Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Location: - Eugene OR Miles = 67, Ave MPH = 14.3, Cum. Miles = 169, Cum. Ave MPH = 13.1

Tuesday July 15th

Quote of the day - "I'm drinking water but my mouth is still dry". 

Today the temps were in the high 90's with humidity around 10 - 20%. Actually very nice for riding as long as you keep hydrated. The muscles love this type of heat. I went through 14 bottles of water today in our 67 mile ride. The strangest thing is that you can drink a whole bottle of water and two minutes later be feeling that your mouth is dry.

After we left J's Cafe in Monmouth we headed off to Cervallis OR which is a very quaint and bike-friendly town with our ultimate destination for the evening to be Eugene.

Amber waves of grain (sorry I couldn't resist) along the way - notice mountains in the background:





Cevallis Court House - The policeman was concerned as to what we were up to:



Strange side-by-side tandem


We ate at the Old World Deli in Cervallis - very good and friendly servers. I asked them to "think big" as they made my tuna salad lettuce wrap and I ended up with two huge wraps with a half of avocado. Didn't think I would be able to pedal as we rolled out of town. 

This girl just never stops:


Beautiful river on one side and grain fields on the other:


We went by a large field today where we counted 21 tractors and balers. The grain has already been harvested and they are now baling straw:





I asked Sandrine to pose next to this sign when it read 98F. In the 30 seconds it took for her to position herself it was reading 97F. True story! This was at about 6pm.


Sandrine has taken to calling me Super Walmart, which is mocking me because of how much weight I am carrying. I am going to be lightening the load when we get into the mountains. Will be carrying the heating pad one more day so as not to jinx myself. Back is feeling good. We have one more day of relatively flat riding and then do a pretty significant climb of 4000 feet in 22 miles. It is called McKenzies pass. I think by this point I am going to be removing programs and software from my tablet in order to lighten the load:):):)

This is my ride - kind of like a Goldwing.


This is a Donkey Boxx. I was told I would hate them but so far I like them.

Pros: $28!!!!, 14 ounces, they're big and can hold up to 30lbs.

Cons: Boxxes are fixed to the racks w/heavy duty zip ties, ( I put plastic bags inside to quickly pull out the stuff, I am carrying extra zip ties in case I have to remove, I do have complete access to the drive train to clean it w/o removing the Boxxes), they're big and can hold up to 30lbs - I list this as a con as well for obvious reasons. I am reminded of the lean manufacturing strategy of removing storage areas and opportunities from the work station because if you give folks an area to put stuff eventually a lot of non-essential stuff will be cluttering the area. Same principal here. You will notice in photos of Sandrine's bike she is carrying only two sets of panniers while I have four.



My handle bar set up allows for 5 hand positions. 

From most upright to least upright....
1) Hands on elbow pads 2) Hands on hoods 3) Hands on aerobars 4) Hands inverted in "pull-up" fashion on the "horns" 5) Hands on the drops. Variety is important to reduce stress on the body and numbness in the hands. I used simple strips of lumber strapping from Home Depot with electrical tape to bridge the gap between the aerobars to provide the phone and iPod attachments.

The two computers allow for both daily and cummulative records. Sandrine's GPS and my computers were within 2/10ths of each other over 67 miles!!!



Arrived in Eugene about 7:30pm. Very beautiful bike friendly town of about 160,000 residents with a bike path along the the river with beautiful homes and many restaurants abutting it.

Tonight in Eugene we are staying with a Japanese American woman who was raised in Arkansas. She wants to ride from here to Arkansas next year for her 40th high school reunion. Her name is Tomouka. She cooked us a fantastic meal last night. She built her  own outside oven that is woodfired. Sandrine entertained over dinner. Had us laughing like crazy.

At Tomuka's house in back yard. Such a delicious diner of salmon and kale  finished by blue berry cobbler that was baked in her outside wood fired over. I don't think Sandrine will mind me saying we ate like pigs - so good.


Wednesday Morning at Tomoko's - fantastic breakfast of fresh fruit, goat yogurt, pastries (not me), and amazing scrambled eggs. Even though there is a chandelier hanging there this is outside under an apple and pear tree:


To get ready for the upcoming climb up McKenzie Pass I have finally and reluctantly decided to shed some stuff. This is me donating some clothing and a pair of biking shoes to Tomoko. Made harder to do of course because of Sandrine sniping in the background and as some of you know "Sandrine is always right".





The Usual Disclaimer: 
  
And finally please remember the cause -   soldiersbestfriend.org  I will go into this in more detail and perhaps some level of haranguing later on, but for now here is the link .... and an additional link for donation   SoldiersBestFriend - Donate Please :):)  As you donate please enter my name in the appropriate spot so the folks at SBF can tally the results to encourage me and let me know WE are getting something done TOGETHER. Oh and I would be a lot more comfortable if you use the "honorarium" option vs the "memoriam" option - you'll understand when you click on the link:):).     I will be inserting this call-to-action in all of my blogs so I hope you don't mind

1 comment:

  1. McKenzie pass will be excellent. We had to go over Santiam Pass back in 1976, snow had still kept McKenzie closed. I am hoping you have better weather, we journeyed across in May and had rain, with snow at the pass. I am sure the area has changed in the past 40 years. Your blog is going great, enjoy reading it when I get home from work.

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