Astoria Oregon - Every day of the rest of our lives will be on borrowed time! Yesterday's ride finished with as terrifying an experience as I can remember.

The weather has been declining since we left Port Townsend. We rode along the "Hood Canal", a natural channel that runs south to Hoodsport. Light rain fell intermittently. Hoodsport surprised me by having only one motel, a delapidated structure that felt like I would go through the floor if I stomped on the floor. The operator was very kind and let us use the laundry facilities as a freebie. 63 miles.

Hoodsport to Westport was a killer. 81 miles. Sunshine, light rain, and heavy rain interspersed throughout the day. Some headwind and a coarse road surface which required a lot of effort for pedaling. We stopped in the tiny farm town of McCleary for lunch. The waitress immediately offered us towels to dry off. The oldsters guzzling coffee had a lot of hilarity over our condition. We took a backroad through Elma and Montesano. We turned onto Highway 12, more or less an expressway with a lot of fast traffic. A domestic chicken foraging along the edge of the road fled at our approach. Michele made us stop until the chicken could make its way around us for fear that the chicken would dart into the roadway. Roy had a flat in a cold rain at Aberdeen. The last 19 miles seemed endless. Arrived at 7:30 after eleven hours on the road. My brother met us at a motel in Westport and drove us to his RV for an excellent clam chowder his wife had ready for us. We were too exhausted to be much company.

The weather forecast was for a big storm to come in around noon. We debated staying in Westport. We decided to make a run to Raymond about 30 miles away in expectation of arriving before the storm. Lots of frogs singing in the wetlands along the way. We got to Raymond wet but without much trouble because there was not yet any wind. The one dingy motel in Raymond had a couple of rooms, but the clerk couldn't find any keys. She coninued her cell phone conversation the whole time we tried to get a room. We gave up and pushed on to South Bend, five miles farther. Beautiful motel in a little fishing village. The wind came up about 4 pm. Huge gusts of wind. The news reported blasts over 60 mph at Westport and Greyland.

The next morning began with hail and heavy rain. I would have just stayed voer in our cozy motel room but Roy coaxed me into riding for Astoria. Lovely riding along 101, 4 and 401, much of it right along the water. Occasional rain. By the time we approached the Astoria-Megler Bridge across the Columbia River, however, we were riding directly into the wind. I struggled to maintain 5 mph on the flat. The causeway and bridge combinded are 4.2 miles long. The bridge rises 400 feet over the main channel. We turned onto the causeway, now crosswise to the wind. The bridge has one lane of heavy traffic in each direction with a two-foot bike lane. [Sorry to leave you cliff-hanging, but the library is closing down the computers.]