Day 39, June 14 2009, Florence to Lincoln City, Oregon

12:28pm

I’ll have to make this one a little brief, since it’s getting late and we have a long ride ahead of us tomorrow into Portland. However, to make up for a lack of words, more pictures will be included!

From the beginning: Breakfast in Florence was much like our dinner. Outstanding and incredibly filling. After egg casserole, cereal, sausages, 3 donuts (can’t keep my hands off of ‘em!) freshly made yogurt parfaits and English muffins, I was more ready to take a nap than hit the road. I just love breakfast to death, so words can’t express how happy I am when there is an incredible spread of food for us before riding out. Typically, I ate until I was extremely uncomfortable (spandex definitely does not help a full tummy) but was still able to waddle my way out the door to the garden for our ride dedication.

I rode today again for Kitty, Vivien and for two new people. Connie, the wonderful lady who let us shower and do laundry at her place in Florence, asked us to ride for her friend Dina, who is a breast cancer survivor, so I spoke of her story. Secondly, I rode for Cathy Foerster’s dedications. Cathy is our host in Anchorage, who is so excited for us to arrive and has gone above and beyond to prepare for our arrival. She is constantly sending out these awesome emails telling us about all she has in store for us when we arrive! Anyway, Cathy sent me an email a couple of days ago asking that I ride for her dad, and her husband’s mom and dad, all who lost their battle against cancer. So Cathy, I rode for you and your loved ones. And thank you for the email! ☺

Once more heartfelt dedications had been shared, we gathered close together, and Richard led us in the hakka. I just love how we have everyone on our team lead the hakka. It is just so empowering for me when a different rider everday kneels down, ready to lift our spirits and fill us with strength. Hakka completed, we hit the road. The hospitality in Florence didn’t end there of course. On our way out of the town, we were escrted by the fire department in a huge red fire truck. I was able to snap a picture of the truck in the back of our group, as it flashed its lights and honked its horn in support of us. Once we reached the city limits, we rode off on our own, ready for the day’s adventures.

Our total mileage today was 74, but it ended up being one of our longest days yet. However, this was attributed to two awesome rest stops. Within about 10 miles from leaving Florence, we reached one of the world’s largest sea lion cave. The Florence community members were so awesome that they bought passes to the cave for the entire team! We jumped off our bikes and rolled into the gift shop. We looked around for quite a while at all the sea lion featured gifts, and of course I bought a tshirt, (trust me Mom, I’m going to continue to wear all these when I get home) which I am actually wearing right now. We eventually made our past the sea lion statue (snapped a pic), down the stairs and down the elevator to the cave.

This cave was ridiculous. There were tons and tons of these massive sea lions, calomering all over the rocks, squeezing into a space to rest, while trying to avoid the cranky, bigger sea lions. Although the cave smelt terrible (Hey, there are hundreds of sea lions. What do you expect?) we definitely had fun watching all the sea lions playing around, swimming and even fighting sometimes!

They are just the goofiest look animal to me, and a group of us decided that they resemble bears, but without the arms and legs. After joking around, taking pictures, reading all of the information displays and goofing around, we headed back up the elevator to head outside.

The fun did not stop there. Right before taking off from our rest stop at mile 10, Megan and Kath and I decided that it was finally time to start the “stache bash”. The growing facial hair of the men on this team is a very popular subject, usually including the maintenance, shaping and preference of style. We had joked for a while that we should just Sharpie some mustaches on our lips in order to join in the fun, and today, that dream became a reality. Jon, as always, had a sharpie on him, and the artwork began. First up was Megan.

Megan decided to go with the thin and curly, French-styled stache. Following Megan, it was my turn.

I was going to go with a Charlie Chaplin/Hitler little number, but opted for something with a little more meat. I told Jon to just give me something bushy, and he did just that. Last but not least, Kathryn.

Kathryn had long since had her heart set on the handlebars look, and had her wishes come true. After much patience on Jon’s behalf, since we would laugh everytime the marker hit our lips, our staches were complete. Behold, the Stache Bash (with Joe):

Yes, our humor usually tends to fall on the side of immaturity, but we couldn’t have been happier. We knew we had a great ride infront of us, with our upper lips decked out in the finest Sharpie ink. Now along the road, we definitely did get some nervous and confused looks. It was a constant battle to stay on our bikes, since we would laugh so hard after we caught a driver looking at us, or if we passed a pedestrian. Just to give you a feel, just imagine it’s any other day, you are out taking a stroll down the road, or perhaps out running some quick errands, and BOOM, out of no where, you see this:

Least to say, it was an amusing ride. Riding on further up the Oregon coast, with confident mustaches, we eventually arrived at our second rest stop. Steven, Sheila and Scoyle were the sag drivers, and they did a superb job of hooking us up with burritos, rice and beans for every single rider in their own box. Perfect lunch! Our rest stop was at a beach, so after lunch, we went to go check it out. I was so excited, because to me, it was an actual beach, with long dunes and a long, sandy beach up until the water. We threw off our shoes and socks and ran to the water. A group of us spent a great deal of time splashing in the water, digging in the dunes, playing in the sand and enjoying the amazing view. It was beautiful! Once I get Kath’s camera, I squeeze in a couple pics of the beach! We played around for quite a while, throwing wet sand at each other and splashing around each other, before we headed back to the van. After we dusted the sand off of our feet, we hit the road again.

The rest of the ride proved to be quite a challenge, We had heard for days about the headwinds we would encounter, and oh goodness, did we encounter them today. It was very slow moving, against the winds and up the hills. Luckily, we had just the most gorgeous views, and it definitely kept my spirits high to be able to see the ocean while riding.

During the ride, Megan broke a spoke on her bike, so we had to make an early rest stop at mile 50, or so. Two bananas, two energy gels and some cheese nips later, we boarded our bikes again. I was kind of bummed we chose to miss the last rest stop, since the girls had the Spice Girls playing, but the sag drivers were so kind to give us some drive by gummis. They stood out in the bike lane, hands full of gummi bears, and handed them off to us while we road through. It was awesome.

After some very touch headwinds, we finally made it into Lincoln City!

We were able to enjoy a wonderful lasagna dinner with salad and bread, fresh fruit and some brownies for dinner and dessert. For the rest of the evening, we showered (hot!) blogged, playing a new game of Dork on the pool table, played foosball, watched some Tour de France and relaxed. Now, almost everyone is asleep and I’m going to hit the sack! Tomorrow, PORTLAND!!!