Day 6- Let's ride !

Yesterday Ben and I decided that we should get on the bikes and get our legs going again. Last time we were on the bikes was like last Thur. So we went on MapMyRide.com and found a loop from Michelle's house that looked doable. We wrote down all the turns and so with directions in hand, we started out for a 38 mile jaunt. Everything was going fine, we were following the Willamette river south, mostly all downhill and the road conditions were OK. Turned left in Canby and headed east. That's when we made our first error. Missed a left hand turn, the road wasn't marked the same as our directions, and decided to continue ahead looking for road. About 5 mikes out we ran across a hitchhiker who gave us the bad news. But he said if we continued about 5 more mile that we'd cross Rt.213 which was were we wanted to be. O.K., not so bad. About a mile up the road was a gas station where I asked again and was informed it was more like 6 miles, oh well we just out for a ride ! Finally, up ahead is the road we've been looking for. Maybe, but this is Rt. 211, not 213 ??? It does say North, so we take it. Now is the first time we remember the dreaded headwinds! We're riding along this the top of this ridge with beautiful nursery stock planted on both side an mountains off in the distance, but we can't really enjoy it, because we're going north and the wind is going south at about 15 mph. Remember me saying it was mostly downhill in the beginning? You guessed it, it's all uphill now baby. The other thing that's always been in the back of our mind is whether the roads we're choosing are bike friendly or not. Well, Rt. 213 is NOT, Its pretty scary when the shoulder of the road is 1 foot wide and logging trucks are going past you are 60 mph! Well we got off that onto a really nice back country road that had steep rolling hills. The last 3 mile to home seem like they'll never end. Welcome to the Cascades! AFTER a brief rest I wanted to know how far we actually went. MapMyRide tells us we just did a 53 mile warm up.

The rest of our day was spent resting and hanging out with family. Ben even learned how to make cheese. For hours Michelle and he were perfecting a cheese, mixing the best parts of three different recipes. As said earlier, there are goats on the farm and milk is plentiful. Any cheese can be made from goats milk, and this cheese delicious grilled and it's ready to eat right away or can be kept in a brine for 60 days. We'll see if any of it makes it all the way back to CT.

Keep Them Wheels a Rollin'

Paul