Margaritas and shipwrecks

We made it across the Astoria Bridge yesterday, and honestly I expected it to be a lot worse. The shoulder is exactly as wide as a bicycle with panniers, and most cars give plenty of room as they pass. And if we'd had the opportunity to look out from side to side, I'm sure it would have been an excellent view. As we crested the final arch of the bridge, we encountered construction (which has proved to work to our advantage for most of the trip thus far). The flagger gave us a head start on the descent, and we made it all the way off the bridge before cars caught up to us. 

We made it Oregon!

If you are ever in Astoria, OR and need some bike related assistance, stop into Bikes and Beyond. It is one of those rare and wonderful places where they are more concerned with fixing your problem then getting your money. This amazing guy Pat (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Jeff Daniels) was helping us out. When we asked for chamois butter, he recommended we go to a drug store for a cheaper and more easily available solution - desitin. The diaper rash cream that he, and apparently the Tour de France champions, prefer. I will let you know how that goes today... My left pedal had been clicking. He let us covertly go through the bike graveyard in the basement to find a temporary    replacement till I could order the ones I really wanted. I almost bought some BMX pedals but those things are super heavy. The clicking has not been fixed so it seems to be more than a bent spindle, even better that I did not buy new ones. Anyway, they truly seemed to have our best interest at heart, I guess they get enough business to do so, he said they get about a thousand bike tourers through a year. Good to be one of he first shops out of Seattle on the adventure cycle route. Also good that some people put their pedals in backwards and cross thread their crank arms and need help by the time the get to Astoria. Apparently Pat has seen that a lot, though I am not sure how they make it even that far.

After errands in Astoria, we made our way into a relentless headwind ( and over another long bridge!) to Fort Stevens State Park. This is the largest campground I've ever see, and has a whole section dedicated to hikers and bikers (there were a whopping 15 bikers sharing the site, and there was plenty of room for more). We made a beverage that closely resembled a margarita, and walked down to the beach where we found the remnants of a shipwreck from 1906!

It was also very windy. 

-RaD