The past two days have already been filled with so many memories. One thing that’s been constant is the rain and wind and cold. Every person I meet says “sorry for the weather it’s not normally like this”. The first person I met who said this was outside of a small town post office where I was snacking underneath an overhang. I told him, “This the day the Lord is giving me to ride so I better make the best of it“. He smiled and said “you have a point there”. A lot of my miles were on a beautiful section of highway with amazing trees and an awesome stream running alongside me (and streams of water running off my body is I was soaked to the skin). With about 25 miles to go, I was running out of energy and needed to make a sandwich. Although I wasn’t excited about making that sandwich standing in a driving rain. Then I saw a gentleman getting out of his pickup truck band saw he had a small shed with no doors next to the house. I asked if I could make my lunch there and he said “sure no problem”. I had the opportunity to talk with him and his wife and even had a chance to pray with them as I learned he was still dealing with the impact from chemotherapy. The last part of the day was riding on bike paths and city streets in Eugene OR. I even had a jaunt through the central part of the University of Oregon campus. It was like being in two different worlds on the same day. One was extremely remote and rugged, the other was about his urban as it gets. I ended the day staying with a wonderful couple I met through the cycling app Warmshowers. They gave me a great meal provided, a warm shower and a nice place to sleep.

Day two took me down the McKenzie River Valley. It was a beautiful place except where it had been devastated by a forest fire in September 2020. I saw lots of homes being rebuilt and devastated scenery. Sadly, you could still see some lots where there was nothing left but a foundation and maybe a brick fireplace.There. I had a few periods of sun, and some huge downpours that included a bit of hail. But I was able to duck for cover under a historic old covered bridge that was built in 1938 and thankfully survived the fire. I did about 52 miles on day two, including one flat tire. However, so glad I switched to tubeless tires that have a self sealing goo inside…because it was raining then. It would’ve been no fun changing a tire along the side of the road in a rain storm. The last part of the ride was a gradual climb as I was approaching the Cascade mountain range. Unfortunately the rain I was experiencing at lower elevations was falling as snow in the upper elevations where I was planning on riding on day three. so, my day three will look a little different. I’ll be riding up towards the snowy areas and finding a campsite there. Then will be trying to cross on day four once the roads are clear. so, my day three will look a little different. I’ll be riding up towards the snowy areas. Well at least that’s the plan for now, we’ll see what tomorrow really brings.