Warm showers adventures

Once again, our Warm Showers hosts have proven to be AWESOME.

We decided to stop in Coos Bay after only 20 miles (I know, I know. ONLY 20 miles? What a show-off...but trust me, once you start pulling 30 or 40 mile days on a routine basis, 20 does feel like an "only"!). We had emailed Janet and Robert a couple days ago to see if we could stay with them. We were met with an enthusiastic "of course!" I found out when we got here that part of what won Janet over was this blog...but more specifically, reading one of my older entries about how "Our spirits were low. I cried. It happens." She and Robert had done some touring in the past where she cried because of the hills too...so
needless to say, she could relate!

And let me tell you, from the minute we got to their house until we went to bed, there was nothing but laughter. They have an English Mastiff (I LOVE when we stay with people who have big dogs!!!) and a bunch of cats...and a partial recumbent tandem bike. Wondering what that looks like? It looks like this:

We took it for a quick spin down the block...and it was an experience, let me tell you! It was so disconcerting to have zero control over the steering of a bicycle...every wobble felt so dramatic because I couldn't correct it, and I had no braking capabilities whatsoever. But it was a heck of a lot of fun, and Janet said she could hear our laughter/shrieks from down the block.

She also helped me complete a quest I was on for Papa...he wanted me to go on a distance runner's pilgramige in his place. Steve Prefontaine was an Olympic legend in the '70s; holding something like 7 distance records, or some absurd thing like that. He was killed in a car crash when he was in his 20s...anywho, he was buried in his hometown of Coos Bay. So I was on a mission to find his grave, and maybe even run a lap at his old highschool track.When I told Janet I was planning to bike out to the cemetary in the morning to try to find his grave, she offered me a ride out. Well, we had a heck of a time finding him! I ended up looking up a picture online so we knew what we were looking for...and we drove around the entire cemetary looking for it. At one point I got out of the car at the main office building to see if there were any signs or directions...and I hear Janet shriek from the car, "Oh my god I FOUND IT!!!" Turns out, it was right up the main road...we had driven right past it when we pulled in. We giggled probably more than was appropriate in a cemetary...but I like to think Steve would have appreciated it.

A greatly anticipated rest day is scheduled next...we'll bike to Charleston, about 9 miles away from Coos Bay...and then not do anything. Well, maybe bike into town to see a movie, but more likely than not we'll just hang out at camp and read and walk and enjoy not biking 30 or 40 miles!