Monday 10 May 2010

Spoke 2 Soon

The day had arrived; the day that we had to leave Portland. It wasn’t easy. When the alarm went off this morning, we were so relaxed that it was even more difficult than usual to get out of bed. Our new (quiet) room was super quiet, the curtains were thick, and we ate too much roast chicken last night. Still, since we were getting the Tillamooook express back to the coast this morning, we knew we were on a tight schedule, and no shilly-shallying would be tolerated.

It all went to plan. We arrived good and early at the Greyhound station, and took our place at the front of the line. Placing Trusty & Steed in the rack on the front of a small bus was not easy. Especially a bus painted like a Tillamook cow. Imagine tying your child to the front of the vehicle in which you are travelling and then watching the rack bounce around with the bumps in the road. Quite. After bugging the very sweet lady who was driving the bus several times for reassurance that the bikes were OK, and they were really supposed to move like that, we sat back in our seats and looked everywhere we could apart from out the front of the bus!

But it was all good in the end. Trusty & Steed were fine, and we stepped off the bus, loaded them up with Panniers and Pan-Bs, slotted Audrey & Margaret into place, and were off on our 26-mile jaunt to Manzanita, just a little bit further up the coast, and our destination for tonight. About a mile into the journey, predictably, it started to rain. But, within around 30 minutes, it had stopped again. Just one of those Oregon showers we are getting used to. Then, as we pulled away from a gas station where we had stopped for a quick break to take off our rain jackets, THWANG! Yes, followers, you know what that noise means. Despite having Trusty & Steed tuned up over the weekend, and the broken spoke from our ride into Portland mended, Trusty had suffered another broken spoke. How? Why? In the words of the great Toyah Wilcox, “It’s a mystery”.

Anyway, we limped the remaining 15 miles into Manzanita, safe in the knowledge that there is a bike shop a bit further on that we will pass on Wednesday on our way to Astoria.

Manzanita is such a cute little place. We arrived at Coast Cabins, where we are staying tonight and tomorrow, and were completely blown away by the place. Big thanks to our friends Lisa Marino, and her husband John, who recommended it (and hope that all is going well for them and their baby girl, Sofia, born just a couple of months ago). It’s a bit of a treat, and we could wax lyrical for hours about how everything is so stylish and perfect; suffice to say that it’s simply gorgeous. Tonight we had a burger at the local “pub” which was excellent, and jam packed with a great mix of locals and visitors. We’re looking forward to trying out the tasty looking little coffee shop and bakery for breakfast tomorrow morning. More then.

Us x

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