(wow what is wrong with me those hands are terrifying.)

anyway

//location:

Kathy's house

Depoe Bay, Ore.

//time: 10:12 am

//mile: 324 still 'cause I'm restin' like a queen

Yo, so I've officially been on the road for one week (note added during transcription: apparently I'm really proud of this because I totally forgot I mentioned it in yesterday's entry.)

I'm spending my anniversary at a family friend's beautiful abode in Depoe Bay. Her name is Kathy + she is so, so sweet. She also has a lil chublump of a cat named Missy. & I actually made it here ahead of schedule because I just decided to crank out the extra 13 miles yesterday instead of staying at Devil's Lake State Park. A tiny bit of a time pressure has been added to the trip as I now have a ticket booked out of San Francisco on Aug. 29th. (Some kind of long-but-not-really-that-long story behind the hard date: I'll have to be moved up to New York on the 31st since my pops, who's helping me move myself + stuff to the city before he moves to Virginia to start at a new job on Sept. 1.)

But yeah so Depoe Bay. It's gorgeous. Apparently the whale watching capital of...Oregon? America? The World? I don't know, but it's the whale watching capital of something, which is pretty cool. I hope I see a whale while I'm biking.

Maureen, Lily + I visited Kathy + Depoe Bay exactly four years ago on our little high school graduation bus trip around Oregon. I don't even know what we were doing. just like poking around place to place on the Greyhound. Looking at stuff, eating stuff.

I'll always remember when Maureen left her camera + all her lenses + accouterments on a picnic table in Cannon Beach, and realized that only when we were already well on our way to Manzanita (next town south). So the next day in Manzanita, we decided to rent bikes_ bike back to Cannon Beach to retrieve it all, since someone was so kind to return it to a nearby hotel. Wow hat ride was hell. And as I was about to depart for that stretch two days ago (Aug 7), I remembered four years ago's ride + mentally prepared myself for the road ahead. That memory, plus a couple local's cautionary good-luck-to-Manzanitas, plus the elevation profile for that stretch -- I was fully prepared for the almost-worst (I saw one other climb on the profule that was worse, and it was on board for later that same day, actually).

But hey, you know, it was not bad at all. Definitely nowhere near what I'd remembered. Plus it was absolutely stunning. If I took an absurdly long time with it, it was because of the views. I had to keep stopping. Everything was too beautiful not to. And that's why I'm biking anyway.

Distracting views right out of Cannon Beach.

Tearing up the road since '83 and still performing like a champ.

I stopped at the summit of the climb for a good half hour to soak it all up and sketch + paint a bit. Kinda neat 'cause the wind up there was so intense it just pushed around my watercolor on my sketchbook page. I liked that that happened. The painting itself turned out pretty alright. I just love drawing and paining along this trip because, as one of my instructors @ the Harvard program said, drawing lets you remember things better. And that's very true. Sure pictures are more accurate for others; but for yourself, drawing really engraves the moment in your mind. And now, when I look back at this little painting, I'll remember sitting atop the stone ledge after that long climb, and not being able to decide if I was hot from the raw, unyielding sun, or cold from the blustery wind; and in the end not really caring either way because everything was so beautiful.

At that scenic view spot, and a lot of other stops, many folks asked me the usual: Where are you from? Where are you going? San Francisco?! Are you by yourself? Alone?!

Then come either the god-bless-yous, you-go-girls, expressions of admiration/dreams to do the same one day. Any of which are always wrapped up with well-wishings of safety + a warm goodbye.

I truly am appreciative of those little tokens of encouragement. You know, it is nice to hear. And at the end of any ride, whether it's a 1/2 mi steep climb or the day's 53 miles, I think to myself "Yeah girl, you go. This is tough shit, but by god it's so much more than worth it." And a lot along the way every single day reminds me it's worth it.

Somewhere along the Cannon Beach-Manzanita stretch.

Pulled over here for an extended lunch break. (Forever on that peanut butter, pita, salmon jerky grind.)

-----

//location:

Kathy's house

Depoe Bay, Ore.

//time: a little later (11:45 am)

Just went on a little walk around the neighborhood. It's incredible. Right up against the water. It's sunny out and the pebbles down at Little Whale Cove were toasty to sit on and soft to pet.

Today's a short day. Only 32-some miles. Kathy + I went out for a knockout good breakfast at this place just north of here called The Beach Dog (the restaurant had dog photos, figurines, magazine clippings, all things canine decorating the walls and any shelf space). I had some crispy skillet potatoes with a garden's worth of veggies, two perfectly over-easied eggs + and english muffin. Now just resting, writing and drinking tea before I leave. I feel like a freaking QUEEN staying here. Dang. Today should be a great ride.