I was able to sleep in, the entire group was able to sleep in, due to the shorter ride distance today--57 miles. Many folks reading this may think that 57 miles is not a short riding day, but when one is riding an average of 75 miles a day, with days approaching a 100 miles, 57 miles is short in that context.
Breakfast was light also, oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, and coffee. A quick sweep of the church to check for lost and found, and then into the van. I'm vanning it because of my derailleur issue. No fun,riding in the van and the derailleur issue.
Andrew and Pete volunteered to be sweeps today. Andrew is the fastest rider in the group, or at least the person who rides the fastest each day. He often gets to the church, where we'll be staying 45 minutes before the main portion of the group. It will be a test of patience for both of them since they enjoy riding fast.
Burgess and I did a good thing by chalking a section of road that had loose gravel. The section was on a downhill and people were moving fast when they approached the section in the road. The riders thanked us at the rest stop.
Andrew had to get off his bike due to a very sore ankle. Sue took over for him as the second sweep. Andrew lent his bike to Burgess. This is the first time Burgess has ridden a bike on this trip. He is doing an intership for college and acting as the communications director.
The second rest stop was in the little borough of Langlois, at the Langlois market. This market is an old school general store. They sold everything from firewood to organic meats and there was a deli with fresh made hamburgers, chicken patties, garden burgers, and the store's "famous" hot dogs. Over the deli hung a sign stating that they have sold 615,000 of their hot dogs. I ordered one of their hamburgers with the works and their homemade mustard. This hamburger was one of the best hamburgers I have ever had. It was juicy, delicious, and perfectly prepared. It made the van ride a little bit better.
We reached Port Orford, OR around 1:30 PM. Port Orford is a town of 1,000 right on the water. A group of us walked down to the beach. Port Orford is a very windy town. It was freezing at the overlook, but once we walked down to the beach we were sheltered a bit from the wind. The sand was warm and soft. I went into the water up to my ankles. The water was cold, like the Atlantic Ocean along the Maine coast.
We found a dead seal washed up on the beach. Several of us took photos of the dead seal, and then we headed over to the wharf to see about going deep sea fishing on our day off. Most of the boats are commercial fishing boats, but some appear to be charter boats. One of the locals informed us that it was going to be very windy on Sunday, and therefore not a good day for fishing on the open water. We walked around the wharf and then went into the little gift shop/restaurant. The young women we spoke with is a recent college grad from Port Orford working at the gift shop/restaurant for the summer with her younger sister. The woman studied political science and plans on attending George Washington Univeristy in DC. She's going to travel for a year before going to GW.
Back at the American Legion,where we are staying in Port Orford, Jason, Andrew, Hannah, and I started a game of spades. We played until dinner, then resumed our game after dinner. The game continued on the back deck of the Redfish restaurant. The deck overlooks the ocean. It was very windy. We had to use our cell phones to hold the cards down. The restaurant closed at 9 PM, so we moved the card game to another local establishment in Port Orford. Jason and Hannah won, but not without a fight from Andrew and I.
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