July 2, 2016 Seaside, OR --> Raymond, WA - 70 miles

Randy pointed out this poster in the restaurant where we had breakfast. Little did I know how applicable it would be to the day ahead. 

Had one of the best veggie omelets ever for breakfast, then we started up the coast on Hwy 101 for the 18 mile ride to Astoria. The weather was quite cool and overcast, but no real forecast for rain.  Pretty flat highway. A lot of holiday traffic.

As we approached Astoria, I took a picture of the river with a big group of geese sitting in the water.  A number also flew overhead. Then took a picture of the bridge over which we would be riding over from Astoria across the Columbia River into Washington. Randy warned me that the first part of the bridge was a steep incline.

Astoria is special to us bikers, because it is the starting point for the Transamerica Ride if you are using the Adventure Cycling maps. Although we had looked into staying there for the night, everything was pretty much booked up because of the holiday weekend, or outrageously expensive, so we decided to move on into Washington.

The climb up the bridge was not as difficult as I feared. I stopped along the way to take a few pictures. On the downhill, a number of sea gulls flew parallel right next to me, daring me to a race. On my bike travels, I have had several instances where cows, antelope and other various animals have challenged me to a race, but this was the first sea gull challenge. Wasn't even close as you could imagine. Still fun to see them up close.

I waited for Randy when I reached the other side of the bridge. As soon as he rode up, he bemoaned that he had another flat tire, and started unloading the bike to fix it. A couple of touring cyclists rode up to see if they could help. They were on their way south to San Francisco.  

As I waited, I called ahead and booked a couple of reasonably priced rooms in Raymond, thereby avoiding another camping "opportunity".  With the tire fixed, we proceeded alongside the Columbia River for 10-15 miles or so. Absolutely beautiful scenery and a flat nicely paved road with a big shoulder. We cruised and, once again, I was in biker heaven. 

Then "it" happened. I had stopped for a water break and Randy rode up with a concerned look. I will not go into the details, but he indicated that he felt he needed to head towards Portland to catch a plane home and go to the doctor to address some medical issues which, unbeknownst to me, had been causing him increasing pain over the past week or so. I was a little stunned by the sudden news, and trying to wrap my brain around what to do. Randy encouraged me to continue on with the ride and turned over his maps. So, we tearfully parted ways at that point, with Randy headed another 60 miles or so the remainder of the day in the direction of Portland, and me heading another 40 miles to Raymond. We agreed that there would be a blessing that would come of this - even though not apparent in that moment. I honestly don't remember much about the rest of the ride, except trying to adjust to the new reality. It did strike me as somewhat ironic that I had just written about how we handle dark times as well as good times in my blog that morning. In any event, I am going to take the next day to evaluate my next steps.

Checked in to my motel around 5 pm, then found a diner for dinner. Had my first sweet potato fries of the trip. Comfort food. Randy texted to let me know that he had made it to his destination for the night. He will ride the rest of the way to Portland tomorrow. I will make a decision in the morning whether to stay in Raymond for the day and rest, or move on north. I pray for discernment in my travel plans, and safety for my dear friend as he makes his way home. I already miss him.