Sunday, June 1, 2008

Day Twenty – Fearless Four

Day Twenty – Fearless Four

Florence to Bandon

Daily Brief

Bob left back to CA, we hit some steep hills (that Chandler didn’t think were there), some dude’s car flipped, and we got a great deal at a motel

The Ride

Last night our all our crew (except Shaun and Parry) awoke in the night to the sounds of what sounded like a wild pig being eaten, or something to that effect. That was around 3:00 AM. At around 7:30 AM Parry, and probably some of the other campers where pondering on how to scare away, or trap, or eat the crows that liked to land near our tent and bellow there calls across the entire state park. On the upside we didn’t sleep in that long.

We ate some snacks then hit the road. A few miles down the road we stopped at a Myrtle wood shop. Bonnie bought a mirror and Bob bought a few items as well. We then ate breakfast at McDonalds, which had decided just moments before I asked for a breakfast sandwich, to throw out all their breakfast stuff. So we had cheeseburgers for breakfast.

The day flew by and we ended up in North Bend, Oregon. Bob had to go back to California for some business so he got a flight from North Bend back to San Francisco. We ate lunch then said our goodbyes. It was sad to see Bob go, he had kept our pace increasing the longer he was with us. The last few days it was because he would call out changes every mile so that a new person would lead. It was pretty effective it getting us to move quicker. For the rest of the ride today we didn’t really switch off, our pace slackened, and we moved apart (were way spaced out), although there where times that we weren’t. This is the first time we only had four riders since day one. The fearless four will continue on though, don’t you worry.

After lunch also came the hills. You know it’s going to be good when the name of the road is “seven devils”. Chandler had originally thought this was going to be kind of a flat day, that idea was shot down by Chris, Shaun, and the hills. Parry never bothered to look at the map. Thankfully the hills weren’t forever hills, just very steep hills.

The most intense part of the day was when a car flipped. So, as we were cruising the hills we all got separated and Chandler was ahead of everyone else. As he was biking along he approached a bend in the road and at that time a car came around the bend faster then it should have been going. Chandler was on the far right and the car already had passed him, but somehow the guy saw Chandler out of the corner of his eye, tried to hug the inside corner too tight then overcorrected and ended up sliding across both lanes into the oncoming lanes ditch and the car flipped (more like flopped) over onto its roof. Chandler went back and the guy was a little confused, but then crawled out of his car. Some other cars stopped and someone called 911, but everyone was fine. Eventually all the riders caught up and pushed his car fully off the road. The guy had already called a tow truck, so we said our goodbye’s and went on.

A few more miles and we were in our town for the evening. As usual, Shaun wanted to get a motel, Chris too and Chandler and Bonnie were good with it. Ergo, I am writing this in a motel, which we actually got a good deal on. The nice lady at the counter slashed the price by $45.00 per night. We had gone to a bunch of other motels, but they weren’t accommodating to our situation (stuffing 5 people into the cheapest room possible). I guess those empty parking lots are going to fill up with customers between now and…well, about now. All I’m saying is, they are the ones missing out.

Shaun, Chandler and Chris went out to eat. Bonnie and Parry stayed in the motel to chill and get some stuff done, like writing this. Plus, can you really beat hot soup, mandarin oranges, cheese and crackers for dinner? No, I didn’t think so. Oh, and Chris just gave me some Reeses. Reeses are good. (Chris told me to end this way, wait, now he’s saying not to drag him into this. I wonder what he’ll say when he reads this…)

Daily Stats

Distance: 79.6
Time: 5:39
Avg Speed: 14.1
Max Speed: 33.7

Total Distance: 1459.15

P&C Pushups: 140

No comments: