July 4th Eugene OR to Florence, OR 79 miles

Freezing cold Grand Finale!

showing our Patriotic pride

Final Day of the journey! We rode past Fern Ridge Reservoir, where I used to sail a little in college, and through Triangle Lake where we stopped and had lunch with good family friends, the Olsons. The ride was mostly on rural roads. I loathe chip seal. There was actually a portion of the road that was so rough I thought my brain was shaking loose from my skull. The final portion of the trip was on the 126, which hypothetically would have a nice large shoulder, except they decided to tear it up in preparation of repaving it (by 2010). Awesome, I'm sure the people that ride the route in 2011 will really appreciate that, but in the meantime...

Within the last 20 miles of the trip the temperature dropped 30 degrees from 87 to 57. In my head I imagined the last leg of the trip with perfectly sunny skies, birds chirping, crazy Oregon hippies noodle dancing along the road and a big bottle of champagne to top it off. Instead it was foggy & freezing cold with head winds glaore and we couldn't wait to get off the beach. But alas we are done and we can say we rode our bikes across the USA!