Day 22 - July 9, 2001

Astoria, OR to Tillamook, OR

70.11 miles
13.60 average speed
5:05.21 travel time
8:00am departed
5:00pm arrived
1357.26 total trek miles

            Something strange is happening to our bodies. Darwin said it would, but the Galapagos Islands are too distant to be be poignant examples to some thick-headed bikers. I don't want to create an evolution eruption among our readers, but I believe I can safely say that his studies, if nothing else, confirm that if you use something a lot, it'll get better at being used. Not to say we're great bikers or anything, but our bodies are adapting to our bikes to some degree, which is good for what we're doing. It's not so good for walking or running (Rocky sent his running shoes home a LONG time ago) or going up stairs. This may be extremely uninteresting to you, but when you experience the phenomeonon of barely mounting a flight of stairs and then riding one hundred miles, it makes you pause and say, "Hey!"

            Speaking for myself, my knees ache and my legs burn unless I am seated upon my throne pedaling.

            We're very happy and feeling good. The wind is helping us with both those feelings, as is the scenery of the route. The Oregon (and Washington too - we're just not there anymore) National Forests are rotten with giant cedar and spruce and the coast we've seen could only be surpassed in its jagged beauty by the coast we haven't yet seen.

            Today we rode within sight of the water for much of the day. The wind was blowing kindly on our backs and the sound of the pounding surf urged us south. And south we went, through Seaside and Manzanita, Rockaway and Bay City and down into Cheeseland - Tillamook - where we bedded down in a Best Western and chowed on some rather volatile Chinese food.

            One more thing. For all of you out there who think Dan Hoopes knows everything, you are both wrong and right. Better said, you WERE wrong and now you ARE right. In Manzanita, Dan confronted his last deficiency and triumphed. Until that victory he knew everything BUT how to fix a bent bike rim. But when the mechanic at the Manzanitan bike shop was out and one of our rims needed fixin', he invaded the premesis and, with his natural genius, used their rather scant supplies and fixed the busted rim. With that, I believe, he also fixed his no-longer-incomplete knowledge of everything. Perhaps, though, he just knows so much more than any of us that he might as well know everything.