Day 14 – 9/10, 9:30am, Reedsport OR
Not sure how much journal time I’ll get in the next few days, in the midst of some serious daily mileage. (I was perhaps a tad ambitious in my planned itinerary.) After an early morning start from the campground, I just inhaled a huge breakfast: veggie-stuffed omelette with hash browns, raisin toast, and a side of boar sausage. Righteous.
The Oregon coast is all it’s cracked up to be, some extraordinary scenery. Lots of other bike tourers out there, so hopefully the drivers stay aware when the shoulders get narrow. One tries not to get antagonistic, but the mammoth RV is really the natural enemy of the bicyclist. I want to be sympathetic, when I’m too old to ride I’ll still want to visit these places too – I just don’t see why folks need a vehicle the size of a house to do it. Regardless, the coastline more than makes up for it. And I saw a bunch of sea lions, that was awesome.
I went up on the dunes to watch the sunset – beautiful. I brought my horn with the thought of playing, but the wind was blowing the fine sand too strongly. Douglas’s wife is an ace instrument repairperson and she just fixed my horn up in Portland, now that my valves are finally moving decently I shouldn’t grit them up. So I went back to the campground and played as a few other bikers set up camp. (Two blokes from England trying to make it to South America, and a native Oregonian out for a’wander.) Since I was at Honeyman campground, the old Miles Davis/Gil Evans piece came to mind, but I’m not sure I remembered it quite right.
I’ve been overly public about my (oft-unrealized) goals for technological austerity, but a trip like this helps bring home the clarity provided by fasting – not from food (see my breakfast) but from things we use mindlessly every day. I’m going online enough to keep you, dear reader, up to date, but generally at most once a day and not falling into the lazy browsing that is most of our habit. Going a month without getting into a car or watching tv, without all the easy conveniences and distractions, really does open up some additional space for thought. I’m not saying I (or anyone) could do this all the time, I’m not that much of a monk, but every now and again it really can clean out the brain.