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Innovation Created by Necessity
I've been working hard since Eugene. I'm sitting here
writing this at 10:30 am on Tuesday the 24th just
south of Stillwater Cove. It is so foggy along the
coast here and I'm nervous about an upcoming downhill.
I have bright clothes on, but I figured I'd wait
awhile until the hot sun burns off some of it. For
"Sunny" California, I haven't been overwhelmed by the
bright sun. I've enjoyed more beautiful days in
Washington and Oregon than here in California.
Granted, I've only been in California for a few days
and still have quite a ways to go, but so far, there
has been more fog and light drizzle than sun.
I left Eugene the morning of the 16th, and I've
covered about 63 miles per day, on average, with a
long 85+ mile-day from Eugene to Reedsport. I've given
a few presentations in Southern Oregon at the state
parks, but since I've been in California, I've been
doing nothing but biking. With all of this talk,
maybe I should have a self-pity party...
Lately, my eagerness to see someone I know is stronger
than it has been in awhile. I guess you could call it
loneliness, but I don't get depressed and softly cry
myself to sleep each night about it, I just work
longer and harder to get to a destination with some
friends - old or new. I was just offered a free dinner
by some bikers riding from Lincoln, OR to Santa
Barbara, CA and I really wanted to make it to their
camp, but their destination was just way too far away.
They had a support camper, so without gear, they were
covering at least 100 miles each day. By about 5 pm, I
accepted that I wouldn't catch up with them and so
stopped for some pizza in Fort Bragg and chose Russian
Gulch State Park as my home for the night.
At Russian Gulch, I set up my tent and crawled in to
pass out for the night. As I lay there, digesting the
garlic and artichoke personal pizza, I just couldn't
fall asleep with the surrounding noises and it
wouldn't quiet down until 10 pm, when quite hours
start. I thought about looking for the earplugs I was
gifted with by a Pittsburgh native on a motorcycle and
searched around a bit in the tent. I remembered that
they were in the control center on the bike. There was
no way I was getting up so I looked for other options
to stuff my ears with. After looking in most of my
medicine/first aid bottles for some cotton, something
caught my eye: yep - an OB tampon. As I wrestled with
pulling that puppy into two, I was amazed at the
design of that little piece of cotton. Ladies, if
you've ever worried about the string detaching from
the cotton, don't sweat it. It's secure.
Anyway, I got it into a few pieces and stuffed my ears
with it and slept soundly for the remainder of the
night. When the going gets tough, the tough use OB.
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