Pacific Coast Highway - Day 14 - Bandon, OR
Date: June 14, 2015
Entered the Oregon Sand Dunes area and marveled at the appearance of it all.
I have resigned myself to being perpetually cold and wind swept in Oregon. It is truly beautiful but damn if those same winds that whisper up dunes and sweep up coastline don’t also serve up unending headwinds (dear god when we ride north/west into them), tailwinds (thank god when they propel us south), and side winds (shit!) when nearly getting toppled over. We read to only ride the coast south and it is true. A few northbound cyclists we have met have laid out their harsh words for the wind but they push us south at 18 mph. However, the moment we stop, I’m instantly freezing. Highs are 62 in the day and 40 at night, and that’s without the wind.
Simultaneously, we have also met a couple named Adam and Brianne. Their lives color our own and their stories bear remarkable shadow to our own life journey. Needless to say, our nights have been full of shared dinners and days riding together. For the time, we are riding south ensemble.
Staying in campgrounds each night has afforded us those intimate conversations with others that life in normal would never allow. We stayed up late talking with a Fort Knox military retiree (doing this ride as his retirement trip), a Mormon that left the church, and some French Canadians who regaled us with tales of biking across Cuba. You meet those people along the road and in old RV parks that society sweeps aside or glances past; theses are people though immersed in the living of life.
