Day 13: Newport to Florence

Thursday, June 12 - one of the best days ever... not just of the trip, but of my life. It was super!

- I stopped to take a photograph of the most beautiful view ever. That is, until roughly 40 feet down the road, where that was the most beautiful view ever.

- I had a great talk with Jackie, one of the riders, about how I'm different on the road (chill) than in camp (stressed). I had a few breakthroughs about who I've been and things are so much easier now. Thanks Jackie from New York.

- Rode with Anna and Kamilla for part of the day. We stopped for lunch at Perpetua Bay for a hotdog and soda. I felt so free afterwards I left and launched down the big hill without my hydrapack. The wonderful thing about that is it wasn’t too hard to go back up it to get the bag.

- We hit sanddunes in Florence. The first ones were seen behind the Fred Meyer. More importantly, inside Fred Meyer were stocked speakers… speakers to which one can attach an ipod. (we're not allowed to wear headphones) Tunes…so Kamilla and I rode the 30 blocks with a heaven-sent tail wind to the bike shop to buy and attach a handlebar bag, and then back the 30 blocks into an evil headwind. Thank God for Kamilla, who knew what tools to use. She's super.

- We stayed at the United Baptist Church with its carpeted gym floor. The pastor’s daughter is in culinary school. She bought and prepared 12 lbs of tofu as part of a vegan / vegetarian / chicken Asian feast. At that dinner I learned that in the summertime the wind comes from the North. That was a good dinner. In the morning we had vegan breakfast wraps, gingerbread pancakes, eggs and other goodies. We keep meeting the most amazing people.

- Ben and I hid in a separate part of the church to avoid the snorers.