Riding the Pacific Coast and Questioning My Judgement

Dear friends and family,

I am sitting inside a small cottage in Cannon Beach, Oregon. The rain just started as I arrived here an hour ago. 

It sure felt good to again be riding the loaded bike. This trip I started from Astoria instead of Port Townsend because of the late start. The late start was due to a wonderful family reunion trip to my sister’s house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in a town called Duck. Since I will most likely be out in the rain a lot this November, I thought of my mascot being a duck (from there )since these animals can enjoy the rain and I hope to remember that and enjoy it as well.

Even with the aftermath of an Atlantic Hurricane, the beach was wonderful to enjoy.

An additional late start was due to an “atmospheric river” that hit this coast over last weekend. A good reason to postpone and start further south.

Before leaving on this trip, I was starting to get like Ishmael in the beginning of MOBY DICK  when needing to get to sea: “…it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street and methodically knocking people’s hats off…”

For Ishmael the cure was to get to sea, for me it can be either to sea or to a bike tour. As far as I remember, no hats were knocked off, so I made it out just in time!

Once I start a tour, I always wish that I had trained more, but life and visits and travel seem to get in the way. My dear friend Sue told me long ago that you can train yourself into shape on a tour, but forgot to tell me that it would be painful. Even today, with only a twenty eight mile ride (on a loaded bike), I wasn’t always comfortable. Understatement.

My bags on this trip weigh more than nine pounds less than what I carried last year in Europe. If each year as I complete another trip around the sun I lower the weight I carry, then in a few short years I’ll be biking naked to save weight. 

My goal is to head towards San Diego, note the “towards” as I may enjoy it less once I get to more populated places, but I am open to figuring it out as I go.

Post this tour I have a planned rowing and sailing tour planned starting in Brownsville, Texas to make my non-motorized was up the coast of Texas to Louisiana and points further east.

I was notified in April of a screaming deal on a twenty foot sailing a rowing boat called a Liteboat, and couldn’t pass it up, so had to find a challenging way to use it. Hence the Texas Gulf Coast plan.

This boat was used in the Race to Alaska in year 2018, sailed by the owner of the company. Videos are on YouTube of both the boat and the race. My model is a Liteboat XP20. But that’s another adventure after this one, and since hurricane season doesn’t end until after November, this trip fills the gap nicely.

I cannot help but compare the start of this biking  trip to the start of last year’s trip in the south of France. 

The attached pictures show that the food offering is similar🙂

Prices are significantly higher for lodging here in the US compared to Europe, and since this is a visa use trip (meaning I pay and stay at motels), this could be an expensive one. 

Here’s where I am already questioning my judgement. I am riding in an expensive country, staying at motels and eating out, and on a very expensive coast to live on and tour. After a whole single day out, I cannot help see why camping is the way to go to be anything but super speedy here. Why I thought the off-season would be significant cheaper I don’t know. Maybe this will force a shortened trip.

Other bike tours were to either less expensive parts of this country or to significantly cheaper countries. Note to self!

Now I am off to explore the beach and the town of Cannon Beach. Maybe they have a senior special if I get in the restaurant early enough.

I did go out, feeling sorry for myself and my choices so far, so I indulged:

Beer, fish and chips, followed by ice cream and cheese doodles. I can feed my bad judgement with crap.

But, like the Catholic boy that I was raised it allowed me to find my feelings. Even for a male of the species. Feelings of guilt, shame, and regret. Not for the choices I made of the trip, but of the choice to not care properly for myself. Of course it made me feel like shit, so I guess I’ve gotten that out of my system and now I can care better for myself the remainder of this journey.

Sending love,

Charley