Counting Down - One Day Left

Tomorrow's the day! Everything is packed, and everyone is (hopefully) relaxing. We meet at the Astoria Legion Hall later this afternoon for pictures and last-minute briefings, then tomorrow morning, we congregate at Peter Iredale beach in Fort Stevens, dip our tires in the Pacific, and start rolling eastward.

Yesterday, I did a final 35 mile training ride from Gearhart, Oregon down the coast to Arch Cape ... 1800 feet of climbing, and 1800 feet of descending along the way. It was a great ride. And today, I've been packing my panniers for maximum efficiency, in other words, taking out anything I can do without.

One of the highlights of my days in Gearhart have been the morning and evening walks with Annie, our black lab mascot. In the mornings, we go along the beach and throw tennis balls. This morning, there was a special omen on the beach walk. The tide was way out, leaving almost a quarter of a mile of hard-packed but still wet sand. As we got closer to the edge of the ocean, there were sand dollars galore!

A pocketful of change to spend on the road

Not a pocketful of change, but miles of sand dollars, enough to create a good-sized bank account. That is a lot of good luck to bank for our bike trip! And there's Annie in the bottom left corner, tennis ball all slobbered up and ready to go!

Tomorrow morning, the fretting will be over. The ride starts for real. My next blog post will be from on-the road ... hopefully a post every day, but there are no guarantees once we hit the road. That is when serendipity takes over. Que sera, sera.