Up at 6am this morning and on the road at 6:50. Another nice day today…58 degrees now with a high of 85. Supposed to be cloudy today so should be a little relief from the sun.
Stopped in town at the pancake house (the Original pancake house) for breakfast — oatmeal, strawberry waffle, coffee and orange juice.
Stopped in Harrisburg at 9:40 at 24 miles in for a V8 and candy bar. Cool this morning so far with slight headwind. But riding across flat ground so making good time….so far good shoulders to ride on….hope that holds out.
Passed through Peoria about 10:45 and stopped for a snack by the largest clover field I’ve ever seen. There were a couple dozen bee boxes in the middle of the field—kept thinking, surely they didn’t plant all this clover just for those bees. 🙂
Pulled into Corvallis at 11:45. Been a perfect day of riding this far. Flat all the way from Eugene to here — 47 miles — with nice wide shoulders and bike paths and very little traffic. What a change from yesterday. Having lunch here Murphy’s—hamburger, fries, ice tea. This is a large college town—reminds me a bit of Lexington—home of Organ State University.
Made it to Monmouth, home to Western Oregon University, at about 3:30….thought of going a bit further today, but don’t really need to…saw a nice looking motel and decided to stay here. Actually, I saw this motel (The College Inn) on the way into town and I’ve been following a general rule not to stop at the first thing I see in a town whether it be a motel, store, cafe, etc.—the thought being there probably is something I’ll like better on down the road a bit. That strategy has served me well, except for today. I passed the College Inn figuring I’ll see something else as I get into town—well, two miles down the road and nothing as I headed out of town and into the abyss…ended up having to turn around and ride the two miles back to the motel. And of course, I’ll have to cover those same two miles out of town tomorrow…oh well, win some and lose some 🙂 But I did get a nice clean room for under $70 so I’ll take that deal and by now two miles is about like riding around the block anyway 🙂
Got cleaned up and then found a laundry in town and washed all my cloths—I don’t have washing detergent, but I figure water is good enough 🙂 Now, will have clean cloths for the remainder of the trip—I’m sure people who sit near me in restaurants for the rest of the trip will appreciate that. In the “for what it’s worth” department, it cost $3 to wash a load of cloths with cold water…if you want warm water it’s $3.25…I went ahead and sprung for the extra quarter 🙂 Not sure what hot water cost, but figured I didn’t need that anyway.
Felt great today. Was an excellent day of riding—great weather and great road surface. Should be seeing the blue of the Pacific Ocean tomorrow.
