Monday, August 26, 2013

Day 82 - August 24, 2013 - McKenzie Bridge, OR to Springfield, OR

Miles - 52
Total mileage - 2,222

We awoke in our rainforest campsite, ate some nutritious powdered sugar donuts purchased at the country store last evening, packed up camp, and headed out.  It was chilly this morning, and we were both in long sleeves when we started pedaling.


Luckily, a few miles down the road we came to a convenience store with hot coffee to warm us up!  After a short break, we were back on the road.

The time we spent on Highway 126 today was mostly a gradual downhill, with a small shoulder to ride on.  Traffic wasnt too heavy, but the road is definitely well traveled.  We rode past another bicycle traveler who was waiting at a bus stop when we rode by, then he passed us by in not too long.  Must have decided to skip the bus!


We stopped for lunch in Vida, at the only restaurant, the Vida Cafe.  This place was pretty busy after we sat down!  Looked to be a good mix of locals and tourists camping in the area for the weekend.

We had the McKenzie River on our left for most of the day - our favorite roads are flanked by a river and beautiful forests!  We ride through a virtual tunnel of trees at some points today, such a pretty ride!


We stopped in another small town for a cold drink, and found a pretty unique art studio across the road - complete with its own Conderella carriage!


We turned onto a less traveled country road near the end of the day.  The scenery changed from forest back to rural farms and ranches as we approached Springfield.  On the outskirts of town, we found bike lanes again!  Yay! Bicycle friendly cities are the best!  The rest of our ride was through busy city streets to our hotel.


After a quick dinner at Taco Bell (only the best!), we took to going through our stuff and deciding what to send home as we headed out the next day.  With only two days of riding left at the most, we wanted to lighten our load a bit.  The feeling in our room that night was pretty melancholy - so hard to believe this adventure is nearly over, this thing we planned and looked forward to for so long will soon only be a collection of memories as we get back to reality...

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