Day 18! A Road to Ourselves

Poor Anthony lay awake, looking at the bright light outside our window, worrying that we were going to miss check out time, which was at 11:00, rather than enjoying sleeping in. He didn't want to wake Davan and I, as, if we were still asleep, we probably really needed the sleep. Eventually, I stirred and checked the clock for myself. Anthony was anxious to know the time. 7:00am. The bright light was just the light in the parking lot! Poor guy, missing out on the luxury of sleeping in. We did doze a bit more before finally getting up.

We had plenty of time, though, to pack up, eat breakfast, which was a treat breakfast of "chicken" patties on whole wheat English muffins thanks to having a microwave and fridge in the room, and get on our way. The tent even dried out a bit in the parking lot while we did all that. It hadn't really gotten dry in the shower...

We peddled out into a sunny day. We were a little concerned about the mass of clouds you can see in this picture of us leaving Oakridge...

but it remained mostly sunny, while chilly, all day. The long, steep climb out of Oakridge did help warm us up in the morning, though.

After the climb and subsequent decent (chilling us right down again), we found this covered bridge in Westfir:


We didn't have to cross it, but how could we just pass it by?

At Westfir, we turned onto the Aufderheide Drive. The ride was simply gorgeous and we enjoyed practically having the road to ourselves. Much of the day was spend riding side by side. If we did see other vehicles, mostly it was motorcycles. The road went along the McKenzie River most of the day, excepting a long, steep climb over a ridge in the afternoon. The decent after way curvy, fast and really fun.

Oakridge would be a great place to live for a bike enthusiast. There were two great day rides that we know of - the ride we did getting into town, by the reservoir, and the ride on the other side of town, the Aufderheide.

I spent the whole day telling myself to just take it easy, enjoy the ride, eat plenty and often, and reminding myself that we could just stop if I got too tired. I was a little stressed about the previous two days of hitting the wall, you see. What I finally figured (a couple days later) was that I'd probably bonked because of it being my period. I'm often tired and dragging a bit both the day before and the first day of my period. It took a while to piece it together, but it makes sense.

However, even with my laid back attitude, we did 51.75 miles. We free camped just shy of Cougar Reservoir, which was Anthony's goal for the day.

This is the day my parents were to meet us, but as of finding camp, around 5:00, they hadn't shown up yet. We decided to split the camp chores and I went to do laundry in the river while Anthony made dinner. He'd decided that doing everyone's laundry was too difficult a job and he'd rather cook.

While I was washing, Anthony had just gotten everything out when my parents pulled in in their little RV. I said hi and then finished the washing. Anthony had not even started dinner. The stinker. He was waiting for the RV to get situated to go in and do his chopping and cooking in there.

I took pity on him and helped him with dinner. He admitted that he should have done laundry. I guess with me making dinner the whole trip, he hadn't realized just how time consuming it could be.

We had a repeat dinner of sweet potatoes, kale, onion and chili beans, as it had been quite popular the first time.

It was great to see my parents, who were very enthused about the trip, wanting to hear all about it. They took care of their own dinner and we sat around (in camp chairs! talk about luxury!) talking until past our usual bedtime.

Our journal writing took a big downward swing when they showed up, I must say. I later went back to fill in details on mine, but Anthony did not. Currently, my journal is in Pittsburgh, visiting Chris, so I'm writing based on Anthony's journal. Thus, I may not remember everything as well as I have up to this point, but it does come back when I start writing, so I may anyway.

We snuggled deep into our sleeping bags - it was cold! - and fell asleep to the sound of the rushing river, full of food and good company.