Written by Dave
Day 1 – May 29 – 45 Miles, 1,940 feet climbing
A trip 35 years in the making, today Chris has finally started his cross the USA bicycle trip. Nancy and I are tagging along to make sure he doesn’t take any short-cuts. I don’t think Chris’s wife Cindi will let him do this trip a second time. He gets one shot to get this right!
This morning we left our house in Nehalem at about 9:30. We had a shortish first day finishing in Netarts further south along the Oregon coast. Skies were a little threatening but we stayed dry all day. It took some time to get everything ready at our house, plus there might have been a few nerves. And not just Chris, even us old veterans get a little anxious on the first day of a new trip.
We rode along Highway 53 and eventually joined up with 101. Overall traffic was pretty light at least until we reached Garibaldi. We rode past the towns of Wheeler, Rockaway and Bar View before Garibaldi. I took a few too many photo stops and Nancy gave me the hurry along at one point. We didn’t need to hurry but it takes a while to get in no rush, trip mode. Nancy was not there first thing this morning.
Other than photo stops and bathroom breaks (for me mostly), we didn’t really stop until just before noon at the Tillamook Creamery for lunch. It was a little crowded but we got a table and had various tasty cheese things for lunch. I snuck our extra yogurt and fruit left over from the house this morning in as well. We didn’t get caught, or they didn’t care. Either way we couldn’t bare to throw perfectly good food away.
While at the Creamery we ran into a nice young couple riding from Florence to Chicago. It is so nice to see young folks out on their bikes – sometimes it only feels like us oldies are touring. Kelly and Ryan were keen and most earnest. We departed with smiles on our faces. Enjoy your trip guys!
From Tillamook we headed out towards Cape Mears. There were some closed road signs and Nancy had read about construction closures but we pressed on. I was the most keen of our team to ride through the three road closed barricades and on very thin ice with my senior editor until we reached the far side of the closure without falling foul of any law enforcement. It actually was no problem at all, have faith Nancy, have faith (Senior editor note – things could have turned out very differently today if we had been asked to turn around and go back down the hill we just climbed...)
From Cape Mears it was a short but hilly ride to Netarts where we are spending the night. In Netarts we are staying at Ray’s place. Ray is another former college from Sequent days. Curtis (yes another former Sequent co-worker), is joining us from here, so tomorrow our team will be 4.
We had showers and settled into what could only be called an absolutely amazing feast. To call it dinner would not do the cheese plate, bruschetta, bbq’d salmon, homemade sourdough bread, oven roasted potatoes, asparagus, fresh salad and homemade blackberry pie al la mode justice. We were treated like royalty. Thanks guys, we are not worthy!
All and all, a pretty good day. The three of us could all have used more training but it’s not a race after all. And really, it’s taken Chris 35 years to reach this point of his trip so why would we want to rush anyway!
Leave Without Pay 
Great start to the trip! It will be fun to follow you adventure!
*follow YOUR adventure!
Either way, happy to have you along
I’m so glad to see a fellow IBM retiree flying the coop and having fun!
We’re older and slower but still moving. What more could we ask for.
I’m excited for your adventure and I’ll be living vicariously through your blog!
Aren’t you joining at some point???
Yep! Not on 2 wheels though. See you somewhere in Wisconsin.
You’ve got me laughing from day one guys! We love the photos Dave so thank you Nancy for not being TOO strict with him.
Enjoy the trip, I know I will.
Us too. What fun the side of the road contains.
I always loved Dave’s detours in France – NOT!!! He hasn’t changed !!!! Enjoy the ride looks magnificent ❤️
You’re never lost, just on an adventure, right?
Exciting. We remember how much work it was to ready the house.
see you guys on the road.
Nice to hear from you, hope we can meet up.
This is so exciting ! The pictures and commentary are great! I will be driving Peter to the train station in Sacramento this afternoon !!! Safe and happy travels to all of you!
Pete is on Team Three – looking forward having him join.
Woo! The trip has begun! So far it looks very exciting. I hope you all have a wonderful time. It’s also great seeing Ray and Curtis again, we don’t get to visit with them enough. Take lots of photos and regale us with tales from the road!
Thanks for joining in Mike – we are guaranteed fun with this mob!
Best wishes on the trip! I’ll be following you all the way. 45 miles or 72 kms seems to be a good daily pace..
See next day – I only wish it were 45 miles!
Curtis’s brother here. I AM SUPER JEALOUS!
Someday….. someday….. I will ride across the country…..
Curtis is great to have along, join up if you can!
Good to see Ray talking good care of you all. Did you ride on the new road to Cape Meares or the Bayshore Drive? I didn’t see Chris’s ride posted on Strava.
New road was closed for the day for some wall work. We rode Bayshore and around the Cape, taking the old, washed out road when we reached the closed new road.
Dave, you and Nancy take good care of Chris A on the ride. The meal provided by your friends sounded so good.
We need you and your camper van along this trip Jim. Chris keeps talking about the amazing service you provided!
I wish he was talking about me, I miss my campervan but he was talking about the other Jim, Jim McClellan.
so true about the one chance for Chris. Take good care all of you.
Thanks for the very uplifting text this afternoon. We let out a collective whoop.