July 28: Eugene OR to Florence OR and the Pacific Ocean

80 miles

We are DONE! It feels great to pull this off. All of us had a lot of doubts that this would work out, but we did it.

Out of Eugene, Beth and Abby followed the Adventure Cycling route; I drove ahead. But Oregon route 36 had no shoulder and a large number of lumber trucks, so Beth and I cut down to Elmira and went to Florence on Oregon 126. That road had a lot of traffic (and one tunnel) but generally a good shoulder.
Abby joined us again 10 miles out of Florence, and we rode into Florence and then 5 miles further into a county park where we carried the bikes for a few minutes over sand in order to put the front wheels into the Pacific Ocean. So Beth did 80 today; I did 64 and Abby did 47 -- she's still a bit sore, but coming along well.

This has been a dream of mine for ten years. To finally accomplish it, particularly to accomplish it with my family, brings me to tears. It is a wonderful day.

FUTURE:

We're two days ahead of my aggressive schedule to finish on Friday. Tomorrow we are going to play dune/beach tourist. We are definitely NOT getting up at 5:30 a.m.! Friday, we will meet Abby's future in-laws while driving through Portland. They are picking her up there to have her spend a few days with them in Seattle. From there, Beth and I drive to Jackson; she's backpacking in the Tetons for a week; she and Trey will drive the car back. I'll fly out of Jackson on Sunday evening and be back at work Tuesday.

STATS:

I haven't added up the exact miles, but it was about 3300 for the whole trip -- 1100 to Chicago and 2200 since. We took 17 days to get to Chicago (including the rest day) and 33 days to get here, so we were pretty consistent.