Newport and our new road dog Stephen 9/29 - 10/03

From Beverly Beach we didn't make it far, only about 10mi to Newport. 9-30- In the morning at camp we met Adam and Kate who are also on their way to Mexico. We were all pretty tired and decided to have a rest day. Brian met up with his sister in town and they went to eat and go to the aquarium. Josh and Sim stayed at the best bike shop Ever! all day. The name of the shop is Bike Newport. (Check it out in our link's) This shop was awesome. They had a lounge upstairs with Internet, a great shower, laundry, and tons of good bikes and gear for sale on the first floor. There was a fat tired beach bike called the Pugsly made by Surly and a bike made of hemp and bamboo by a company called Calfree. We sat around and talked with the owner, Elliot, most of the day. He told us that there was a cool pub at a local brewery by the end of town called Rogue. A brewery was exactly what we needed.









































































Rogue was cool. When you enter, the path to the pub leads you past the gigantic vats of brew. Once inside we ordered some sample trays and sampled about fifteen different brews. Sim ate a raw oyster shooter- two oysters in a shot glass with some kind of sauce in the glass. He enjoyed the slimy treat. Just as we were walking out with a nice beer buzz, Elliot came rolling into the parking lot and offered for us to join him for a beer at the pub so we headed back in.


















After sharing some more stories around a few pint glasses Elliot offered for us to come by his house for a couple more brews. It had gotten dark by this time and seeing a couple vagabonds like us he incredibly invited us to crash in his camper that night instead of going to the campsite. Huge bonus! While we were at his house, Elliot's wife Danielle gave Sim a sage smudge stick to purify the dream tent and in the morning she offered us coffee to try to shake our beer headaches.



10-1 On the way out we stopped at a thrift store called Pirate's Plunder and picked up some pirate flags for our vessels. Josh and Sim "The bike pirates of the Pacific."
We rode on to Jessie Honeyman State Park and met back up with Brian. Biked about 54mi to get there. We also met a few other tourers. Luke, Tanya, and Steve. Luke was lightly packed and rode like lightning, he taught survival skills to native children for a while and it seemed he just toured and rock climbed most of the year. Tanya had some bike troubles and we didn't get to chat very much. Steve was from Winnipeg Manitoba and was on his way to San Fran.


In the morning of 10-2 we were greeted by more rain. Brian decided to hang back instead of riding through the rain and risking getting sick. We wished him well and parted ways with hopes of meet again around San Fran. Just as we were leaving camp, Stephen decided to join us for a bit. So, the three of us headed out in the rain to trudge along. We ended up pushing through 59mi that day to get to Sunset Bay State Park. Stephen had gone ahead to meet us there because Josh had a problem with his hub just after walking a bridge. Josh's internal 8 gear hub was slipping leaving him with only gears 1-4. At about dusk we had a hard time finding the site and found ourselves along a beach tired and annoyed.


As we decided what to do about our predicament, we met a guy named Eliah who offered us beer and bean tortillas, freakin awesome! We got a little fuel to get us to the park thanks to Eliah and took off to find Steve. When we finally found the site, Josh decided he would wait till the next town to disassemble and look for how to fix the hub online somewhere. The next town was Bandon.

The ride into Bandon was pretty rough. There was a road called seven devils road. The devils were hills- steep and seemingly never ending. Sim found a good pace and took off in a focus he hadn't felt in years. Josh made it to Bandon and with only 4 gears to boot. Stephen luckily seemed to be travelling at our pace so he stayed alongside us. In Bandon Simeon found a coffee shop called Brewed Awakenings and waited for the other two. As Josh and Stephen rolled up they had to wait for traffic to cross the road. Josh tried slowly balancing without stopping but lost it and flopped hard flat on his side. The first real spill of the trip. A huge charlie horse on his thigh was the result. Limping into the coffee shop we had a few worries. Josh's hub, a huge storm blowing in, and now a possibly serious injury.

Josh found a couple leads on how to fix the hub and all three decided to find a place to stay inside for the night. Stephen and Josh wandered to a small hotel and bartered for a decently priced room for them all. The room started at $70 but through a strange form of bartering Josh offered $45 and the owner said "how about $40." So, we ended up with a sick room with a lofted master bedroom, two smaller beds downstairs, a dockside view, a skylite, and a microwave. It was an incredible deal. Josh used the deck to take his bike apart while Stephen and Sim ran to the grocery store for food, an ice pack, some PBR, and some ibuprofen. No ice bags at the store so we improvised with a frozen bag of peas.Turns out the hub was jacked because Josh's back wheel had jostled loose and was shifting about a half inch on both sides.

















The storm was blowing hard that night as we worked on the bikes and relaxed. We could hear the boat masts creaking in the wind and watched the rain blow sideways counting our blessings. It would have been a much tougher night had we tried to camp.