Day 18 - Post Surgery, gratitude and the future.

I realized today that my blog reader population got one big cliff hanger of a day eight post.  Now that another 10 days has passed I have a little bit clearer path.

Surgery went as well as could be expected.  For those of you not afraid of graphic videos, Google PARS Achilles surgery.

One bright spot days after the incident was my scooter find on Craigslist which I quickly added my Bike the US for MS sticker on.

Jenn added some humor to lighten both our moods.  I'm currently reading the Jens Voight biography "Shut up legs".

The broad plan is fo me to have 14 days in a soft cast non weight bearing.  Followed by 3 months in a boot combined with physical therapy to slowly strengthen and stretch.  After that light activities for another 3 months or so.  Fortunately for me that covers winter and should be good timing for spring biking.  According to my calculations that gives me six months to prepare for the Pacific Coast again.  Maybe it happens, maybe not, but I'm putting it in my head.

If that doesn't pan out, I've been teasing my wife that I'm going to go on American Ninja Warrior.

This has been yet another reminder to live every day with gratitude, you never know what's out there.  I do know that I've jumped a couple hurdles now and can once again point myself in the direction that I want to go.  

Without the support of my beautiful spouse, the hurdles would be higher and much harder.  I'm blessed to have her look at this as a setback, not a failure, strengthening both of our resolves to pursue our passions.  She's kind of a big deal.

Thanks for all of your support family and friends.  Keep moving forward.

"Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened"

Day 8 - A Sad Ride Home

Well the ride wasn't too much for me, but shooting hoops in the carpeted church on fatigued legs did.  Many of you have already heard, but I ruptured my Achilles' tendon last night.  

I traveled to the ER last night, got my diagnosis (which I already knew), a splint cast and crutches.  

Smiling and focusing on the positive.  Cut short but I've had a great week.  Looking forward to seeing my family now.

I feel like I got evacuated from survivor, trying to be positive but crushed.  One of the riders said they would miss my positive outlook.  All of them said they would miss seeing my photographs that I've been posting to Instagram.

Thank you all for your support getting me this far.

Day 7 - Tillamook to Lincoln City

Wow am I glad I didn't let the previous evenings sunshine fool me into not putting my rain fly on my tent.  It was the wettest it has been the whole trip.  It was a very heavy fog that burned of fairly quick.

Our route was yet again redirected because of a road outage, this time we had to skip the pretty part in lieu of a shortcut, making our day shorter.

The detour was also a bit ominous on the  way up our first climb.  20 or so vultures lurking on dead trees, and a coyote behind them.

Early on though the fog made for some dramatic photos.  Easy to get great pictures when it's beautiful everywhere.

I almost caught a big bird perching on the end of this pic.  Just a little too slow.

We got to get off the 101 highway off and on today making the roads sweeter and much quieter.

Our first climb was like a sauna and quite steep, but it got us up above the fog.

More rolling climbs all day until we hit bigger ones that always seem to have a great ocean view.

The tan lines are coming in nice now that we have a half day or so of sunshine.

We had an hour or so today after getting here where we shot baskets and waited for a service project today.  We all went in the vans to a woman's house who had recently lost her spouse to MS.  We had a very organized to do list.  Mostly yard work, but I took on gutter cleaning, I like to live dangerously and came up with the best way to do it.  It was very satisfying to word hard and make a difference today.  She fed us cold watermelon, ice waters and gave each of us a very nice thank you card.

My Knees feeling much better after my big outdoor yoga/stretch session yesterday.  

Sweet ride, rewarding work, and another great dinner at the church.  Awesome day.

Day 6 - Astoria to Tillamook

Early start out today.  Foggy first 20-30 miles or so.  Astoria Bridge on the way out was very foggy.

Early on the route today we encountered our first detour.  We had to backtrack an extra 6 or 7 miles.  The bridge was being replaced.

Our first rest stop was Seaside where a gigantic beach volleyball tournament was going on.  The promenade along the beach was very nice.  A side of seaside that I've never seen.

While stopped to watch, a couple ladies started chatting with me about my ride.  Eventually the lady asked to take a photo with her dog riding my bike.  Kind of like we did carrying around flat Megan so long ago.

Funny.  Next stop Cannon Brach where I tide pooled yesterday.  It looks like Haystack rock is for sale.

The next many miles of the ride were rolling hills a tunnel and one more serious climb.  A few pictures help tell that story.

I hope the kids are reading my blog I think of them daily.  This is the 4th DQ Grill & Chill I've passed.

I rode solo a lot today.  I had periods of time I felt great and periods my knee was bothering me.  Hopefully my lengthy yoga/stretch session in the park fixes that.

Guess where.  Yep, Tillamook cheese factory.  

Rocked me a three scoop rather than drinking my chocolate milk.  Dark cherry, chocolate and espresso.  That was lunch today.

We are camped out in the local YMCA baseball field.  I'm hoping the sprinklers don't come on.

I went out of my way today to ride an extra seven miles to finish my eighth strava gran fondo ride in a row.  I figured I was so close I should cross it off my to do list.

Happy birthday bride.  Love you.

Day 5 - Astoria - Rest Day

I'm not real good at sleeping in so I got up early (5ish) to jump on the church wifi while everyone else was sleeping.  I hit the restroom to wash the sleep out of my eyes and holy cats they were puffed up and irritated.  There must be something around here that I'm allergic to.  Hopefully I can control myself and not rub my eyes to make it worse.  

After my early to rise I laid back down to crash out until seven.  Guess I was tired after all.

Quick granola breakfast and then off to find a good coffee.  Took a stroll with the other cohort I have been riding with.  Colin, the historian for Eddie Bauer brand.  We get along really well and had a great coffee and chat.

That is until Aaron, my old UNLV college buddy, and his wife Angie came to visit.  They happened to be in Portland visiting his new grandson.  

Great to see good friends along the way and they were happy to shuttle me around today for some sightseeing.  We did not have a service project lined up so I had the day to explore.

We went south beyond Cannon Beach to a short beach hike called Hug Point.  

Wagon carriages used to ride along a rocky stretch at low tide.  

Beautiful and amazing.

Next stop was famous Cannon Beach for  some tide pooling.

Next stop was Sunset Beach, an amazingly different beach ravaged by the tsunami in 2007.  The walk to the beach was filled by trees stripped of leaves and branches by 100+ mph winds years ago.  

Grasses taller than I am.  Very cool trail.

As part of the Lewis and Clark national park system we stopped at Fort Clatsup to see the replica.

The coolest part was learning why all the beautiful logs stick up out of the water.  They are designed to sort the logs.  Interesting.

Also the spot where they rolled up in their canoe.

Me and Sakajawea (look at me not doing my normal pose with statues).

It wouldn't be a trip to Astoria without climbing the Astoria column.  164 quad burning steps.

Amazing 360 degree view from the top.  This picture is all 360 degrees.

Back to Astoria for a light dinner and some carb loading.  I may be the first person to bike across America and gain weight.

Finally back to packing and prepare for tommorow.  Back on the road to Tillamook.

Our first sunset of the trip.

Day 4 - Castle Rock to Astoria

My first really poor nights sleep.  It turns out that the RV park is located right next to the train tracks. Nearly every hour on the hour the trains whiz by and honk their horn for the crossing nearby, which is not conducive to good sleep.  So I got up early to start the day with the early riser group.  

We were out the door at 6:30 at McDonalds for breakfast at 7:00 and quickly on the road.

Early scenery before the theme of the day.  GREY.

Pretty cool to think of Lewis and Clark paddling around the river.  We biked a good portion of it today.

Aforementioned River.

Crossing the river onto Puget Sound Island.

The tiny square in the background was the leaving Washington sign.  We had 12 minutes to ride 3.5 miles to make it.  I got there with two minutes to spare.  I averaged about 25 mph trying to make it in time to reserve three spots for my riding companions.  Good fun.

Bike takes ferry.  Looks sweet.  👍🏼👍🏼

We were all sad about the super boring welcome to Oregon sign.  A tough 656 foot climb (immediately after the ferry) welcomed us to Oregon.

Jenn and Aaron know exactly how 

I pulled off the scenic picture of my three riding companions today ;). Who's the photographer?

Another non-cyclist view.  

Welcome to Astoria.  Where my evening involved laundry and a beer at the same time.  I was super stoked to have 30 brews on tap in the same building as the laundry facility.  I had a San Diego stone brew (Americano, a dark beer),cheers to all my readers 🍻.

Two nights at another Lutheran church with a hosted Lasagna dinner, salad, ice cream  and cookies.  I should be obese but am always hungry it seems.  I felt like I burned a bunch of calories today.

I'm hoping now that we're going south we can find a magical tailwind.  At this point tailwinds are myth.

Yoga and an early bed time tonight for sure.

Rest/Project day tommorow 😃