Tillamook - Lincoln City - Sept. 10, 2011

Tillamook is also famous for "Blimps" and the largest wooden structure in the world that holds 8 of these blimps is here measuring 192 feet tall and 1072 feet long and is home to an air museum that needed to be seen first thing on Saturday morning even it was 7 kms further for the cyclists.

Woke up to some fog and the cyclists left with their lights flashing wearing their flourescent green jackets so the motorists could see them. On Friday the roads were very busy with RV's and lumber trucks who don't always appreciate cyclists. One motorhome had its side steps out which just about took out one of our cyclists the first day - the cyclists who were behind and saw this were so thankful that nothing serious happened. Saturday's traffic was so much lighter and kinder to the cyclists. The fog lifted an hour into the ride but not early enough for one of our cyclists to think that another cyclist had left him behind so he took off thinking he would catch up but he never did and rode the whole day by himself. Thankfully he knew the final destination and was there when we got there at 3:30 p.m.

Road detours were a challenge for all of us on Saturday - let's say men don't always believe they are for real and think they can get through and that happened to be the case for the cyclists - we knew that the vehicle would not be able to get through and it took the alternate road hoping that we would meet up with the cyclists at the said coffee stop at 10:00 a.m. The van arrived at the end of the detour to be met by a jogger who told us that the cyclists would be able to come down the side of the road that had not been washed out by the severe rainstorms that this area had endured this spring. We saw the devastation and understood fully the reason for the detour. Lo and behold the cyclists finally arrived - they had to take a much longer route but it was worth it since they were on the coast and we were inland.

Coffee shops were few and far between and we could not find one so we opted for lunch first at a out of the way place with no facilities. Bushes became our outhouses and Joanne came out with major scratches on her legs from the black berry bushes that were everywhere. Eventually a coffee shop was spotted and everyone had their caffeine fix before the next big climb for the day and it was a really big one....the weather was great for cycling - sunshine and some tail winds which was good because the motel of choice for today was right at the end of town and town was at least 10 kms long and the Ester Lee was situated on top of a hill with a great view of the ocean from our rooms.

Total kilometers cycled for most cyclists was 115 - one cyclist had 150 kilometers on his bike - another one had 88 kilometers - whatever happens on this trip stays with this group so you may never know who they are. Still no flats...