So today's blog needs to start with a follow up to the end of yesterday. I actually had 2 flat tires yesterday. The first one happened fairly early in the day, no big deal, patched it ok, the second happened much later.
When I arrived in Florence, I was intent on finding a yurt rather than another motel. The only campground who had yurts was Honeymans, which was actually a few miles south of Florence. After Honeymans, there's basically nothing for 25 miles. I took a chance that they'd actually had a yurt available, and thankfully they did. I got the LAST yurt. That has been luck more than a few times, thankfully.
Normally, the first thing I do is shower and wash my clothes, then eat and have a few beers and retire. I couldn't do this in my yurt, and I was starving. So I unloaded my panniers, made a short list of things for the morning (breakfast, water) and cycled back north to Florence to eat and get supplies. I relished riding for the first time without the payload of my panniers! I ate dinner at a pizza joint, and wrote my blog for the day, and then ran over to Safeway for some water and cheese buns, and headed back to my site. Except in the parking lot of Safeway, I got my second flat of the day. I had no repair kit, because it was back at the campsite. At 6pm on Sunday night, nothing was open, so I had someone from a nerby store call me a cab to get back to my campsite. By the time i got back, I was losing light, and didn't feel like repairing my tire, so I put it off for the morning.
After returning to the site, I hiked to the dunes to catch the sunset and take some pics. Then I bought some wood and made a fire. This was the first time of my trip I actually felt lonely. Sitting by a fire by yourself is kinda boring. It's not kinda boring, it IS boring. For me anyways. So I started to read one of my books I preloaded on my iPad. After about 20 pages, that became boring. So I started watching my Breaking Bad series on my iPad. Then that became boring. I went to bed and fell fast asleep before 10pm. That's probably the earliest I have been to bed so far.
I'm not sure I want to "camp" again on this trip. I enjoy the end of the day being able to soak my bones in the tub, eating a massive meal, sitting in a pub, and chatting up the locals or whatever. I guess that's just my thing. I don't need, or even want to rough it. If I had a travel companion, that would be different.
In the morning, I attempted to repair my tube, only to discover it was punctured in 3 places. I put 3 patches on, but I didnt feel comfortable with the condition of the tire, so i swapped it out for my brand new spare. This whole thing put me behind, and i didn't leave Honeyman until 9:45. My latest departure time so far.
Ok, about my day: I did 115km today. That's the most I've done in a day so far. The shitty thing is, I probably only gained only about 90km in distance, because I fucked up twice today. I backtracked twice. If you want to see my GPS track for the day, you can see it here http://bit.ly/PhzdbV. Somehow I missed 2 turn offs. The first one was just after Reedsport, the second was the very end of my day. After I arrived in Coos Bay at about 2:30, and I had done 80km, I thought no way, I can't stop here. Coos Bay is a shit hole, and so I decided to carry on to Bandon, which meant another 50km, and 2 more hours at least. Also, so far, the scenery had sucked. There is nothing nice between Florence and Coos Bay. Nothing. It sucked for 4 hours.
My knees were sore, and my legs were sore, but I didn't want to stop in Coos Bay, cause it just didn't seem right. I loaded up more water and fruit at Safeway, and headed off for Bandon. The shitty thing was, I missed my exit - AGAIN, and went about 10km too far - up hill - down the wrong road. After backtracking those 10km back down, it was 5:30, and I was DONE. And pissed off. This was the first time I have actually been pissed at myself.
I am now in Charleston. It's a small fishing town, with one motel, and thankfully a small pub. I checked in for $60. So cheap, I think. My yurt was $39. For $20 more I get my own room, wifi, and a bed. Oh, and in every room I have had so far, there has been a TV, and I have still yet to watch any TV.
I am looking forward to moving on tomorrow. I hope my knees hold out, because they've been causing me trouble the last few days. Every morning, I power through it, but each morning, I feel it more. I may need to listen to my body and rest for a day. I really don't want to though :(
1 comment:
Great adventure David. Be safe. I am looking forward to reading more.
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