Tillamook
Had two tire blow outs on the road into Tillamook today, both on the front right. That's the wheel that takes most of the hits from all the shit that gets pushed to the side by traffic. Broken glass, dead animals, big pieces of wood, and of course, gravel. Fixed the first one on the side of the road about five miles from town. The second one was right in town as we were homing in on the Shilo Inn. We pushed the thing right up to the lobby and scored us a nice room. Kind of spendy but what the hell, it rained hard on us the last several miles into town, plus we had no way to get around to find a cheap campground as I had no more spare tires or tubes.
Coming into Tillamook traffic was heavy, it was raining pretty hard, and the bike lane disappeared on the several bridges we had to cross. We have lots of blinky lights facing rearward and I had all of them turned on. It was a little hairy, but everyone saw us and gave as much room as they could. After checking in we hopped a taxi to the local bike shop and bought three new tires, four new thorn resistant tubes, and several bottles of Slime puncture sealant. I don't like fixing flats in the rain!
The state booze store was conveniently located across the street from the bike shop, so we purchased some lubricant for ourselves. We will be camped in luxury here in Tillamook Shilo Inn for the next three nights, as we are held hostage by the need to wait for the Post Office to open on Tuesday because of Columbus Day, to pick up the replacements for the spare shifter cables I used in Astoria. I should have had the cables shipped to a PO further south on our route. Then we could leave tomorrow, but maybe a couple of zero mile days will be good for us. Both Candy and I have begun to notice some weight loss, and it seems like I have more energy. Till next time, Ron.
PS, at our camp at the Nehalem state park two nights ago, 4 racoons invited themselves right up to the edge of our campsite, looking for food. I was sitting by the tent, tending the stew I was making. It was dark and I had my little LED head lamp on when I looked up and saw 4 ghostly shapes and 8 glittering eyes looking at me. It startled me at first as I thought we might be surrounded, but I gathered my courage and ran them off with some yelling and one of the bright LED lights off the bike. It's probably a good thing Candy had decided not to bring her Smith & Wesson .38 along. I might have used it and gotten myself into big trouble with the local constable. Later we went to bed, kind of worried about our gear getting torn open while we slept. About 12:30 am I awoke to Candy making sounds I've never heard come out of a human before. The racoons had returned and were almost nose to nose with her on the other side of the tent screen door, and she was making a sound that was a cross between a scream, a grunt, and a growl, with just a hint of a chant thrown in. Like I said, it was a weird sound that I don't think could ever be duplicated. I guess it worked as the coons left and didn't come back. I can imagine them retreating, asking each other, "Dude! What the fuck was that?" She also scared the shit out of me and the guy camped nearby, named Aaron. He had awoke and was inquiring in a loud voice, "Hey what the hell is going on"? Or words to that effect. We had a good laugh about it in the morning.
Coming into Tillamook traffic was heavy, it was raining pretty hard, and the bike lane disappeared on the several bridges we had to cross. We have lots of blinky lights facing rearward and I had all of them turned on. It was a little hairy, but everyone saw us and gave as much room as they could. After checking in we hopped a taxi to the local bike shop and bought three new tires, four new thorn resistant tubes, and several bottles of Slime puncture sealant. I don't like fixing flats in the rain!
The state booze store was conveniently located across the street from the bike shop, so we purchased some lubricant for ourselves. We will be camped in luxury here in Tillamook Shilo Inn for the next three nights, as we are held hostage by the need to wait for the Post Office to open on Tuesday because of Columbus Day, to pick up the replacements for the spare shifter cables I used in Astoria. I should have had the cables shipped to a PO further south on our route. Then we could leave tomorrow, but maybe a couple of zero mile days will be good for us. Both Candy and I have begun to notice some weight loss, and it seems like I have more energy. Till next time, Ron.
PS, at our camp at the Nehalem state park two nights ago, 4 racoons invited themselves right up to the edge of our campsite, looking for food. I was sitting by the tent, tending the stew I was making. It was dark and I had my little LED head lamp on when I looked up and saw 4 ghostly shapes and 8 glittering eyes looking at me. It startled me at first as I thought we might be surrounded, but I gathered my courage and ran them off with some yelling and one of the bright LED lights off the bike. It's probably a good thing Candy had decided not to bring her Smith & Wesson .38 along. I might have used it and gotten myself into big trouble with the local constable. Later we went to bed, kind of worried about our gear getting torn open while we slept. About 12:30 am I awoke to Candy making sounds I've never heard come out of a human before. The racoons had returned and were almost nose to nose with her on the other side of the tent screen door, and she was making a sound that was a cross between a scream, a grunt, and a growl, with just a hint of a chant thrown in. Like I said, it was a weird sound that I don't think could ever be duplicated. I guess it worked as the coons left and didn't come back. I can imagine them retreating, asking each other, "Dude! What the fuck was that?" She also scared the shit out of me and the guy camped nearby, named Aaron. He had awoke and was inquiring in a loud voice, "Hey what the hell is going on"? Or words to that effect. We had a good laugh about it in the morning.
posted by Candy and Ron | 6:36 PM
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