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Saturday 28th August 2004

A view from the coast road of Netarts BayFrom Pacific City to Nehalem Bay, which is about 60 miles on route. Initially felt a bit sad to leave Pacific City, because the surf seemed to be shaping up. This may well have been a very temporary phenomena, since due to the coolness of the sea (I reckon it's about 12 or 13 centigrade at the moment - compared with a nice 15 or 16 centigrade at a typical sandy beach in mid Wales or at Skegness) there's often a strong afternoon sea breeze, and a bit of sea mist coming onshore, which pretty much spoils the surf. We need to go some miles, though, and very pleasant miles they are too between Pacific City and Nehalem Bay - most of them are not on the coastal route 101 and so not so heavily trafficked. We started off with a big breakfast at "The Coffee Shoppe" in Pacific City (at about 11am, a bit late as usual), which was busy and understandably so - it does excellent pancakes and omelettes. Then on the Three Capes route - which is part of the Oregon Coast Bike Route, as are sections of Highway 101. The Three Capes were not too difficult - the first cape is the biggest, coming from the south. We got some wonderful views of crashing waves on distant beaches alongside the capes. Then we eventually reached Oceanside, which had no store so we ate at a cafe. Oceanside is a delightful seaside resort - small and manageable. We then went through Tillamook - a big town, but we didn't stop since it was starting to get a bit late! We then decided to take the quiet route up the Miami River Valley, so as to avoid the busyness of the coastal highway. About a couple of miles along the route, a car tried to force Guy off the road, and actually nudged his bike, the driver tried the same thing with me. And then accelerated away at speed. Unfortunately we didn't get the registration details - it was just a speeding saloon car of a rather dull colour! The whole incident was very surprising given the politeness that's been common here in the USA towards bikes - better than on the crowded roads of Britain. Eventually we reached Nehalem village - where we bought food. In the store where I was buying food, a youth was buying cigarettes, saying he was buying them for younger (underage smokers) friends. The shop lady looked on with an odd indulgence. She seemed a bit far gone. Anyhow, she sold me some food, which we ate at the Nehalem Bay State Park - only 8 dollars for two bikers and a tent. The beach is huge and with the wind that was blowing should have had one or two, at least, windsurfers exploring the waves. After a look at the sunset, we read books until late. I'm hurtling through Roughing It by Mark Twain.

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