Day 1

7:30 this morning I left my campsite headed toward South Jetty, a few miles south of town. Getting to the beach ended up taking considerably more time and effort than expected but I had my mind set on starting with my rear wheel in the Pacific ocean. I tallked a surfer who was there into taking my picture.

After the beach visit I returned to Florence for for breakfast at a outdoor cafe in the downtown area.  After that I finally got on the road.

Florence,  by the way, is well known due to one interesting event.  Sometime in 1970 a dead whale washed up on the beach there. The local authorities decided that the best course of action was to blow it up using dynamite.  Instead of ending up with tiny bits of whale that the birds would carry off, as they had imagined, they ended up with large chunks falling out of the air, destroying the roof of at least one car and scaring the heck out of the locals who had come to watch. The worst part was that 3/4 of the whale was still intact. The is a video or two of the event on YouTube.

Leaving Florence, I headed east on 126, following a river on one side and a set of train tracks on the other. It was a beautiful area that I would move to in minute if there were any jobs.

Below are a couple of shots I took near Cushman, about 5 miles in from the coast.

By noon I had only traveled 30 miles or so to Mapleton and took a long break there.  From there the route followed highway 36 through a number of very small towns,  over low pass and past triangle lake.

I was really slow the last 20 or so miles and ended up finishing the day at Fern Ridge Lake having covered 77 miles.