Day 3 and 4

When we woke up in the Quinalt Lake rainforest, it was 35 degrees. Once we got on the bikes and got the blood flowing, we continued to have a great time putting our miles in. It has been easy to do when the beautiful sunshine is smiling down on you throughout the morning and afternoon and into the evening. The people we have been meeting say this weather in very unusual for the Oregon coast, that is 60-70 degrees and absolutely beautiful, but we are not going to be the ones to complain. Brian and I met a couple at Quinalt Lake who recently moved to Washington from Rolling Meadows which is a neighbor of my hometown Arlington Heights. They had even gone to a church in Arlington Hts. that I knew quite well. There have been many cool connections like that. Our Day 3 total was 77.3 miles which ended us in South Bend, Washington. Before camping for the night in South Bend we washed our clothes at the local laundro-mat and met a girl named Tony who showed us a great spot to camp for the night. Tony was serving some clean-up time in the laundro-mat because her mom caught her smoking. So it was good to be able to have fun and joke around with her and try to encourage her a little bit since she seemed like she did not get to much of that at home. Another major part of this day was that when we passed through Aberdeen, we bought a little coleman stove. Finally, we were eating hot food. What a gift :)

On Saturday (Day 4) we crossed the Astoria bridge into the great state of Oregon, finishing in Cannon Beach for the night, after traveling 98.3 miles. This bridge was 4.1 miles long! Little to no shoulder on the bridge made it an interesting crossing, but we pedaled fast.Before crossing the border, we spent some time at Long Beach, WA, the Kite Flying capital of the world. These guys were serious about their kites, it was a site to see. Long Beach also claims to be the longest area of uninterrupted coastline in the world.The end of the day was spent in Cannon Beach, one of the many beautiful places along the Oregon coast, especially known for photographs of the sunsets.We found a nice secluded area to camp for the night after hot dinner on the beach composed of flavored rice and bagles with peanut butter (which is the staple of our diet). In the grocery store there, we met a nice mom named Beth who was with her kids for Mother's Day. She was stoked about our trip, and if it wasn't for the fact that she lived in Portland, she was going invite us in for some hot and home-cooked food.