Negative Miles

Our first day was nuts. Yesterday, we went out to this coffee place and met our new friends Janae and Charlotte. This coffee place was awesome. They are on OSU campus and just have good coffee.. Supercheap too.

Anyways, they invited us to play disc golf with them and some friends tonight after we come back through Corvallis.

So, it was our first day of riding, and we decided to bike to the coast to dip the tires. As soon as we got our bikes fully loaded in the garage, it started raining. Which was pretty funny when we were in the garage. But as soon as we went out into I was thinking it might as well have been snowing. So we got going. 30 feet from the driveway was our first stop. hahahha. I had to cut a spare ziptie that was tangled in my wheel.

We made good time. Yesterday was a 55 mile ride through the beautiful Coastal Range in Oregon. Even though it was raining, the mountains were unbelievable. Fog just floating in between valleys on one side, 18 wheelers full of logs going by at 60 mph on the other side. It was awesome. In Blodgett, (smallest town ever), we met some really cool people. They were all really excited about where our trip was going to take us, and were giving us advice about the road we were taking and where the construction problems were happening.

By the way, I don't know how this happened, but it did. We started in Corvallis, elevation roughly 100 feet about sea level. We ended in Newport, elevation 0 feet. If that is the elevation change, THEN HOW THE HECK DID WE BIKE UP HILL THE ENTIRE TRIP. Seriously, it was ridiculous. I think we biked down hill for a total of 14 minutes, then biked up hill for 6 hours. That was miserable. But we averaged about 9 miles per hour which wasn't that bad. For some reason I had to pee every 10 minutes, which was weird. I drank a ton of water I guess.

When we got within 3 miles of Newport the sun came out. It was the happiest part of my trip so far. After being frozen all day, and not being able to feel my feet or hands, sun was a good thing.

A bad thing happened too I forgot to mention. I got in wreck yesterday (mom I am fine. Just a bruised shin and thumb, scraped shoulder, and tore apart my rain jacket.) We were biking and I hit the brakes really hard, at 9 or 10 mph our so. I forgot to tighten one part of my handlebar set and they just went to the right and I lost control and crashed. That kind of sucked. But it is what it is. I was more mad than anything. Then I thought, at least this didn't happen when I was biking 36 mph a little while ago.

The Chapman family are the nicest people I have met. They were so accommodating. They made us grilled salmon, corn, potatoes, bread, salad, and brownies and icecream. Such a great meal at the end of a hard day. It was incredible. They even let us crash on there spare beds upstairs. I am glad we met them. The world would be a better place if they were as nice as Amy and John. I think they are making us breakfast right now downstairs.

Jesus is letting us do big things on this trip. It is going to be hard, but I can't wait to see what it looks like. I will let you know when I do.


I am a hipster.