Tour De La Dead V2

55 Miles

I got out of bed around 6:30 and started packing up. The realization that I was now on my own made me feel nervous. My mother texted me, giving me confidence, which I appreciated. I also received supportive texts from numerous friends back home. I gave my friend a hug and wished him luck on his trip back home, then began my solo adventure.

I left at 8 AM, and by 10 AM, I was already 20 miles deep. I was in the zone, making sure to do everything right since I was alone. I encountered some big hills, but they weren’t too bad because I could go at my own pace. I finally experienced the “no shoulder” roads people had mentioned, but fortunately, cars were respectful.

I eventually reached a nice overlook of the coast and met a friendly Australian woman from Melbourne. We chatted for a bit; she and her husband are visiting all the national parks on the West Coast for 10 weeks. She said the view reminded her of the beaches back home.

Continuing on, I reached Florence. I wanted pizza, but the restaurant only sold whole pizzas, which surprised me—I’m used to buying slices in the Northeast. Instead, I settled on some surprisingly good gas station fried chicken. The guy working there joked that the job was making him fat. He mentioned the state park was 5 miles away, so I headed there.

The state park was very nice. I met a French guy named Francois, who is riding from Portland to San Francisco. I also met two Canadians named Nick and Ryan, who started in Vancouver and are aiming for Tijuana, Mexico. All of us decided to check out some sand dunes in the park. After that, we went to bed, and I checked in with my friend, who had safely arrived at the airport and was heading back to New York in the morning.