LINK FOR VOTING ON BIKE NAME!!!! VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!!!!

HEY THIRD GRADERS!!

Here is a link for voting on the name of my bike.  I'm pretty sure I got all of the suggested names.  If I forgot any I apologize.  This voting is for anyone and everyone, so share it with friends and family.  I will be posting it on Facebook for my friends and family to vote as well.  I will keep the voting open until the 4th of July when I will reveal the new name of bike!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZBP2W32

Day 4: 44 miles with some crazy hills and bridges!

Hello 3rd graders, families, and friends!

I have to admit I'm a little tired this evening!  I rode 44 miles today from just south of Florence Oregon to Coos Bay Oregon.  I rode part of the day with one of the guys I met in the campground last night.  I like being on this journey alone, but it is nice to meet other people and ride with other people once in a while.  We would pull off at some of the scenic areas and talk about how hard it was to get up that last hill or how the challenge of working hard to get up the hills was so worth it when we were coasting down the other side gaining miles without even peddling.  I got to thinking while riding some of the hills today.  I was thinking about how important it is to work hard to get through the hard times in our live (the hills) so we can enjoy the good times (coasting down the other side). The larger the hill the bigger the pay off on the other side.  I like to look at the hills that way.  It helps motivate me to get up them.

There were quite a few construction areas today.  I have decided I don't care for riding through construction areas.  The road surface is unpredictable and most times I have to ride in the traffic because there is no shoulder to ride on.  Although I did enjoy one construction zone today.  I was riding next to a school bus filled with kids and when I looked over they were all waving at me and cheering!  The bus driver even slowed down so they could all see me riding.  It was very cool!  I waved to them and they all waved back.  It made me miss my third graders and my school family!

I didn't take many pictures today because I wasn't along the beach hardly at all all day.  I kept looking for it, but it was hidden by trees or sand dunes.  Below is a map of my ride for today.  You can see how a lot of it was inland away from the ocean.  You can also see the crazy hills in the elevation graph below the map.  Yikes!

The pictures below show the wildest (scariest, creepiest...) part of my ride today.  This bridge going into North Bend Oregon was super high and it was blowing at least 40 miles per hour up there.  Also, there was only about a two foot wide walking path.  There was no way I could safely ride over this bridge, so I got off and walked my bike all the way across.  It was a long walk in hard soled cycling shoes but I think it was the safest thing to do for sure.  I'd like to live to ride another day!  For sure! (My mom will be so happy when she reads this)  Love you mom!

Here is a short video I shot from the highest point of the bridge:

https://youtu.be/XVIy7rsWH9A

Tonight I am staying in a hotel!  It will be so nice to sleep in a real bed and have wifi so I can blog for my third graders!  I am also going to try to create a poll or some way for you all to vote on a name for my bike.  I have gotten some really good suggestions and it's time to vote on one.  I will figure that out and post a link to the vote as soon as I figure it out!

Speaking of my bike!  Below is a picture of (insert bike name here) in an elevator!  When I called to make the reservation I told them I was arriving on a bicycle and hoped they could put "us" on the ground floor.  I guess all the ground floor rooms were taken.  We're on the second floor.  I think the elevator ride was a little scary for (insert bike name here)!   

Day 3: pictures, video, and words!

I typed this in my tent last night and posted it today since I didn't have internet where I was.

Waldport Oregon to Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park (4 miles south of Florence, Oregon) 39 miles for the day.

Another fabulous day of riding the Oregon Coast!  I was kind of slow getting up this morning.  I expect it will still take some time for my body to get used to what I’m putting it through.  I was a little sore, but not as bad as I thought I would be.  I got up, had breakfast, packed up, and headed down the road.  After a few miles all of my aches and pains were gone.  I was back on the road and happy to be there!

 Here's (Insert bike name here) taking a rest after a long hill climb

 This is the Haceda Head Lighthouse

Yesterday I ended up getting a little more sunburned that I thought.  I didn’t really notice it until I was laying in my sleeping bag and my legs, back of my neck, and my face were really warm.  I looked in the mirror this morning and realized, even though it was cloudy most of the day, I should have put on sunscreen.  So today I put it on a few times throughout the day.  Sunburns can be painful!

Today I rode through some very steep stretches of road with almost no shoulder for cyclists.  Most of the 39 miles I rode there was plenty of room, but roughly 8 miles I was riding with about 6 inches of road to myself.  Some of that piece of road I was borrowing from the cars coming up behind me. Most drivers are very courteous and slow down and move over as much as they can to give me room.  Some drivers don’t.  I went through my first tunnel today!  That was very interesting.  At the start of the tunnel there was this button for cyclists to push that would activate flashing lights and signs to let drivers know there was a cyclist in the tunnel.  I have flashing lights on my bike too, so I felt pretty good about it.  I waited right at the entrance to the tunnel for about 5 minutes and made my plan for heading through it as safely as possible.  I got kind of tricky with it.  I figured if I pushed the button and got the lights blinking right when I saw a car coming they would slow down when they saw me and the flashing lights.  Then I figured if they slowed down enough I would pull out in front of them and let them be right behind me as a warning to other cars coming from behind. In my head it made perfect sense.  I saw a car coming, I pushed the button to start the lights, the car slowed to almost a stop, I pulled out in front right into his lane, and he had no choice but to drive 10 mph right behind me all the way through the tunnel.  It worked perfectly!  It was almost like a blocker in football but in reverse.  He was blocking cars that were coming up from behind.  Once I got through the tunnel I pulled off to the side of the road and waved at the driver.  He waved back almost like we both knew what we just did together just then.  There ended up being four more cars and an RV right behind him.  So I kind of figure this method eliminated the chance of getting hit by all of those cars and the RV. 

Here is a link to a short video I shot after I made it through the tunnel:

https://youtu.be/gpMQmNNaGa4

Once I got up to the top of the hill I rested for a little while before heading down the other side.  On my way down it was very steep and I ended up breaking my speed record!  I hit 36 mph on the way down, which was super cool because at the very bottom of the hill the speed limit was 35mph.  So I was going just as fast as the cars at this point.  They weren’t even trying to pass me!  

This was my view before heading down the hill super fast!

This store was at the bottom of the hill.  (Insert bike name here) needed a rest!

After the store I had a fairly long stretch of flat and hot riding before getting to Florence, Oregon. When I got there I was at about 35 miles for the day.  I felt like I could go further, but looking at the map during lunch I noticed there were too many campgrounds up the road.  There was one campground 4 miles south, so I headed there, set up camp, and called it a day. I ended up riding 

slightly over 39 miles today.

Here is my route for today. The graph on the bottom shows the elevation of the hills I climbed.

I met four very nice cyclists in the campground.  There was a couple who were riding a tandem bike from Forest Grove, Oregon, a guy from Santa Maria, California who was heading south toward home, and a guy that rode north from San Francisco and tomorrow is heading east from Florence all the way across the country to the East Coast!  I can’t imagine the summer heat he’s going to have to deal with!  No thanks!  I’ll stay on the coast where, as I sit in my tent typing, it is a nice 53 degrees.  The high today was in the upper 60’s and it was perfect! 

The tent spaces were very neat little areas cut out of the bushes

This is the view of inside my tent with all my stuff around my sleeping bag

This really has been the adventure of a lifetime and it’s only my third day!  I am so excited for what is ahead of my over the next month! 

Day 3: Great day! No Internet

I had a great ride today but I will have to blog about it tomorrow when I have wifi. I am in a campground a few miles south of Florence Oregon. It's beautiful! I have so many great pictures and a couple videos to share tomorrow!  So stay tuned!  Tomorrow's blog will be for today and tomorrow!

Day 2: FANTASTIC!

Lincoln City Oregon to Waldport, Oregon. 47 miles!

What a fantastic day!  I started my day riding south out of Lincoln City Oregon.  It was a chilly 54 degrees and I was loving it!  I would rather warm up riding than be sweating like cray in 90 degree weather.  The high temperature was only around 62 all day.  Perfect riding weather! 

So here’s a funny thing that happened to me today…

I stopped at a scenic view point to rest my legs, have a snack, and look at the magnificent Oregon Coast.  This guy comes riding up on his bike and we start talking.  He tells me he has been riding about a week and started in Eastern Washington in Yakima.  I asked him which way he came over the mountains as he described his route it sounded like he went really close, if not through, Battle Ground.  Then I remembered back to last Friday when I was heading to the store I saw a guy on a fully loaded touring bike that looked a lot like this guy.  I asked him if he went through Battle Ground, he said “yes,” I said “were you wearing that same shirt and riding on some neighborhood side streets,” he said “yes!” It was the same guy!  I saw this guy last Friday in Battle Ground and here we were on the Oregon Coast talking!  How weird is that?  We ended up riding together all day.  Once we got to Waldport I was too tired to go any further for the day, but he wanted to go a little more, so we went our separate ways.  It was really nice having someone to ride with.  There are a lot of cyclists on this route.  I must have counted at least a dozen, so I am sure I will be riding with others as I go.

This is (add bike name here) and he/she is having a great day!

This picture was taken on the Newport Bridge.  It was windy, but beautiful!  

I’ve gotten a few more name ideas for my bike!  Great names so far!  I have four names now.  Once I get a couple more I will create an online poll and let all of my 3^rd graders, families, friends, and whoever else is following me vote.  It might be a couple days before I get around to doing that. 

Third graders!  I hope you are all having the best summer ever so far!  I miss you all very much!

More to come soon on the fantastic journey! 

TIME FOR REST! 

Day 1: Fun, hot, weird, cold...rode 20 miles

Hello 3rd graders, friends, and family!

What a great day!  It was kind of weird though.  I will explain.

This morning before I left home I was still trying to figure out where I was going to stay tonight.  I had been looking at maps for weeks and I couldn't figure out the best route to Lincoln City.  The reason I was having trouble was the lack of campgrounds between Portland and Lincoln City.  There are quite a few RV parks along the way, but none of them allow tents, so I never really decided where to stay my first night or second night.  From home to Lincoln City it is 115 miles by bike.  I figured that would take me 3 days since I plan on starting out slow on this trip.  Last night I decided the faster I get to Lincoln City the better.  I could avoid the hot hot weather and figuring out where to stay, which would probably be expensive hotels.  Here's how I ended up in a hotel room in Lincoln City tonight!

I left my house this morning on my bike and it felt so good!  The sun was out and it was beautiful!  I biked across the Columbia River into Oregon.  As I was crossing over the bridge I heard this loud siren.  I thought "what in the world is that"?!  I was about half way across when the barriers dropped in front of the cars, so they could lift the bridge for a boat!  In my head I was wondering if there was any way for the bridge operators to know that there was a lone cyclist on the bridge pedaling as fast as he could to get across.  I imagined every movie I've ever seen where cars jump open bridges.  I knew I could do it if I had to...not really...I would end up in the river and my ride would be over after only 16 miles!  Of course I made it across, which was good because the bridge was up for a long time and backed up car traffic for miles.

One of my plans to speed up getting to Lincoln city was to ride the Portland Max train through the city up to Tualitin.  That would shave off almost 3 hours of riding and possibly save me a $100 or more in a hotel.  Below is a picture of my bike on the train.  It's looks funny!  I could hear it's tiny little voice yelling "WHY ARE WE ON A TRAIN?  I'M A BIKE!  RIDE ME!"  Once we (my bike and I) got to Beaverton where it was 91 degrees we both realized it was OK to take a couple miles off to hurry to get to the coast.  We had lunch and got a wild idea...what if we could get to the coast tonight and avoid three nights of hotels and three days of 90 degree riding?

I really need to name my bike.  I keep typing "us" like my bike is another person.  A former student posted a reply to one of my blogs and suggested naming it Speedy.  I like that, but I was thinking about creating an online poll and let people vote on names.  So far I would have Speedy and The Space Unicorn for names, but I feel like I need a few more to make for a really good poll.  3rd graders if you don't know what a poll is ask your parents. They can be a lot of fun!

Anyway, as you can see below, we found a way to avoid the heat and the three nights of $100 or more for hotel rooms.  We rented a U-Haul truck!  Fun fact: did you know U-Haul was started in Ridgefield?  Interesting stuff!  I put my bike in the back of the truck and headed down the highway toward Lincoln City!  I had ridden 20 miles by the time we got the U-Haul and I was sweating like crazy, so the 78 mile drive to Lincoln City with AIR-CONDITIONING was awesome!  Although my bike was in the back sweating bullets!  (See I really need to name my bike! I could have said "Speedy was in the back sweating bullets!  HAHA!)  We will work on the name thing. 

By the time we got to Lincoln City, turned in the truck, and ate dinner it was too late to get a camp site for the night.  So here we are at a hotel relaxing.  It is so nice to be at the coast.  I wasn't too excited about the three 90 degree days.  When we got here it was 57 degrees!  The high temperatures will be in the lower 60s along the coast.  That will make for some really great riding!  Tomorrow morning we head south!  Only rode 20 miles today, but that's OK.  I'm not in a huge hurry and it's all about the adventure and the fun.  I had both adventure and fun today!   

  

TOMORROW IS DAY ONE!!!

I am super excited!  Tomorrow is the first day of my journey!

Before I get into my plan for tomorrow I want to let you know if you comment on one of my blogs it won't post your comment right away.  I have the comments set to let me read any comments before they get posted.  This is to protect my 3rd graders from anything weird that could pop up.  I love my 3rd graders!

So tomorrow is a BIG day in my life!  I have been planning and preparing for this journey for quite a while and tomorrow I get to actually go out and get started.  After yesterday's ride and overnight camping I figured out a few pieces of gear I won't need to take with me.  Tonight I repacked everything and was able to eliminate 9 pounds of food, gear, clothes, and other things I really don't need to pack around with me.  9 pounds is a lot considering I will be peddling all this weight up a lot of hills!  Did I really need to pack a jar of peanut butter?  HAHAHA!  I love peanut butter thought it would be a convenient snack, but I can find something just as convenient that doesn't weight over a pound.

I just realized I haven't figured out how far I'm going tomorrow and where I'm going to stay.  I need to do that and go to bed and get some rest.  I will try to blog tomorrow depending on internet access. From now on I will try to give an update everyday.

This is a very unorganized picture of my gear, but it will give you an idea of how much stuff I am taking.  Maybe when I take a rest day I will go over all my gear in a video or something.

No internet last night!

I didn't have internet last night in my tent, so here is what I typed:

6/25/16

Today I rode a loop from home out through Ridgefield and back toward Battle Ground to a camp ground 7.5 miles North of Battle Ground.  I am in my tent now typing this, but I have no internet service so I will have to blog it tomorrow when I get home. 

It was a good ride, 23 miles.  This ride was mostly to see how my bike and my gear performed.  Everything went well.  It is definitely more difficult peddling my bike with 50 pounds of gear, food, and water.  Water is so heavy!  Oh that reminds me I think I’m going to name my bike The Space Unicorn!  It’s fun and my 3^rd graders will love that name (most of them).  Anyway, here I sit in my tent pretty tired from riding.  I’m thinking about the fact that today’s ride was only 23 miles and I had planned on averaging 40 miles each day on my trip.  I know it will take some time before I get used to riding longer distances, so I keep reminding myself that I will just take my time, enjoy the ride and the scenery, and not worry about being in a hurry. 

Over the years I have realized that I am super competitive, with myself.  This can be a good motivator, but it can also push me to set the bar a little too high sometimes.  Like getting perfect grades all through college.  That just put a ton of pressure on myself that I didn’t need.  No one put that pressure on but me.  I did it to myself.  So one of things I will do on this trip is practice putting less pressure on myself. I will try to live in the moment and enjoy it for what it is.

To my 3^rd graders…I think we will all be able to learn some valuable lessons from this bike ride coming up starting tomorrow!  I’m so excited to share this with you!

Pictures of loaded bike! 3rd graders, my bike needs a name!

Considering I'm leaving Monday I figured I'd better get some pictures of my loaded bike on here.  I ended up buying new tires yesterday.  I was learning from other riders that the tires I had weren't designed for what I plan on doing and I would probably be fixing a lot of flat tires.  Flat tires don't sound like fun to me.  I just want to ride!  Oh that reminds me...3rd graders...I learned that most bicycle tourists name their bikes.  I'm open to suggestions.  I know you are all very creative.  I can see my bike being named Vanilla Sparkle Cookie very soon.  HAHA!  You can leave a comment on this post with your ideas or email me.

Anyway here are a few pictures of my bike loaded.  I tried to equal out the weight of everything evenly among the four panniers.  After all it doesn't make sense to have 25 pounds on one side of the bike and 5 pounds on the other unless I want to be leaning to one side or riding in circles all day.  ;)

Tomorrow I am planning on going on a final shakedown ride, possibly overnight, to see if anything falls off, breaks, or whatever other weird things can happen that I'm not thinking about.  This is a huge learning experience!  To my third grade followers...TRY NEW THINGS!!!  You never know what you will like, or dislike, until you TRY NEW THINGS!!!

Sore back! No worries!

Good morning!
 
Last Saturday morning I woke up to a sore back.  I thought nothing of it until Sunday when it felt worse, and then Monday morning it was worse yet. I scheduled a massage for today hoping to relax the muscles and fix whatever is causing the pain.  I'm trying to stay positive about this because I believe it is always best to stay positive.  Nothing good ever comes out of being negative (remember that third graders!)  Things like this happen in life, but we can't let them get in the way of our goals. I still plan on hitting the road on Monday.  I was planning on an overnight "shakedown" ride today into tomorrow, but I think it's best to put that on hold for now so I don't make my back worse.  I know I have quite a few followers, so I will keep you updated.  No worries!

I got my new front rack mounted to my bike.  The new panniers will be shipped to the Portland REI tomorrow where I will pick them up.  I will post some pictures once I have everything on my bike.  In the pictures below you can also see the handlebar bag and some of the other things I have mounted to my handlebars.  I will post pictures of all of that stuff at another time.

Ooops!

Here I am learning lessons and I haven't even started my bike tour yet.  Yesterday I spent some time loading all of my gear into my two panniers (bags) and my rack pack (another bag that goes on the top of the rear rack).  When I got done I weighed everything just out of curiosity.  I found that I had a little under 50 pounds of gear, which is about average for the trip I'm going on.  The problem is that I had all of the weight on the back.  I thought about it and I didn't like the idea of having all of that weight plus my body weight all on the back wheel.  I decided I want to evenly distribute the weight on the front and back.  This means I had to drive into Portland and get a new rack for the front and the panniers to go on the front too.  I think it will be much safer.  I don't want to have to worry about blowing out a tire or breaking spokes when I am barreling down a hill. That seems scary to me. Safety first!!  :)  The pictures below are of my bike with everything loaded on the back.  When I get the front rack and panniers on I will post pictures of the new setup.

Hey 3rd graders!

Shelly says hello!  Today I moved Shelly to my mom and dad's for the time I will be on my ride.  She wanted me to tell you all hello!  My mom will be sending pictures and updates while I'm on my ride, so I will keep you all updated.  Shelly will be happy with that.  She misses you all!

Dr. Seuss is my hero!

My third graders have already seen this and love it.  I love it too!  Could there be a better cycling jersey for a third grade teacher?  I doubt it!

More preparation!

I have been preparing for this ride for a couple months now.  Today I did more preparations after going to my classroom and finishing the summer cleaning.  It was weird cleaning the room and putting all the desks off to the side of the room and packing everything away for the summer.  I've never had a job/career where I had a couple months off.  It seems weird.  We can all use a break, but it'll take a little getting used to.

Today I updated my inventory list to make sure I have everything I need for the trip.  I realized there are some things I am still missing.  I will pick some of those things this weekend.  I planned what is called a "shakedown ride" for next week.  A shakedown ride is when a rider packs up everything they would take on their super long trip and goes somewhere nearby to make sure they have everything they need.  I planned a ride to a camp ground that is roughly 33 miles away.  I'll ride there next week, camp over night, pack up the next morning and ride back home.  It should give me a good chance to make sure I have everything for biking, sleeping, cooking, eating, blogging, etc.  Tomorrow I'm going to do a little more to plan and I will probably post some pictures of my bike.  My handle bars are starting to look like the control panel for the Space Shuttle!  I have lights, my smart phone with GPS navigation, a cycling computer, a rear view mirror, and even a compass.  It's actually a lot of fun planning all of this!  I'm getting very excited!

WOW! What a year!

Today I finished my first year as a third grade teacher.  It was a very emotional day saying goodbye to 25 of the sweetest, most brilliant kids I've ever known. Tears were shed for sure.  It was very motivating for me though.  Many of my students, and some parents, made comments about my ride this summer.  Many wishes of a safe trip.  This warmed my heart very much.  Now that school is out for the summer I will be focusing on getting ready for this bike tour.  I plan to leave on June 27th, 11 days from today.  I am 90% sure I will be taking the "Plan B" route that will take me south along the Pacific Coast following highway 101.  I just like the idea of being near the ocean where it doesn't usually get too hot during the summer.  

More to come very soon!

Now that school is out I will be blogging more as I prepare.  Stay tuned!

Plan B (This is the route I have decided on taking)

The last two days have been in the 90s here and it's barely June!  I can't stand the heat, so I've been a little worried about riding in late June and all of July in temperatures like that.  It would be super draining, uncomfortable, and dangerous.  So I have created a plan B just in case.  The only place I can think of that would be cooler would be along the coast.  Yesterday it was 97 degrees here in Battle Ground and 67 degrees on the coast in Lincoln City.  67 degrees sounds like great riding weather to me!

About a month ago I bought a book that seemed to plant a seed of an idea in the back of my mind.

Lately I have been looking through this book and have created my plan B based off of the route in this book.  The original route I planned is just over 1,000 miles.  If I rode from Battle Ground to my sister's in San Diego it would only be another 350 miles and would be an amazing adventure and one heck of an accomplishment!

Even as I write this I think about the fact that I have basically no experience bicycle touring.  I believe it to be normal to fear the unknown.  I do have a little fear when it comes to riding off away from home alone with (hopefully) everything I need loaded on my bike.  I remind myself that I had way more fear when I decided to start college at the age of 32.  I was scared to death of what might happen or that I might fail and not reach my goals.  I just kept going and doing my best.  I had challenges and plenty of things that tried to get in the way of my goals, but I kept going through all of it.  After 7 years I look back at all that I went through and it gives me strength for my journey this summer.  I made it through the deaths of friends and family members, my mom's cancer, my dad's heart surgery, my meningitis, my divorce, an appendectomy, my grandma's stroke, and the list goes on and on. It is amazing to me what I can adjust to and get through.  It amazes me what humans in general can do when they put their minds to it.  So with that said I remind myself that if I can go through everything I have been through and still be where I am today I can do this!

Below is a link to the Plan B route.  It looks like some gorgeous coastal riding to me!  Take a look and let me know what you think.  I don't know if anyone is even reading this.  lol

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/14211004