[trip-list] Back down OR-99

[drewish@katherinehouse.com]

MONROE, OR 07/24/02 - I woke up in the corner of a hazelnut orchard with light just starting to seep through the trees. Mosquitoe bites covered my face and the full moon had done it's best to keep me awake all night. I'll spend the extra ten minutes to put up the tent in the future.

I was makeing excellent time on my way to Corvallis, barely aware of the rolling green and golden fields I was passing. The shoulder was good and I looking forward to seeing all the fine folks at BikeE, the manufacture of my bike. Coming up a hill eight miles outside of town an old fellow on a highly customized BikeE pulled up beside me. The rider's name was Dave Wallace, we talked for a while as we rode into town ands we parted ways he told me about a nice place for breakfast.

I went over to the bakery he'd described and checked my email to see if I'd gotten any directions back from my contact at BikeE. I hadn't and a quick phone call explained why, he was on vacation. [Later in the day I got an email from him saying that and giving me the name of another person to contact but by that point I was a few miles south.] The guy I talked to on the phone explained that they were in the process of moving and there wouldn't even be much to see. Since Brad and I had stopped in last summer it wasn't a big deal. With a few hours now freed up I decided to get on down the road and then find some where to sleep for a few hours. 

I ended up crashing out under some bushes on the side of a field for a while, mostly trying to kill time. I've got to be in Eugene tomorrow at 12:00 but it's only 40 miles from Corvallis so there wasn't much reason to hurry. As it does, the sun kept on moving, my shade drifting along the opposite direction. Eventually it was just me and the sun, at that point a little riding didn't sound so bad. 

I pulled into Monroe an hour or so later, ate dinner then headed to the rest stop a few miles south of town. At the rest stop I started to check my map then realized that I'd left it back at the diner. Well a three-mile-mistake like this is nothing in a car, in six minutes you'll have it straightened out and be right back where you were. On the bike you start asking yourself if it's really worth the trouble. I didn't want loose another map, and I was still ahead of schedule so I figured what the heck. I turned it around and I pedaled remembered another n-mile-mistake I'd made. Last summer Brad and I got seperated riding into a small town in Nebraska just after dusk. Unable to find him I rode the 15 miles back to the previous town thinking maybe he hadn't been as close behind me as I'd thought. He wasn't any where to be found. At this point a bit freaked out and not knowing what else to do I turned back around. In town I found Brad and half the volunteer fire department looki!
ng for ME. This time I was able to get my map back and avoid the search party.

andrew

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