Job Done

I spent the evening in Eugene finishing uploading my photos, and then watching a couple of bands at a local open air gig. I was up early in order to finish off the final 78 miles to the coast.

The hotel had a pretty solid continental breakfast so I was fed and on the road by half seven with a brilliant 5.5 mile bike path leading out of town to the west. The ride was one of the nicest I have had on this trip with one small hill interrupting a lovely downhill it was easy going with no wind, no rain and great sunshine. It was cool to have such nice weather for the last day's ride and I finally got to have a rain free look at Oregon's countryside which was really scenic with miles of trees lining the roads.



Along the way I met Anthony, Aaron and Peter riding from California across the States, and then a few miles later came across Jim Craven, a maths teacher from Cincinatti Ohio. Jim was on a funky recumbent bike which looked comfy but must have been a killer on the hills with the riding position restricting the power you can generate. Next up was a fellow Londoner, Toby from Tottenham. Toby is riding from Seattle to Virginia and being a teacher he managed to skip school for the last half of summer term!



Leaving these chaps behind I continued on the leisurely roll downhill in glorious sunshine and stopped for lunch 15 miles from the sea at a cool train themed cafe which served a mean club sandwich and fries. The road from here was a bit more hairy as it became the 126, the main highway into town with a rough broken shoulder and loads of traffic.




Soon after 3pm I passed into Florence, met Dave at his hotel and unloaded all of my gear from the bike before the 6 mile pedal through town to get to the beach to dip my front tire in the Pacific having set off with my back tire in the Atlantic 55 days ago. By the time I had carried my sand coated bike back from the surf I was knackered and so slowly rode past some Tsunami warning signs back to the Lighthouse Motel, for some beers which had been 5 months in the waiting!


My plan from here is to ride a few miles up the coast towards Pacific City depending on the weather which is set to rain again apparently, then on Wednesday I am meeting my dad for some beers when he flies in from New Jersey via California. I guess I will collect my thoughts in the next few days but for now I am both relieved and happy to have made it across the country but equally I know I am going to miss the new sights each day and the challenges of the trip.