day 14: nehalem state park to cape lookout state park

what started out to be quite nice of a day turned into a drenched 40 mile kind of a day. at least i know my rain gear works. 

right now, i'm in my tent and it is WILDLY windy outside. i feel like a massive storm is on its way/here. or...is this just coastal pac northwest spring weather? i wish you could hear it. geez. 

well, when it was sunshine and goodness this morning, hands down, the kite festival in rockaway beach was my major highlight of the day. we weren't expecting to find such a treasure. we must've stayed there for an hour mesmorized by the kites' movements (and by we, i mean i).  

they also had kite fliers choreographing kite movements to songs. wow. it was so extremely nerdy that it flips back around to being near sexy. after we left, i could not get the smile off my face. i think i'd like to explore kite flying once i'm done exploring my bike and the pacific coast. 

the minor highlight of the day was when we stopped at a small coffee shop in wheeler to get coffee for me, (but ended up getting an egg salad/bacon sandwich and espresso banana bread too) and i saw a scene i HAD to get a picture of. i didn't know how to do it without being completely obvious, so i pulled the dumbest trick in the book by asking samuel to pretend like i was taking a photo of him. well here's what i wanted to capture and the 2nd photo is what i actually took. 

but what about a low-light? since you asked, it was probably that today felt herky jerky. samuel and i had lots of different needs at different times, so we kept stopping and going, stopping and going. i would've liked to have felt more ease and flow in cycling, but at the same time, while it was pouring, i told him i wouldn't want to be any other place with any other soul. he told me he was thinking the same exact thing at the same time! 

the other lowlight was when i was on a shoulderless ascent on hwy 131, a car zipped SUPER close and honked at me. i was already having some bike problems and my front tire was super wobbly all day, so getting startled like that was first, shocking and second, infuriating. turned out he did it to samuel too. dude. what's up oregon? i thought we were in bike-lover country. we even had a car throw little poppers at us yesterday. :-(  why? we must look like the ground, where you normally throw those. 

otherwise, the oregon coast continues to be sensational. i feel like i'm in a dreamy dinosaur filled wonderland, much like jurassic park minus the dinosaurs-gone-wild and plenty of coffee huts. 

oh! we finally connected with a couple we saw at yesterday's campsite and yo-yo'ed with on today's route. they are michael and meredith from tennessee. they set up their tents and then disappeared for the whole evening until just a short while ago when they popped back out to use the potty. we set up our (turns out) crazy tarp shelter so we could invite them over to chit chat, but we never saw them. aw! they must have a roaring fire and hot chocolate being served inside their tent. i wouldn't want to leave either. i hope we get to see them again at our next stop. it's pretty fun to exchange stories and they seem interesting!

tomorrow, we'll have to try to find a bike shop to tighten my hubs. turns out they were loose and therefore, wobbly. (honestly, i felt like my wheel was going to explode and then i would die!! what a story huh?! haha)