Day 9

Oh Bandon Public Library, how we love thee. We've spent the past hour oggling our e-mail and the news. It's almost as satisfying as the doughnut I ate yesterday. It's becoming difficult at this point to remember what we've seen and done day to day but we'll give it our best shot.

We were very happy to get out of Lincoln City on the 8th, so happy that we rode 80 miles and it was hands-down the most gorgeous and interesting day yet. We stopped every mile or two it seemed to gawk at some beach or cliff. Among the many sites were: starfish, sea aneminies, sea lions, harbor seals, and whales. The Oregon Coast has become one of our favorite places, though Jason isn't ready to move yet. (Will this kid ever get tired of Boston?) We gave ourselves permission to stop at a campsite after 60 some miles but thought, heck let's just go another 20 and catch up after our day off. woah dogs, the first three miles made us quickly regret that decision but after a while the wind eased up and we finally made it to the campsite. Lots of folks were there, including a GIANT slug! It was sick! It was perched or rather, draped, over the faucet at the hiker/biker site. ew.

The next day we rose after pretty much everyone else had packed up and left camp, enjoyed some oatmeal and headed off. Megan's knee was bothering her a bit more, so we went in low gears... really slowly. This day, for many reasons was our least favorite thus far, mainly because of the weather. It was cloudy, cool, and can really be summed up in one word: wind (more on that later). We did however meet a lovely woman who gave us many blessings for biking so far and we really liked her until we found out that she was a white supremacist. We put on our "this is really freaky, let's get out of here" smiles and went back on the crappy road. Many miserable hours later, we arrived at the campsite and met two really awesome tourists also traveling to san fran. They're actually internetting right beside us now. We sat around the fire for a couple hours talking about activism and who we were and ended the night with hot showers and a lovely thing called Advil PM.

This morning we awoke (again the last ones out of camp) and proceeded to climb hill, after hill, after mountain, after hill. We were chased by a few groups of dogs but FINALLY made it back to the coast where we belong. Food is next on our agenda.

Note from Megan: When you're biking for hours a day, you really have a lot of time to think. My goal has been to do as little of that as possible, but the few times I am thinking throughout the day I'm usually pondering one thing. This thing has led me to have new religious beliefs, which is surprising because I haven't had any really for the past 2 years. But let me tell you about who I am now devoting my life to: the Wind God. The Wind God is an all-powerful being that can be your best friend (as it was when it pushed me up a huge hill without me having to push a pedal) or your worst enemy (as it tried to heave me off a 2 mile bridge we had to walk our bikes across that also happened to be 300 feet in the air - TERRIFYING!!!) I try to praise the Wind God every chance I get with words, song, and pleas for mercy. More on this as I continue to embark on this religious experience.

We're being kicked off by 10 year-olds now, so see ya soon. Let us know you y'all are doing.

Livin' large,
Jason and Megan