Salem to Lincoln City, Oregon

It's raining...it's pouring

May 4, 2014
Salem, Oregon to Lincoln City, Oregon
52.5 miles

Another early start, as we tried to take our leave without disturbing our gracious, warm showers hosts.  We cycled a few miles and enjoyed another gourmet, roadside breakfast of peanut butter, granola and apples.  We were excited at the thought of reaching the coast and wanted to arrive early enough to enjoy an afternoon at the beach.

Weather looks threatening as we head to the Oregon coast

The highway out of Salem was a good ride, and we managed to be on the road early enough to miss most of the traffic.  We stopped for second breakfast (a term we are borrowing from Sharon and Ron) and enjoyed a wonderful spread at the Forest Hill Family restaurant.

After a good protein fill, we began the trek to the coast.

A humid day on the ride out of Salem

We were treated to our first summit.....in reality this hill climb is just a training run for what lies ahead.  However, even knowing that, we felt a huge sense of both relief and accomplishment when we hit the top!

Murphy Hill Summit - between Salem and Lincoln City

The rain was challenging to say the least...and we were thrilled that we had already made the decision  to stay at the Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln.  We were like drowned rats when we arrived and were overcome with joy to see the ocean and the feeling only got better knowing we didn't have to set up the tent!  Although, we know to expect rain on the coast, today was WET. Fingers crossed we will have a few dry spells tomorrow.

Our first beach visit of the tour  - Lincoln City

Giggle of the day:

To say the weather today was unsettled is to put it mildly.  We encountered almost everything, apart from snow.  We were treated to periods of sunshine - and enjoyed each and every dry second! We also struggled with headwinds, tailwinds and sidewinds.  As we spun along we took a page from Bubba Gump and his shrimp descriptions and began to categorize the types of rain we encountered:

• regular rain
• light rain
• drizzle
• pouring rain
• mist - including both light mist and heavy mist
• heavy rain
• torrential rain
• sideways rain
• little bitty stinging rain
• big old fat rain drops
• blinding rain
• and of course.....it was raining CATS and DOGS

.....and as we finished the rain list, we looked at each other and declared....another Weiss vacation!