Walkabout Day 2: In which I went down the drain. drain, oregon. really!

 being in the neigh­bor­hood, I stopped in to see my friends michael and judy. they are camp hosts at Tug­man State Park, and they keep a big dog in the front win­dow of their motorhome:

 from, there it was a quick blast down the coast, where I found this great vet­er­an’s memo­r­i­al and accom­pa­ny­ing view of Coos Bay’s bridge:

At this point, I decid­ed that my best bet to beat the weath­er would be to get to Eure­ka today, so that I could head inland first thing in the morn­ing. So I rode south. There is some awe­some coast­line in south­ern ore­gon and north­ern california.

 So that was my sun­day in a nut­shell. It was sun­ny and warm north of eugene, and cloudy and cool, with a few rain­drops, on the coast. Not bad rid­ing, once I put the heat­ed lin­er on; cool­ing off, going fast? turn the heat up a bit. slow­ing down, or the sun has come out? turn the heat down a bit. Bike nev­er missed a beat, and seems to be a pro­found­ly com­pe­tent trav­el­ling com­pan­ion. Arrived in eure­ka around 5:30, found a hotel (I hate camp­ing in the rain) and then found a place called Lost Coast Brew­ery and cafe for din­ner. good beer, decent food, and only 5 blocks from the hotel.

And now I sit here pon­der­ing tomor­row: do I pack up ride south in what appears to be cer­tain rain (NOAA says 90% chance of pre­cip­i­ta­tion from here to San­ta Rosa- that means it’s gonna rain, folks!) or do I cool my heels here in Eure­ka and ride south on tues­day, when it is sup­posed to be sun­ny? I hate rid­ing with wet hands and feet; will my gloves stay dry? will my boots leak? grrr.… On the oth­er hand, a rainy day in eure­ka is not like­ly to packed with excitement. 🙂

 I think i’ll have a snack, get some sleep and make the call in the morn­ing, depend­ing on how hard it’s raining.

black­dog