The hills of Oregon!

Here we are visiting the Tilamook cheese factory. Free tour and cheese samples. The workers were dead behind the eyes. They were nothing but trained cheese monkeys and we watched over as they performed their monotonous duties on a human/robotic conveyor belt.

The Oregon coast is the most scenic but also hilly riding so far! We banged out 60.99 miles today in a time of 5 hours riding.

A well earned day off!

After cycling an overall trip distance of 416 miles we decided it was time to take a rest day. We stopped at a beautiful little beach town called SEASIDE on the Oregon coast. We did some laundry, oiled our bikes and played volleyball on the beach. I took my first swim in the pacific ocean and afterwards we all casually sneaked into a beach front hotel for a swim, sauna and shower before returning to 'Frank the tanks' backyard to get ready for a night on the town.

The 4 mile Astoria Bridge!

The West Coast Riders!

Here are a few guys we are travelling with at the moment. We all travel at different paces but all end up camping in the same spot. It's a lesson I learnt the hard way as I tried to keep a 15mph pace with Blake and Alex yesterday. After 2 hours I must have used about 40% more energy and Ted only arrived 20 minutes later. Conclusion. Its not worth it! Ride slow. Enjoy the views!

A ride through a tunnel!

Just discovered I can make time lapse videos on the camera. Sweeeeeeet!

Meeting fellow cyclists!

We are now starting to meet lots of couples and solo cyclists along the way. We all camp together in Hiker/Biker sites, share costs of camp site and food. Some are travelling to San Francisco, some all the way to Mexico City! Its cool cycling in teams we draft off eachother to save energy and cover more miles.

Second longest ride of my life!

Today we out rode even ourselves. After 71 gruelling miles yesterday we were faced with a decision. Smash out over 82.83 miles to reach the coast and a comfortable campsite or half the ride distance and hope to stealth camp in the woods with little to no food rations. Let me try to explain what it feels like to cycle 82.83 miles in 30 degree heat. In a car this would take 1 hour. Now imagine cycling up and down hills at an average speed of 12.2mph for 6 hours and 44 minutes. Then imagine doing that with two 15kg bags of sand attached to each wheel. Now having the weight on flats or downhills is great because it increases momentum but the moment you hit an incline its like dragging a car tyre on a rope along the ground behind you. Every single rotation is an effort. No matter what gear you are in you feel it. A deep burn so painful you feel numb. Now after about 60 miles of this you enter a state of what I call cycling delirium where everything slows down. I look at my legs and question what is driving them. Its like autopilot. I don't think and eventually you don't feel anything. You feel empty and hollow and then I find myself becoming hyper sensitive. A line in a song or a thought of happiness can suddenly overwhelm me and make we want to cry. I don't of course. I bite it. I hold it back and laugh at how ridiculous it is. I look over my shoulder as the sun sets and see SUPERTED grinding it out only 50 metres behind me. I instantly feel a pride and admiration for him so great that the tears start making there way up again. It becomes humourous to me. I laugh again. Sorry tear ducts. Not this time. I shall save those tears for the mountains!