July 14-Day 6 Nehalem Bay Campground to Lincoln City 70.5 Miles 3000 ft climb

Todays ride is dedicated to our freinds at CH2MHill.  Thanks for your support Lee!

Kevins words of wisdom for the day as the sun made a 3 minute appearance today..."look at the bright side, its sunny and theres a tail wind if youre travelling North".  Of course it was a strong head wind for us and it rained all morning.

Camping in the rain is great if you plan for it.  Its July so we planned for summer camping not early spring or fall camping.  Such is life.

Electronics...they are nice.  GPS, Bike Computers, Cameras, Video Cameras, Phones and Laptops.  They do complicate life, and as we learned the hard way, when everyone plugs into a port on the new van overnight, the battery will be sucked down to zero volts.  AAA has no problem finding campgrounds.

Sarah and Shannon are eager to ride and they do intend to make their goals.  Their parents are being very conservative with safety.  It was too windy and raining for them on Hwy101 today, so they had to remain with the van.  Not so bad, they got to do fun stuff.

The support team got to visit Tillamook Cheese Factory.  We got to eat cheese.

It is interesting the solo conversations that one has when in the bike saddle for 5 hours.  Here is an example of an in cranium stream. 

The ravens have been very noisey and they have been appearing frequently. They make many noises, but yesterday and today, they were laughing at us. In fact, last evening there was a raven doing its best Kookabura imitation and Kevin said "dude, that bird is laughing at you". I had to agree, he was mocking me. The laughter continued today. We would approach a hill, beads of sweat would appear and a raven would swoop down and laugh. So I was thinking about my Moms connection with the Frog Clan. While she is not Native American, one of her specialties was teaching elementary school children about the Native American culture using a collection of artifacts, many of which were given to her by her father. In any case, she knew Frog Clan and was probably an honerary Frog Clan member...that would make me the son of an honerary Frog Clan member. While living and working in Alaska, I heard many stories about Frog and Raven. They didn't always get along well. So...the ravens were letting me know today, that they know I am somehow connected to Frog Clan and they were having a laugh about it. Ha Raven, we will persevere!

That was hour 3, hour 4 was mental re-runs of the Bohemian Rhapsody scene in Wayne's World. Hour 5 was simply, "my butt really hurts..."

 Written by Sarah Toland

Alright... well, (this blogging thing is new to me. Fun!) this whole trip, in summary has been interesting. It's been really fun, yet we've had several bumps along the way. But because we are doing this for something we are truly passionate about, i've noticed that we are not easily discouraged. I know that there have been some times, like this morning when I was taking down my tent in the pouring rain, when i've thought, ...really?? But, when I think about the big picture, I don't mind the rough spots that much.

        So far...I've logged about 32 miles. I had hoped to have logged more by now, but there have been some road conditions preventing my sister and I from riding. However, the days that I have been on my bike have been really awesome. The last ride was mostly flat, with a few brutal hills. But...what goes up, must come down. So naturally there were awesome downhills following them. I was also happy when I realized that I was able to ride to Seaside without trouble.

          Mom has been a great help to all of us in the support van. She always drives by and yells and cheers at us when we're riding. It's great for motivation and support. Because of the non-ideal riding conditions, I have also spent a lot of time in the car with mom and Shannon. That has also been fun. Ive gotten to catch up on some sleep, and witness lots of awesome scenery. We've also done a lot of... sort of random things along the way. For example, yesterday, my sister and I went on the bumper cars at Seaside. She kicked my butt. Over all, it's been a great ride. I'm looking forward to getting more miles done, and getting closer to my goal of 500.