Miles Today: 39.3    Total Miles: 93.9

The trip to Cape Lookout was awesome! The route was pure nature. Riding along the coast has been an awesome experience, I never thought it’d be this beautiful, it’s a treat. We passed by Nehalem, Rockaway Beach (another cute beach town), Wheeler, and Tillamook. At times it felt like we were back in West Virginia, the trees and the mountains and hills are just the same. After Wheeler we went up another hill and eventually got to Tillamook. We were looking forward to that stop because we wanted to visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We also saw train tracks and thought it’d be an awesome ride to go through the mountains and coast at the same time. There are these bright yellow bushy flowers everywhere, they add a little splash of color to the view. Made a pit stop at a random gas station before getting to Tillamook. Only a few more miles to go.

Five miles later, we get to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We parked our bikes in front, and went in to do some tasting. D—licious. The smoked sharp cheddar was my favorite next to the sharp aged white….oh my. We also got some ice cream and I can honestly say that is the BEST ice cream I’ve ever had in my WHOLE life. Tillamook is no joke, folks. Got a cheese to snack on for dinner and breakfast, did the self-guided tour to learn about the factory and watch the workers and went outside to finish our ice cream while Lance went inside to do all of that himself. Here comes the story about Nancy.

Nancy is Ryan and Lance’s dad’s second cousin from his (dad’s) mother’s side. She’s an older lady who lives in Oregon with her husband. Well, Ryan called her because she had told his mom she wanted to meet us if possible, so he called her and she was so excited, she said she’d be there at the factory in 15 minutes to meet us. So we waited for her. 15 minutes later this lady walks towards us and with her arms up on the air excitingly says “Laaaaaance???? Ryaaaan????, Lance!!!” and she hugs Lance. I can only describe her hug like a mother would hug her son who has been in Iraq for the past year and finally came home. Lance only met her once, Ryan and I, zero times. She hugs Ryan and I and asks my name and I say “Donaji”. She says “so how do you spell that? is it D-A-W…” and I say “no, no, it’s D-O-N-A-J-Y”. Yes, I said “Y” and Ryan looks at me and laughing says “Y???” and I bursted in laughter. I can’t even spell my own name. She asks where the name comes from and I tell her from Mexico but I’m from Nicaragua, which she responds “Well, welcome to America!!!, in time, you may learn how to spell your name”. She’s hilarious, I think that’s one of the funniest things that has happened on the trip. I couldn’t stop laughing at her wittyness and the fact that I mispelled my own name!

We talked for a little while and she said she had to pick up her husband but she’d like to come over to our campsite to hang out with us. She said “cause I have a few questions I’d like to ask you”. So, we told her we’d call her when we got there and so we were ready to go…then Ryan got a flat. Right outside of the factory thankfully cause there was stuff around and people, just in case. We spent almost an hour trying to get the flat fixed, he finally got it and we took off to Cape Lookout, but before we stopped by Fred Meyers to get dinner and breakfast. Lance met another biker on his way to do the TransAmerica Trail, the cross-country route we had planned to do at first. After a snack, we took off and here the most miserable part of the day began.

First, it got reaaaally windy on a long flat stretch. Then we started uphill. The map said it was only 6 miles from the town to the campground. Well, 6 miles ain’t that bad right? These were!!!!!!! Up, up, up, up, and up we went. a looooong curvy road with hardly any shoulder and super windy. After seeing the Cape Lookout sign, I thought we were close…sike! We had to go way further, hills after hill, I felt like I was going to the end of the world, literally but we finally made it. Even though it was difficult, the weather was ok (‘cept the for wind) and we saw some nice views and cool houses, like this one that looked like a golf ball with traingle windows on top.

I had like negative 159 energy left. Oh! wait, before we got there, Nancy passed us in her car! and said she’d wait for us at the entrance of the park so when we got there, there she was. In her car, with a box full of food. She had brought dinner to us! We paid and got our site and help her with taking the stuff out. The site was a little different. Tree trunks fallen everywhere, you have to be really careful to not trip on a branch, we couldn’t see the beach, it the fog trapped us in, no showers or bathrooms nearby, but we dealt with it.

She carefully laid paper towels on the picnic table to cover bird poop, took the stuff out one by one. It was a FEAST. Un-belie-vable. She brought us (not making this up) barbecued ribs, pastries, stuff celery, peanut m&ms, popcorn, soda, water, trash bags, insect repellent, paper towels, and even a bag full of wet paper towels to clean our bbq’d fingers. Was that sweet or what???!!! I couldn’t believe it. She made such an effort to hang out with us, we had a great time with her. We talked for a while, she asked all kinds of questions and she showed us her family tree scrapbook she made. Incredibly filled with dates, pictures, family pages, dates of birth, places, going back to the early 1900s or even prior. I love that!!!

So THANK YOU Fairy Godmother of the Pacific North West!!!!!!!!! (she really is, you know).

Ryan and Lance played a little something for her and then we said our goodbyes when it was pretty dark out (you can see in the pics). We finally set up our tents, took showers and all and went straight to bed with full and happy bellies. We got woken up early in the morning by the chipmunks who kept yapping away and chattering their teeth or something. I heard Lance screaming at them after one jumped on his tent. We got up eventually and to my surprise my front bag was completely ruined. They’d chewed through the bag, broke the zipper to get to the trail mix inside two ziplock bags. They couldn’t even say thank you! Geez. We’re pretty tired of them by now, yeah they’re cute but they’re more of a pain.

We spent most of the day around the campground writing, playing, talking, recording, eating, etc. There was no one in the campground since we got there but on our rest day we met all kinds of people. Rick is from Washington and took 4 days off to bike down the coast as far as Waldport and go back home. He’s an odd guy (most of the ones we meet seem to be…why?), but he’s really nice. Told us about some of his adventures in Mount Olympia, Washington and along the coast and offered to bring us anything we needed from the store but we had it all.

We also met Gary, a guy from California, just passed the border who’s biking to go see his 4 yr old daughter in Washington I think, apparently he doesn’t have a home. We spoke to him for a while and he offered some coffee but we have too much stuff already. Other bikers got there later, a girl biking alone, a couple and an older man in his late 70s or early 80s or something. The next morning we got up and got our stuff ready after a quick breakfast and pedaled to Pacific City.

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