Chapter 13

Chapter 13

 

Friday 12 Sept 2008 Cape Lookout to Lincoln City.

 

Three savage climbs today starting immediately I leave Cape Lookout. I always need about 15 miles under me before I’m ready for hills. But that rarely happens.

As I’m merrily making slow progress up the first climb, Jimmy from Wyoming passes me, smiling if you please and that’s the last I see of him. It’s an arduous day and by the time I get to Lincoln city I’m ready for a day off. Highlight of the day was crossing the 45th parallel, (that’s ½ way to the equator). A bit of useless info there but you might be asked that question one day in 'who wants to be...'

 

Lincoln City has nothing to recommend it... just a long sprawl of a town along the coast like many American towns... I decide I need a break, so I look for a hotel/motel for the night.

All these hotels do B and B. But the second B (breakfast) is always coffee and buns in the very small entrance hall of the hotel. You invariably have to take it standing if there is more than three people there. But very satisfying none the less.

 

 

Rest day in Lincoln City

A well-deserved rest day today in Lincoln City. I was tired and needed to take a break. There is nothing much of interest here that I can find. But then I wasn’t really looking today. It’s a 5-mile-long town with nothing too much of it. Hotels, motels and shops. Has a great beach when I went down to see it, it was a beautiful sandy beach which runs the full length of the town. But on this day, there was a gale blowing North to South and I thought! if this keeps up it will blow me all the way to San Francisco.’

I thought on this quiet day I would give you some impression of what I have seen so far.

Vancouver is undoubtedly one of the Great Cities of the world. It has vibrancy about it that you won’t get in many places. A busy city, because everything goes through it. There are no ring roads. It’s built on what looks like an archipelago. Everywhere you go you’ve got to get a ferry or cross a bridge. Has a beautiful climate similar to our own in Ireland, but a little more of everything, more sun, more rain. You could, and should, spend weeks there. The outdoor life is where it’s at there. Boating, skiing, cycling, rollerblading. A bit like Australia from that point of view. When you come into the USA you find an immediate change of atmosphere. Gets more rural, people are more down to earth. You are now in, it appears to me, a working country. Farms, factories and the American way. American flags fly everywhere outside private homes. I’m not sure what it is saying, I suppose I could ask. But it’s like the North (of Ireland) around the 12th of July – Marching day/Orange day. A people who want to make a statement about who they are and what they stand for. Although it doesn’t seem to be the most Christian fundamentalist region that you hear about in certain parts of America. It seems to be however, a very Christian place. Religion is deep here. They are very political people too. Nearly everyone you speak to has a strong opinion currently on the McCain/ Obama race for the White House - there is little or no ambivalence. They know what they want and why.

But back to cycling. The bike is supreme here, and in Canada, when compared to home. British Columbia, Washington and Oregon have given a special place to bikes. There are cycle lanes everywhere and shoulders on the highways for cyclists and they are respected by drivers. But stay in the lane because, if you don’t they will soon let you know you are out of you comfort zone and in theirs.