Monday, September 26, 2011

Into Oregon

Marsha at the wheel across Oregon
The drive across Idaho and Oregon put us in Cannon Beach, Oregon, just after dark last night (Sunday). We are camped (well, Airstreamed, which isn't really camping) just over the dunes from the ocean. Made two vital stops on the way across Oregon yesterday: Hood River to tour the roadside fruit stands and snag some fruits and, of course, some jams. And we couldn't go through the Portland area without a stop for some beers from McMenamin's, which we found just to the east of downtown Portland. No Ruby Ale, but found some Teminator Stout to bring home. We hope to find some Ruby Ales in Gearhart or Lincoln City along the coast before the week is out. 


Rain came in overnight and it is blowing and raining of Biblical proportions. Wind is 35-40 mph out of the southwest (the normal winds are out of the northwest, hence the popular direction is to ride the coast from north to south). Which means I'd be pedaling into the wind and rain. The good news is that it's not terribly cold. But the weather has brought down lots of branches along the road, so riding the wet shoulder covered in pine needles and a few branches will make it rather interesting. We saw only two (brave or suicidal?) cyclists today on Highway 101 going south and two yesterday heading toward Portland up some very long climbs. The locals don't think this weather is so horrific, but it's quite different from Colorado weather which of course is one reason why you travel - to see different things. So we are thankful today was a planned rest day. As for tomorrow, we'll have to see what comes. 
As I post this from Waves of Grain bakery and coffee shop in Cannon Beach, the rain is blowing sideways outside and Marsha has befriended a local gentleman who has lived here since the before they discovered the cannon at Cannon Beach, I think. She and another gal (architect who used to live in Jackson Hole, Wyoming where I got my start in publishing newspapers here in the West) are enjoying his stories while I'm posting a blog.
So what are we going to do about the weather? We hope today is the worst of it. Forecast calls for lighter rain tomorrow and sunny skies by Wednesday. Cross your fingers.
We'll talk soon.

On the road

Airstream on the road
So it took us all day Thursday to pack the trailer. Not surprising since Jim was away until Wednesday night. And its veggie harvest season, too, so Marsha was freezing beans from the backyard farm and getting ready to hit the road all at the same time. Amazing woman, that Marsha. I try to keep up as best I can but my Male-ness is a bit of a handicap! Or so I'm told.
It was 7:30 Thursday before we were about done packing the Airstream and we decided we'd leave anyway and put in a few miles - just because we could. We got as far as Cheyenne, Wyoming before both of us were fighting the Big Sleepy and weaving the trailer around the highway like sailors on shore leave. We headed for an advertised Curt Gowdy State Park until, a few miles off the Interstate over by the Air Force base, we discovered Gowdy's state park was another 24 miles up the back road toward Laramie. So we banged a Uie and eventually found a string of semi trucks pulled over on a wide spot of the road near a massive trucking depot. Marsha whipped our Airstream around again and pulled right to the front of the line. Snacked and racked by 12:30 AM. 
Friday early traffic roused us at sunrise and we drove all day into the Wyoming winds from Cheyenne to Snowville, Utah 7 miles from the Idaho state line. Just under 500 miles but it took all of 12 hours. We hold our speed to about 60-65. On the way to Cheyenne from Denver we averaged 15 MPG. But by Evanston we were averaging only 12.3 MPG against the winds. Coming down Desolation Canyon into Ogden and up to Snowville, Utah the average MPG went up to 12.7 for the trip as a whole. We ended up in Snowville, where there is rumored to be a monument to two of daughter Elizabeth's winter trips back to Lewis and Clark College - snowed in at the edge of Utah, not halfway to Portland from Grand Junction. Well, we looked around for said "monument" but only found an overdue bar bill at the Wayside Pub and Eatery.
Saturday's drive across Idaho put us in La Grande. More on that later.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The final training week

So this is my last real week (Sept. 12-17) to train for the Oregon ride. To be honest, I think maybe I'm over-worrying about the miles. I'm as ready for 390 miles of riding as my time and commitment have allowed. I rode 30 on Sunday and will do another 56 to the airport and back on Thursday this week. Then it's a busy weekend checking out our daughter, Andrea's Aveda Pure Talent 25th anniversary show and Lori Melena's art show both on Friday night, setting up the trailer for Oregon, seeing the new Ballet Nouveau Colorado on Saturday night and leaving for a family visit and business stop in Atlanta Sunday through Wednesday. Then we finish packing the trailer on Thursday and drive off on Friday morning to Evanston, WY or some other point West toward Oregon. The route follows the historic Oregon Trail much of the way! And if you are ever out Oregon way be sure to stop at the Oregon Trail historical site in the hills above Baker City, Oregon. The wagon ruts are still deep in the rock.
Thought you might find it interesting that we have been debating installing a composting toilet in the Airstream before we leave and decided against it. We thought we'd found a dealer in Pendleton, Oregon - right on the way to the coast - for the composting toilet we like best. It's the same Nature's Head these girls are using in their Green RV adventure Green RV Life project. They're taking an Airstream on the road full time this year.  But, alas, he doesn't do installations, just sells the unit. Says installation is a simple process. I've heard that before! A trailer as classy as the Airstream needs to have a real professional job done when changing out these systems and I'm afraid that's not within my job description. So we're going to wait till next year to install a composting toilet. We've already checked out the state park campgrounds on the coast and there's plenty of opportunity to keep the trailer empty.
We are, however, taking the 130 watt photo voltaic solar panel with us to keep the batteries charged when we're camping - for those special beach-front camp sites we might want to sit at that don't have electricity.
Okay, that's enough chat for now. The real adventure begins with the first day of riding Sept. 27. Drop me a note with any questions or comments. Talk later!

Friday, September 9, 2011

A different challenge

What can I say? My left leg is different. You'll see it in the photos - this rather stern, bald-pated look is of me before a ride up in Boulder County, Colorado, in July. I have had a condition known as lymphedema basically since birth, but as with most cases of Primary Lymphedema, it didn't show up until after puberty. Mine came on late, when I was 18. Nobody knew what was causing my ankle and calf to swell during senior year on the wrestling team. Within a few months the whole leg was swollen and getting nasty infections and nobody knew why. I wore ill-fitting compression garments for decades because that's all anybody could advise me, even at the famous Boston medical centers. It wasn't until I was in my mid-Thirties that I finally learned that I had lymphedema. Today I know that millions of people get this ailment as a Teenage, as I did, or as an after-affect of surgery that has included the removal of or damage to even a few lymph nodes. Breast cancer survivors often have significant lymphedema in their arm following a mastectomy. These post-surgery or post-injury patients have what is known as "Secondary Lymphedema". Lymphedema never goes away; there is no surgery and no magic pill. You just have to manage it carefully to keep the swelling from getting out of control.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Training and preparation

Preparing for the ride has been a challenge. Good! It should be. But I'm seldom as "prepared" as I'd like to be for these challenges I enroll in or find handed to me. Case in point: the Courage Classic bike ride here in Colorado. I've done it perhaps seven times. It's a 155-mile ride through Summit County from Leadville to Vail Resort to Copper Mountain, Frisco, Breckenridge and back to Leadville. It's three days of riding about 50 miles a day but with lots of climbing, some over 11,000 feet. Some years I was well prepared and it was a cruise; others I died a slow death on Vail Pass.

And so it is for this Oregon ride. With Sept. 27 the planned first day of riding I have about three weeks left to prepare. Let's just say I'm trying to convince myself I'm ready. Bad sign, huh? So what if I haven't yet ridden 60 miles in a stretch? I've done 40 to Bennett and back, does that count? And done some climbs to Lookout Mountain and Hoosier Pass. Another bad sign: saying I'll get stronger as the week progresses. "Train as I ride," kind of thing. A friend, Lon Nestrud, told me today that I could get stronger as my week of riding progresses. But am I in trouble here? I don't think so, but you'll probably hear more about this dearth of real training during the ride blogs.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Why and wherefore

I suppose we blog because we believe we have a story to tell. Hopefully one that others would find interesting and short of lobotomizing without anesthesia. Or because we blog to keep others up to date on some special activity. Which leads us to my blog. I'm cycling the Oregon coast in September, 2011 with my wife, Marsha, and our Airstream trailer. Yup, from top (Astoria) to bottom (Cali). 390 miles in 7 days of pedaling over and past dunes, shore and sea lions. It takes us through basically the largest continuous stretch of public beach in the country. Thanks to the Oregon governor in 1917, I think, who declared that the highway 101 right-of-way extended to the water. Now, I grew up cycling the backroads of some famous little coastal towns north of Boston where the beach has been privately owned since the days of the Pilgrims. And where residents of "Manchester by the Sea" are still restricting public access to an ocean you'd think should be free as the sky.

And is this "on my bucket list"? Well, I've stated that once or twice but please don't think I'm some Jack Nicholson with a negative forecast. My dad is 92 and so it seems I have at least another 30 years in me. You know, if the creek or tide don't rise too fast and all that.

Bucket list or not, biking the Oregon coast is something I’ve wanted to do since Elizabeth graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon in 2005. Marsha and I nested in a cottage in Netarts overlooking the bay south of Tillamook (remember those great radio commercials for Tillamook cheese and capturing for the queen! in the early 90's? That Tillamook) for a week. And we biked parts of that Three Capes Loop of the Oregon Coast bike route over what, it turns out, is the highest point on the entire coast ride - all of about 1,000 feet above sea level. Which, of course, you can actually see instead of in Colorado where "sea level" is just a reference point on a topo map. It was incredible fun despite one day of chilly, wet riding. Hey, it’s the coast, what could we expect? And it’s quite different from cycling in our home state of Colorado where rain is considered a special event instead of another degree of normal.

As for blogging this event, two special people in my life – my daughter Elizabeth and my college friend, Lynn Welbourn have both blogged before me. Elizabeth shared her adventure of three months in Thailand and India in 2011 at thevirtuesoflivingdangerously. Lynn told us of her bike ride last summer from the Pacific across the Rockies and Montana to Fargo in her blog Lynn's Blog. So it can be done, regardless of your age. I may as well dive in and see what you think.