Heading South - Vicariously observing others' passions.

Surprisingly, everything went according to plan yesterday. I was able to get up at 5, get my card, and get all the way to Astoria Oregon by the late evening. I've realized that the bike portions of the blog are probably the most repetitive and boring of the lot, so I'm just going to get that out of the way at the beginning, and try to include only the relevant details.

For the first time on this short tour I broke 50 miles in one day! I feel a little ashamed of that fact considering my baseline used to be 70, with a stretch goal of 90 or so, but I'll take what I can get. Also, two days ago I got the impression that my legs were finally adapting to the abuse I'm putting them through, and yesterday confirmed it! With my balance of periodically replenishing calories iand taking breaks every so often the last 15 miles of the day actually felt easy! Of course this was my second or third wind of the day, and I think when my legs finally did give out there would be no recovering from it...but still, progress!'

The bridge into Astoria was hyped up as this horrible experience, super dangerous, you might die, etc etc. I'm a bit confused after actually crossing it, because I didn't think it was THAT bad. Sure there isn't a wide shoulder, but there was actually a shoulder. Sure it was 4.1 miles long, but most of it was flat. Sure there was a really steep bit at the end for some reason, but I've gone over steeper on this trip. It probably helped that I crossed it after dark, as there were fewer cars crossing.

This time I actually can say that I biked across that body of water. :D

Anyway, on to the more interesting things I saw yesterday. As I mentioned previously, I did need to get up at ~5 to catch the morning bus out of Raymond. However, I almost still missed it because the bus stop had been relocated due to the stop's road being blocked off due to road work. If not for a lady in one of those espresso shops being around to give me directions I would never have found it. Second note, it costs 50 cents to go the 30 or miles or so from Raymond to Aberdeen. 50 cents for 30 miles!

Once I reached Aberdeen I fell into talking with a rather...interesting character. He was probably about 20 years old, had some sorta sad looking dreadlocks (the hair for a few inches off of his head wasn't in dreads, just looked like a weird hodgepodge) and had just been released from prison on bail. Topics ranged from why he was locked up (got into a fistfight with his dad) to very hippie spirit and soul stuff (cremation spreads your "essence" while internment keeps you earthbound, etc), to longboarding down Seattle hills at 25 miles an hour (how is he alive?). Not by any means the highlight of my day, but certainly interesting enough to warrant a mention. 

A few hours later I had successfully made it to Elma, grabbed my debit card, eaten breakfast, and made it all the way back to Aberdeen. Thing was, I had two hours to kill until the next bus to Raymond. So I flipped my phone open and looked for interesting things in the area, and I found that Kurt Cobain actually grew up in this town, and that there was a memorial park about a 15 minute walk away. I'm not in any way a Nirvana fan, but I had some time to kill so what the hell right?

The park itself was rather small but thoughtfully put together for such a small town, with a few statues and plaques. It rests next to a small bridge that Kurt apparently sat under when it rained a lot in his childhood, and what he based the song "Something's in the Way" on. 

This is interesting, but as I'm not a fan it didn't really grab me. However, what I found a lot more interesting was messages left by his fans who came to pay homage. There were messages scrawled into the park benches...

the park table...

 

and an enormous number spray-painted underneath the bridge.

He must have touched a lot of people for this small memorial in his home town to have this much of an outpouring of emotion. I wanted to include the full list of pictures I took of the messages as a Picasa album, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to move photos into a new album. Terrible user interface. If any of you have experience with that please drop me a line, I could use the help.

Since that didn't kill all of my time I also visited the local Star Wars shop, which is truly something to behold. Outside of the shop there is a mural...

The telephone poles have been turned into lightsabers..

And there was just so...so much Star Wars paraphernalia inside...

Especially interesting to me were the following three things : Apparently John Cena has visited, and purchased something at the store...

The owner has a Leia tatoo, and apparently there are a LOT of people with Star Wars Tatoos...

And finally, that there was supposed to be a imperial senator in episode 3 in a body paint outfit that was pulled from the movie at the last minute. (George Lucas said her outfit had nothing to do with it. Suuuuuuure)

Between the Star Wars shop and the Cobain memorial I was able to keep myself occupied until the bus arrived. Only real thing left to mention about Aberdeen is that right before I left I ran over to a small 7-11 type "mart" and was surprised to see that they were selling a whole assortment of bongs!

Once the bus had returned me to Raymond all that was really left to do was thank my hosts from the previous night profusely for all their help, drink one beer for the road and then head out. However, right before I left I asked them why they had dollar bills plastered all over the walls, and they responded that the previous owner simply had EVERYTHING covered that way, and while they cleared off most of the walls they left a small portion as a memento. Since they, people have taken an interest in the little quirk of their tavern, and they're starting to re-cover the walls with bills left by patrons and travelers. Of course I had to  contribute one of mine!

Hanging off the ceiling behind the bar are the new set of bills they're holding onto until they have enough.

After that the only thing left to do was make it the 50 miles to Astoria in time to get dinner and lodging. Considering I left at 2:30 and got there at 8:00 which I already covered at the beginning. I really need to head out on the town now and start exploring, especially since it isn't actually raining today! I'll leave you with a few of the silhouette statues I saw leaving Raymond on my way south.

As always thanks for reading!