We rolled out of Sunset Bay State park and the one thing that really stood out to me was all of the stuff that American's take with them when they go camping. There were air mattresses, 4 to 8 person tents (some had foyers on them), comforters, pillows, full-sized grills, electronic games, computers and TVs, camping chairs, camping hammocks, griddles, and other miscellaneous items. People basically brought their entire kitchen with them. People were cooking sausage, eggs, bacon, pancakes for breakfast. I have to wonder if people cook this type of food at home or only when they camp. It seems like a lot of effort to try to bring their homes into the great outdoors. What was sad to me was riding my bike by the dumpster and seeing alot of the stuff thrown away because the people didn't want to take it home. I think the contrast was greater given the fact that I had everything I needed in two panniers and one dry bag and had been living that way for 12 days so far.
In terms of the traffic, today was not a fun day to be on a bicycle. In fact, if I ever tour over Memorial Day weekend again, I'll make sure that I plan to stay put on the Monday of Memorial day weekend day and roll out the Tuesday after.
Part of the problem for us may have been the fact that we were riding on the section of Hwy 101 that was next to the Sand Dunes State Park area. All of the big Diesel trucks / RV trailers hauling dune buggy's were going home after the weekend of fun. They didn't slow down, most did not bother to move over when they passed and it was maddening. At one point we just pulled over in front of a store and sat there for a hour hoping the traffic would die down. It didn't and so we gave up and kept moving north. It finally died down after we past Reedsville, OR. We guessed that most of the people must have come from the valley area near Eugene, OR and turned off on route 38 as it was the quickest way to get to Hwy 5.
Riding dune buggies seems like an expensive hobby to me -- I can only imagine the amount of fuel that is used to haul the dune buggy's around and then there is purchasing the dune buggy, maintaining it and the cost of the outfit and shoes that were worn while riding on the sand dunes.
We stopped for snack at Jesse Honeyman Memorial State Park. We didn't venture into the park and stayed on the outskirts where there was a little picnic area where you could sit and look at the ocean. It did have facilities to use the restroom. During our trip we saw a couple with two baby carriers behind their bikes. From what I could tell, only one of the carriers had a child in it. The other was used to haul gear. Personally, I would never take a child behind me on Hwy 101. It is too dangerous! Especially on Memorial Day. I hope they made it to their destination without any problems.
We road into Florence, OR and after our day we didn't have the desire to buy food and then cook it so we thought we would go to a seafood restaurant since we had heard the seafood was so great in this region. We rolled into town and asked some locals where to get food and they recommended Mo's seafood restaurant. We locked our bikes and were walking towards Mo's and a waitress was standing outside of a restaurant called "ICM" with samples of clam chowder. James was delirious and just wanted food and said we should just go there instead of walking over to Mo's. I didn't have a good vibe about this restaurant but didn't follow my instincts and say no, we are going to Mo's. Big mistake. DO NOT go to ICM -- it is way overpriced for what they give you and the food is mediocre. And it is obvious they serve instant mashed potatoes and for the money we were charged for the food - they should have made the mashed potatoes from real potatoes. I recommend going to Mo's for sure.
After our disappointing dinner we road toward Carl G. Washburn Memorial State park. I believe it was about 15 miles outside of Florence. The ride was absolutely gorgeous.
We set up camp and met several other cycle tourers who had stopped for the evening. Two of the cyclists were heading north and so James and I had caught up to the four cyclists who were touring northward like us. We rode our bikes down to the beach and watched a wonderful sunset, which made up for such a frustrating day on the bike.
Total for the trip: 747 miles
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