Day 10: Nahelem Bay to Cape Lookout State Park

Monday June 9

65.5 miles

John left and took the sunshine. We woke up to the rain, and left in two groups to a breakfast paid for by Father Paul. As the first group sat down, the heavens opened and the rain became a downpour. I donned my new booties and helmet cover and slogged it out to Tillamook, where we hid from the deluge for a couple of hours in the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Most ate immoral amounts of ice cream; I ate an offensively large sorbet sundae. There was also cheese. A lot of cheese. People had grilled cheese sandwiches and clam chowder. IT was pretty much a dairy free for all, which was great for the people who aren’t lactarded or vegan…. Which is a fair bunch of the group. You can also go up to the second floor of the factory and look through glass windows onto the factory floor to watch the Oompalumpas cut and wrap the cheese. We chatted with the kind lady with the feathered bangs at the Chamber of Commerce. She had computers with internet that we traded off until closing like a 4 x 100 relay. I stopped at the bike shop in town to buy a front light and then popped across the road to get a bottle of Islay scotch for $23. The price of booze alone might be enough to get me to move to the States. After getting over the fact that we were camping in the rain again and had to spend our day off in a rainy campsite, we got on our bikes to head to bed. Whiskey Creek road was unexpectedly picturesque with lovely homes and rolling hills, save for the occasional road-side clearcut. After getting the van and trailer wedged in a tight parking lot and nearly getting blown into the ocean at our beach-front campsite, Karen and Jackie were wonderful and negotiated the use of the meeting hall for the night. It provided a dry place to park our bikes and store our bags, if not to sleep. It also boasted a stove and a dangerously powerful heater. I ran over to the campsite to lay out my bag and the heavens opened again. I swore at God, then turned back to lay the bag in front of said heater to dry. Again.