We Start in 5 Days!

I am getting really excited!  We have been training hard for a long time and are finally almost ready to start our adventure.  We are driving down to Bandon on Sunday and plan to do our first day of riding on Monday.  That will be a short day of about 34 miles.  Our second day will be a real challenge as we climb to over 4000 feet to get over the coast range (yes, there are lots of ways to get over the coast range that do not require us to climb a 4000 foot mountain, but most of those routes are heavily travelled highways and the route we are taking will have almost no traffic); this will also be a long day of almost 80 miles.

We will be "camping" with RVs - only Lisa will be tent camping; she's the hardy one in our group! - and we will even have pets with us (2 cats and a dog - I'm sure there will be tales about them later!).  When we can we will stay in campgrounds that have full hookups so that we can have all of the amenities of home.

We are still training, but have backed off some in order to be well rested when we start the trip.  Gale and I rode 47 miles on Friday to Elk City and back (it was hot and windy so we got a good workout).  I rode 50 miles on Sunday to Siletz and back.  On Monday, Gale and I joined some other women and did an easy ride on the Bay Rd. in Newport; Gale and I did ride from Newport Bike Shop so we did have to climb John Moore Hill (ugh!) on the way back.  I'm planning a short ride on Beaver Creek with some women on Thursday, then on Friday I'm going to ride with Lisa - this will be her first ride since her accident (she has been pushing herself on her trainer though, so will probably still outride me!).  Dana has been riding with her grandson Sam; I'm not sure if this counts as training (Sam is 9 years old) but I know they've been having a great time.

The weather looks good for our start and we are ready to roll!