Still here

Like I said there is more to my story since my last post. I ended up staying at that coffee shop for a pretty long time, it was in the town Mendicino and there was a nice campground just a few miles south so that ended up being a pretty short day. Then the next day I headed out to Galalala(?) to camp when what do you know, my trailer breaks. So I hitch a ride to Manchester where there was a nice hardware store and rig up something I hope will work. I bike the last 15-20 miles to this nice campground and share the site with a girl/woman from Quebec. She shares her hummus and I call up some of the hostels in San Fran because she is poor with English, It was fun. The next morning I am a little worried about how my trailer is holding up after biking about 15 miles so I stop at a general store and the man tells me there is a bike shop in Bodega Bay, so I make a sign reading "Bodega Bay" and about an hour later after several "sorry no room" and whatnots a guy picks me up with a truck. He is only going like half way there but then he pulls over at a park to check on the water and decides the conditions aren't very good so what the hell he will drive me the whole way. What the conditions wern't very good for was diving and for most of the ride when he was talking about it and I was asking questions I assumed he meant scuba but turns out he actually just meant diving. He would dive down 30-50 feet for like 2 minutes and spear fish or collect some snail like thing of which I forget the name. Pretty cool stuff. So he drops me off at the bike shop, I bring my bike in, and the guy is all "Just sold what you would need" but he took a look at my rigup and deemed it a very good substitute for what had broke and that I shouldn't be to worried about fixing it and just to get a new piece when I get the chance. Having not planned to get to there that day I wasn't sure where to camp so I asked and he said the only real campground south of there was Taylor P something something and that was about 43 miles from town. So leaving Bo Bay a little after 3 I had some pushin to do to get there 'for it got dark. As soon as I started heading inland after the town the landscape changed dramatically. Big bare rolling hills, seemed like a totally different state. Oh, and the wind, it was hella windy and it would have been a perfect tailwind if I weren't going south east inland a bit. Anywho, I made my first wrong turn of my whole trip, or should I say wrong not turn, as Highway 1 took a 90 degree turn and I missed it. I went about 2 miles passed before realizing it. And those to miles out of my way were easy, downhill with a fast tailwind, getting back was crazy slow due to said wind and hill. I got back on route and proceeded to climb a few big climbs and descend a few big descents before arriving at my campsite with just enough sunlight to put up my tent. I woke up the next morning(this morning) with what looked like an easy 25 miles to the Golden Gate Bridge. I packed up slow and hit the streets a little after ten. It wasn't a hard ride at all with exception of a big hill but it was definitely a change of scenery. After the first 5 miles it was pretty much all city riding. There were just continuous back to back little town/citys all the way to the bay. Again, not bad just different. I was biking up that big hill I mentioned when a guy came up behind me also biking and asked where I was coming from. I told him my story as we climbed the hill and asked for advice on the best way to get to the bridge. He told me to just follow him for most of the way cause he was going pretty close cause there is a pizza place he likes to go to for lunch and whatnot. I end up going to the pizza place and he insists on buying me lunch as a welcome to the bay area sort of thing. It was great. I biked over the bridge which was windy to say the least and then made my way to the Greenpeace office on 17th st. Got introduced around to some of the GOT people and then spent the rest of the day reading and relaxing around the city.

Hope alls well
Arthurs.

San Francisco

So here I am. I am sitting in the Greenpeace office right now and they let me check my email and whatnot, very kind of them. My fingers are really tired from the biking so I think I am going to leave it at that for now but I will post a bigger update soon.

Barthur?

Fort Bragg

Well the biggest hill on the coast is behind me but it is anything but smooth sailing. I am camping at MacKerricher State Park tonight and am in a coffee shop in town right now. Last night was Crazy! There is a festival that started today called Earth Dance and lots of 'travlers' were camping at the park I was at. It would have been a lot better had I not just biked 55 miles in 95 degree weather. Anyways, yesterday morning was amazing, winding through the Redwoods. I did't get many pictures but oh well. Well, last night I tried to go to bed around 9 but that was a no go, there were fire dancers outside my tent, so I got up and watched for a while. Bout 1030 I tried again, and this time some people set up camp at my site right when I was falling asleep. They quieted down around 1230. I am about 4 days to SF and I can't wait.

wolp wolp,
Arthur

California

So here I am! I camped in Brookings and in the morning packed up, biked to the border of Or/Ca, made a sign reading Eureka and waited at a stoplight for like 10-15 minutes before a guy pulled over in a truck and offered me a ride a good half way there. He dropped me off at his town near a gas station and wished me luck, I got a sub from subway and made a new sign because I left my other one in my rush to pack up and stood at the lights again. This time it was less then 5 minutes before a friendly looking guy pulled up in an old Cadi. I was unsure if al my stuff would fit in but he was confident, so we fit it all in the back of his car and we went to Eurkea. I wanted to get to Eureka so badly because I had set up some couch surfing with a couple who lived there and I was/am pretty beat from all the hills and sun a whatnot. Chris and Savanna are extreamly nice and hospitable and I enjoyed my time here a whole bunch. So I get dropped off by the very talkitive cadi owner at the Co-Op in town and I call up Savanna to see whats up. She was at work but was about to take her lunch break so I met up with her there. I then called up Greenpeace because it had been a week and low and behold she was all "Yeah you got it, swing by when you are in town and I can give you the info." Sweet! A biker I had been travling with for a few days was telling me about this big folk fest in San F on the weekend of the 1st 2nd and 3rd ( my 21st birthday weekend) and I was really excited for that and then Chris tells me about this big electronic music parade/dance party which goes on the same weekend and Bam I look it up and LovEvolution is on Oct 3rd with stuff going on the entire week before, so now I am supper pummped to get to the city because I get to look for a room to sublet and explore where I will be spending at least 3 months and yeah. So it is cold and damp out now but it should dry up pretty soon when the sun cooks off the rest of the fog and I will head back out on the road but I am worried that the excitement of getting to SF will cause me to hitch a little more the I was planning on but we will see.

Yay puck,
Arthur.

Bandon Or

So Thursday I got a pretty late start and just ended up camping a few miles from where Linsey droped me off, I was the only biker there and was worried I had missed the biking pack. the next morning I biked about 40 miles to Honeyman state park. When I got there around 3 I was the only biker and got worried again. I went to the dunes which are awesome (pictues coming) and when I got back to the site some others were shifting in. That evening I had a nice chat with a retired man named John who does little loops back to his car and then drives to a different area and will do anouther loop, this way he avoids the big hills(mountians). I also met a lady who was about to start grad school at USO in Corvallis and was taking a quick bike tour while she had the chance. There was a fun couple heading to San Fransisco, I ended up staying up kinda late with them as he had bought a ukelale(?) from the guitar/bike store I will post a picture of when I get a chance. To top off the biker secton of the park was a woman named KC( spelled with other letters I just don't know them) She drove up from Utah and was doing the Oregon coast then heading back to work. The next day was my longest and hardest yet, I got a real late start due to rain and didn't leave the camp till round 1:30 then it was 55 miles to go to where I was planning on camping. When 6:30 rolled around I started to get a little scared and when the sun was thinking really hard about going to bed I started hitching. Luckily it wasn't quite as far as the woman who had given me the directions in the last town had said it was and I got into Sunset Bay state park just in time to set up my tent without my head lamp. KC from the night before was also there and we talked for a while, she shared her beans and rice with me which were delicious and it turns out she is from Milwaukee.This morning she headed out of camp a little before me, I was taking my time because the first 10 miles of the day was on a road called 7 devils road apropiatly named for 7 big hills spanning the 10 miles. Towords the end of the last desent I met up with her on the road. We desided to stop for luch in town where I am writting this on my buddy. I have another 35 miles to go totaling 60 miles miles for the day.

Skamper Pants,
Arthur

Ps. I am a libray now and made some changes to the post up there to add detail. I have about five miles to go to the campsite and the afternoon ride was beutiful. Nice wind at my back and me and KC stuck together and talked a bit on the bikes. It was a nice change of pace.

Biking again

So I am leaving Corvallis in the morning and am pretty pumped to get biking again. A week here was the perfect break and I am ready to move some more ground. I met a lot of fun people here and pretty much just relaxed and enjoyed everyday as best I could. I was kind of mapping out the coming days on bike and it looks like I will be getting into SF right around my birthday which is exciting but also a little unfortunate because I don't want to feel rushed in case I want to hang out someplace longer then expected or take some shorter days. I will have to work it out when if it becomes an issue I guess.

Sludge bucket,
Arthur.

Corvallis

I realize I haven't posted in a while so I thought I just just fill yall in.
After getting into Oregon it was a totally new type of trip, there were bikers all over the place. I got a nice coastal biking map with topography so I can really see what I am going to get into each day. And the company has been a welcome change from Washington, I stayed kinda with the group I met in Astoria for a few days, I think we camped together for 4 nights at state parks right on the coast and was really impressed with how nice the parks were. It was really motivational to have fermilier faces along the way during the day, we never really biked together but I would come around the corner and Rich and his wife would be standing near their bike at a seanic overlook or something making new friends and having a blast, I can only hope that when I start back up in the next day or two I bump into more friendly people like them. Wellll, in Lincoln there is a lake called Devils lake and there is a park with the same name but it happens to be right in the city and the hiker/biker campsite was literally in someones backyard (I will post pictures when I am more motivated) and the next morning I went to my friends campsite to say farewell since I was stopping in Newport and they were continuing on but as it would they had walked to my site and we missed each other. The bike ride that day was about 25 miles with one moderate sized hill but nothing to bad. I read on the beach for a while and then Lindsey got there, we walked for a while and then got an amazing dinner at this really cool cafe with a pully system to get all the food and such upstairs to where the open mic was going on. So now for the past few nights I have been at Lindseys and it is really nice.

Hope all is well and I look forward to seeing everyone again,
Arthur.

The coast

Wow today was quite the ride but I will get to that later. After Raymond I kept heading south. I few miles down the road I got to south Bend and acording to the waitress at the diner I had lunch at there was a nice campground just a few miles past the town. South bend has a 'big' Labor day celebration which they were preparing for and acording to all the signs in town South bend is the oyster capital of the world. Anywho, walk my bike up a nice big hill and halfway up there is a sign saying that in 1/4 mile there's a county campground. I keep on pushing and finally get there. Once there I stop and ask a friendly looking couple who I should. They tell me to put the money in the box but if I want I can share a site with them. I take them up on it and set up my tent. It is a nice site and they feed me in the morning, on a full tummy I head towards Oregon dreding the Astoria bridge which I will figure out later. Its raining a little bit when I leave but figure it will clear up, it doesn't. I am much closer to the coast and the wind is powerfull and the rain is blinding so i stick out my thumb. after about four miles a pickup pulls over ahead of me and seeming friendly I load my bike in the back. Best decision of my life, friendly guy they were and all but it wasn't till the bridge when I was really glad I took the ride. It's bout 4 miles long with no real shoulder, lots of debris, painful winds, and a 200 foot climb at the end. They drop me off in Astoria and wish me luck, the downtown is cute and it is definitly a nice change from the Washington towns I was getting used to. I met a German biker and a couple riding tandem from New England they are all heading to some state park to the north so I follow. the park was nice and 4 dollars for bikers, two more bikers got in a little after us and the 6 of us talked till dark when we decided to hit the tents. Rained last night but had stopped and the sun was shining by the time I wanted to get up, I packed up and started biking south on 101. The Oregon coast bike map has a cool hill marker along the side so I knew I had three big hills today and wow, clifs and water on one side forests or rocks on the other, I walked up most of all three concidering hitching aging but deciding against it. The rides down were fun but a little petrafying, I am now at the bottom of the third which was 600 feet 9 percent grade down and I saw a pub advertizing free WiFi, taking them up on it I am sitting outside on my Nokia. I have bout 4 mile to go to get to the state park I am staying at tonight and I expect to see at least a few of the faces I met yesterday there.

Till later,
Arthur

Passing through Raymond

Wow, camped at a really nice campground last night. The people running it were really nice and had a huge garden that they opened up to their guests. I had two big cucumbers and a nice tomatoe. This morning was a different story, started raining around midnight and kept on all morning. I was trying to wait it out in my tent but around 11 I figured I had better get started. Packing up in the rain is pretty horible, I thought I would wear my pack instead of strapping it to my trailer. Bad idea, I basically cried the entire 18 miles to Raymond from Artic where I spent the night. I ended taking it off and strapping it back onto the trailer. Long story whatnot I am finishing a 2 o clock meal in a diner that offers free WiFi and have really no idea where I am going to stop today.

Arthur.

Olympia

So I made it to Olympia yesterday eve for a total of about 45 miles biking. It really wasn't to bad until I started to rest that evening, then I could clearly tell I wasn't in shape. Hopefully as I continue it will become easier to get myself going in the morning. When I got into the city I popped into a B and N book sellers to use their free wifi and figure out how to get to Mike and Grace's place. There was a helpful woman sitting at the table next to me who could tell I was looking for something and offered her assistance. Turns out she grew up very close to where I was trying to get and gave me a very clear and direct route. I called up grace, told her I was close and on my way and headed out up and then down two huge hills over a bridge and finally I had to push my bike and trailer up the final hill to Grace's house. To say it was steep and long would not do it a pinch of justice. Grace showed me around the house which is adorable and perfect for them. Introduced me to the 5 chickens they are keeping out back and made sure I was comfortable then she had to run some errands which I was totally alright with because I needed to rest anyway. She returned with a friend and some veggies and we started to prepare some veggie fajitas for dinner. They were amazing with green red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, onions, and cucumbers, cheese, guacamole, and sour cream. And for the people who ate sea food they fried up some shrimp. We ate on the porch with a fire and marveled at the passing clouds. I am taking the day off from biking and Grace is showing me around the city. Right now we are at Evergreen because she needed to pick up some papers or something and I am using a library computer. It looks like I will be getting up tomorrow morning and head west on Hi 8 to a town called Elma Wa about thirty miles from Grace's. Then its just a short 20 mile ride to Aberdeen.

Word Juice,
Arthur.

Middle of my second day

I got started on Tuesday the 1st instead of Monday because I felt like it and kinda a late start on Tuesday as it was. I didn't get off the boat till round 4 and then started biking. The sun started to get me a little nervous around 630 so i started to keep a lookout for possible places to throw up a tent for the night. About an hour later after coasting down what felt like 3 miles of hill I reached a sign reading now entering Allyn. I passed a Shell station and half a block down was a small lot littered with paddle boats and kayaks. There was a sign with a phone numer to call, so i did and asked politely if I could pitch a tent for the night and be gone in the morning. He said he didn't see anything wrong with that and that was that. Oh and it was on a beutiful lake. I slept pretty well concidering it was my first time in a tent in quite a while and only time sleeping alone in one. Anyways, the next morning I got up, had some potatoes from the Shell and started biking. I will put up pictues when I get a chance.

Boogaloo,
A