North Bend, OR

We are siting in a coffee place near Coos Bay. Ev has finished her class work. We still have 10 miles and one more steep hill to go.

The ride yesterday was long (65+ miles). There were some climbs, a good fruit smoothie midway, and a great lunch. The last 15 miles we had the wind in our face. Even though we were going down hill, it felt like we were going nowhere fast. We bought dinner makings at a Safeway and rode to camp. It was a great campground. Nine other riders stayed at the site - many going to SF. It was fun to compare stories. we will probably see some of them tonight (if we get there).

The mystery griding is solved (mostly.) We had breakfast, broke camp and headed out. We were looking forward to a light house that supposedly had wi-fi. Every hill the grinding noise got worse. We stopped and I again looked over the bike. I finally wiggled the rear crank and it was loose. I did not have the right size hex wrench, but I used a screw driver. When we got to the next town we found a Napa Auto Parts. They did not have the right size. A guy, who was a mechanic for an engineering contractor told us to go out to his truck. He had the right size and the noise is almost gone.

It is still very windy, but mostly at our backs. We had to walk over the Coos Bay Bridge. It's long and scary, even to walk it. I was riding the brakes even though we were pushing it.

That's it for now. It's 5:30; we still need to ride 10 more miles, find food, and our camp!