NOTE: This happened May 7-8, 2016 and I’m just now getting around to posting about it. This time I can’t really say ‘oops’. I just need to stop being lazy about things. I’ll also add images eventually, probably. ADDITIONAL NOTE: Today is October 4th and I finally added pictures. DOH!
Dear readers… remember how, in Part 1 I bragged about how perfect the weather was? Yeah… it turns out Oregon doesn’t do two days of perfect in a row. At least not in my case.
I woke up in the ‘Hotel That Shall Not be Named’ and looked out the window. Gray, overcast skies greeted me, but from what I could see the world wasn’t damp. Turns out even that observation was wrong. After finally dressing and lugging my stuff downstairs I realized the bike was dripping water. It wasn’t raining, but that wasn’t preventing moisture from gathering everywhere it could. The air was thick enough to put a straw in. Although, based on where I was (Albany, OR) I’d recommend a LifeStraw. No use taking chances.
So, packed the bike and had an idea of where I wanted to go. My GPS was insistent on a route I wasn’t keen on. So I did what any human male would do – I got lost. I KNEW better than that stupid GPS. At least in theory. I ignored it’s prompts to take the highway, figuring I could eventually find the side road I wanted. Turns out I was wrong. Which I am admitting now. In front of the world. Yeah.
I moseyed into a gas station and asked the nice girl working if they had maps. I wish this wasn’t a mostly accurate transcript of our conversation:
“Do you have maps?”
“Like… Google?”
“No. Paper maps. Folded up…”
“Oh, yeah. I think so. Hang on, let me look.”
:proceeds to look at… anything but a map:
“I don’t think we have those.”
“Yeah, great… thanks for… never mind.”
Fortunately the guy working outside knew what I was looking for and gave me some pretty accurate directions. It was great. I was finally on my way and my GPS was finally into the game plan.
So I spent and extra hour and a half riding back and forth across random farm roads in Oregon. Not that big of a deal. Only I forgot to mention it was pissing rain the entire time. Yup, I forgot to mention I was riding through a cold and dreary shower the entire ordeal. Yeah, I had my Power Ranger suit so I was dry and warm, but that isn’t the point. The day before had been AMAZING!
At any rate, I finally found the path I wanted which led me into the mountains. Eventually I ended up having lunch at Takoda’s (stop 5) in Rainbow, OR. The food was good. The weather had cleared. I actually got to each lunch outside near a koi pond. I absolutely didn’t hate it.
After that I grabbed a drink at the local store and took the long way home. At one point I watched a hawk dive prey. I drove through towns that looked like they stopped in the 50s. All of this happened under warm sunshine. Apparently Oregon only wanted me to suffer in the morning. I’m guessing it was based on my choice of hotel.
At any rate, I had a fantastic weekend and would do it again in a heartbeat.
Ryan Cavalier 