, and some batteries with a charger for my camera, so now I can take more pictures! :D
Now it's time for bed and resting up! 100 mile day tomorrow!
Friday, July 20, 2012
Newport, OR - Northbend, OR (98.5 miles!)
It's our first "close to" century ride for the trip so far! I awoke on a nice cushy and comfy couch! I think I slept the whole night without waking up once! A great sleep! A heavy rain had set in last night, which now had let up to a misty drizzle! It was still pretty nippy outside, around 55 degrees! I was not looking forward to this ride so much without the sun, and heavy fog present!
Luckily the breakfast team got up early and made eggs with a potato mix for us! It was a really great meal, and I finished off the left over eggs, along with the help of my side kick Lisa Corsi! We were both pretty full though! We started the ride off pretty slow, trudging through the puddles and mist from the cars! Carmen, Sarah and I all started off together, but Sarah picked up the pace, because she was getting too cold! My hands were a slight bit numb as we descended from the hills! I enjoyed the conversation with Carmen, it made the ride go by faster! And I kept thinking that it couldn't be rainy/foggy all day, because we are going a distance of 100 miles! At the first rest stop I was still pretty full so I just decided to drink some honey for some quick carbs and sugar! It worked pretty well, but by mile 30 I was starting to get hungry! Finally we reached mile 45 and the next rest stop! The sun had started to come out and the sun was a warm welcome! It still remained foggy along the coast, but when we veered inland it was very warm!
This is a picture of Luke, not only did the rain from the road get us wet, it also covered us all in mud!There was a cat at the second rest stop that reminded me of our last cat Smokey! Except a lot more friendly! We were eating when another biker came up and told us that the two people sweeping for us (Tom and Tim) were having a serious bike problem and needed the van to go back for them! Luckily no one was hurt, but Tim's back derailleur had broke off and hit jammed his back spokes, breaking a few! It was a new bike too, only 3 months old. Unfortunately the warranty only covered the frame, so he had to foot the bill himself, and had to wait in the van until we reached Eureka, CA before the bike shop could fix it! The next segment was very pretty and lots of greenery all along the road! I road with former rider Rae and we had a good talk about life and food! She kept pointing out the raspberries on the side of the road, but said she wasn't tall enough to pick them! I took that as a hint, so we stopped and had a few! ...They were very sour however, so we just mashed the leftover ones onto each other during our raspberry fight! When we came to the rest stop everyone thought that we had a bad accident! But, after explaining it kind of made sense.. but not really! At the rest stop we saw a woman running with a stick who stopped and started to talk to us. She was with a group who were running from Alaska to Guatemala as a form of tribal prayer for world peace! It was very interesting, they only run about 6-12 miles a day! Finally riding the last segment was beautiful, the sun was completely out and it had warmed up into the 80's. I had the rest of the animal crackers mounted to my handlebars and pedaled my way into North Bend! I caught up with Sarah and we had a nice talk along with a great tail wind that really made the final stretch a great one! And we were both very happy to get off of the bikes for the day! After entering the town I stopped off with Mike and Hannah and we got milkshakes! It was a good way to refuel! Then we finished up the last 5 miles and made it to the church! Taco salad for dinner, along with the left over refried beans! I wouldn't suggest eating just refried beans! I was stuffed afterwards and had to lay down for awhile! Slept on a church pew and am very ready for a 7:12am breakfast in the morning!
Saturday, July 21, 2012
North Bend, OR - Port Orford, OR (55 miles!)
Waking up at 7:12am was tremendous! I was still late to breakfast and just grabbed a bagel with peanut butter, along with a banana! We had our devotional and was ready for our short distance day! I caught up with Carmen who had a flat tire (even though she had just had one of her sponsors donate two $100 tires!) I felt bad for her, but we think it just didn't have enough PSI! So we pumped it up very high and she was good to go! We embarked on a road called "Seven Devils Road." It didn't seem to intimidating at first, however after a very tough climb we saw "First Devil" spray painted in the road! After about 4 more devils it was starting to get tough! But we persevered and made it to Devil number 7! After that we stopped at the rest stop! Andrew had hurt his ankle and decided to wait it out in the van, so Burgess (our media guy) got permission to ride his bike for the rest of the day! I decided to wait for him so that he wasn't riding alone, but after we started he took off very quickly! We were going about 18 or 19mph the whole 20 miles! I pushed pretty hard to keep up with him! It was nice to have a quick ride and be at the last rest stop though! And the scenery was very beautiful along the coast that day! 
Still foggy, but giant rocks off in the distant shore, and big cliffs along the road, made the ride very much more enjoyable! The final rest stop was outside of a nice convenient store/food shop! Most of the riders were still there and had been hanging out for awhile! So I joined in and bought a milkshake, along with home made double chocolate ship muffins for $1 to store for later! It was great sitting on the warm cement and relaxing! Only 15 more miles and we were at the church! Again I road in with Sarah and we had a tail wind! We talked just about the entire 15 miles and arrived at the American Legion building where we were spending the night! Showers at the high school and stir fry for our "evening meal" (Allen and I came up with the word using our phone thesaurus!) I taught Allen how to play minesweeper while we waited, and informed him "that they're not going to sweep themselves!" He beat intermediate by the next day! Some of us went down to the beach, while a few went to the local bar/restaurant "Red Fish" and played spades! We were all disappointed that their was a cliff in the way of the sunset! One of theses days I will see it set over the Pacific!Sunday, July 22, 2012
Off Day in Port Orford, OR (0 miles!)
We all got up at various times for breakfast and church services! I decided to go the the later Lutheran church service along with my friend Tom Weber and Sarah Robbins and a few others! It didn't start til 11am, so I was able to sleep in! We ventured over and had a very enjoyable time! The sermon was on Catfish, and how they make cod stronger by chasing them! The pastor was explaining to us how to deal with our "catfish" in life! The sermon really spoke to me! Tom got up and spoke to the congregation about our ride and what the Fuller Center is about. We received some donations and coffee cake! I was very happy! Then we went to "The Crazy Norweigien" for lunch! I had the Uff-da burger! It was delicious and I was nice and full! We spent some time exploring, but there wasn't very much to do in this small town! Everyone was hoping that the town would have a movie theater playing "Rise of the Dark Night" (the new Batman movie!) But the only theater within 50 miles was only playing Snowwhite. Sarah, Mike and I decided to go to the grocery store in hopes of a Redbox, but found none. Sarah bought some V8 and I found a balloon outside! I drew a picture of Allen and wrote about how he was a great leader, then tied it to his bike when we got back to the American Legion building. We had chili for dinner! We had a group meeting and switched choir groups for the week! My group is now on breakfast duty! My leader Jenn informed me that I needed to be ready by 5am to help stir oatmeal! ...So I slept in the kitchen! In bed by 10:00pm!Monday, July 23, 2012
Port Orford, OR - Crescent City, CA! (85 miles!)
It was an exciting morning! I slept in my bike clothes so that I was ready when I woke up! I sat there stirring the oatmeal for about 20 minutes before it was ready! We made 35 servings! Everyone came in and we all ate, it was pretty delicious oatmeal if I may so say myself! After that we had a devotion lead by Allen, he read Mother Teresa's poem "Do it Anyway" http://www.turnbacktogod.com/mother-teresa-poem-do-it-anyway/
It was a very motivating way to start the day! I volunteered to "sweep" for the day, along with Eric! Everyone was excited because we knew that we were entering California today! The day really flew by! There were beautiful views! We had two very hard climbs from 1ft elevation up to 700ft! But most of the day we had a nice tail wind that helped push us up the climbs! It was great talking with Eric, we have a lot in common and talked about how important eating healthy food is, and how much it can change your moods and overall physical feeling! The rest stops came quick! And this was the first day that we were able to see the sun rise without and fog or clouds! It warmed up by 10am to almost 80 degrees! We finally started to see palm trees! The towns were very much California-like! We had our picture taken in front of the "Welcome to California" sign! The last 22 miles were probably the toughest, but everyone was in a great mood because it was warm and sunny! We arrived in Crescent City around 3:00pm. The church we stayed at had showers and a gymnasium! I joined in some of the card games as we waited for the hot water to warm up for the showers! After a shower I went to the Safeway to buy a tub of ice cream to split with Mike, Pete, and myself before dinner! They paid for it, I just had to be the carrier! I got double brownie rocky road! It was very delicious! I also picked up two decks of playing cards for Wendy! She asked me to get two different color decks, so I bought a blue and a red, however once I returned I found out that one of the decks was for "Piccolo." I had never heard of that game, but apparently there were eight 7's in the deck! I offered to return them, but she said it was fine! We had hot dogs, baked beans, and pasta salad for dinner! After four hot dogs I found out that they were going to throw away the beans! So I ate all of the left overs! Looking back on this, I don't think it was a good life choice! I was really bloated the next morning! I walked with Sarah to CVS to buy some ointment for her bug bites, we also got Carmen some M&M ice cream! She was thrilled! I found a nice strong metal railing inside of the gym and tied my hammock up to it! I had wonderful sleep for the whole night!Tuesday, July 24, 2012\
Crescent City, CA - Eureka, CA (84.9 miles)
I woke up a little late this morning, missing out on helping stir the oatmeal, but I think my team was okay without my skills! I was pretty sluggish moving around this morning. After breakfast we had a nice devotion in song led by Jenn. She picked out the song Beautiful Things, by Gungor. --->http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR7VOKQ0xJY It was a very beautiful and wonderful song to start the day with! I loved having it on my mind all day long! After the devotion I grabbed a pump to fill my back tire. After adding some air, I started to hear a leak. Mike and Jenn were sweeping today, so I let them know. Mike took off my tire and said I needed a new one, then put on a new tube with a new tire.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Off day in Eureka, CA (7 miles!)
I woke up to my phone ringtone. I had forgot to set it on silent mode before bed and my dad was calling me. It was about 7:15am, very early! I got up and went down stairs to call him back. We had a good talk and recalled some old friend's names! Then I grabbed a couple of things to eat and went back upstairs. I tried to wake Sarah up to go get breakfast, but both of us just ended up going back to sleep. The room had no windows, so it was completely dark! Finally we got up around 10:30am and decided to head to Denny's.
