Day 18: Friends and Traffic.

Traffic, ugh!

I have a good mate, named Loren. I met him surfing in Mexico a few years ago. Loren sent me a text letting me know he was in Oregon and as it happened, we were able to connect in the town of Tillamook.

We arranged to meet for lunch. Tillamook is just 70 miles from Cape Disappointment and so we should easily be able to meet at noon, leaving at 10am. I had forgotten what traffic is. We get used to things quickly, don’t we? A few weeks of being able to ride for 100 kilometers without seeing another car and we forget that other cars, a lot of other cars can really slow you down. It was quite a shock for it to take close to 3 hours to go 70 miles.

We were able to meet and had a lovely lunch together. I really appreciated that he drove for over an hour to meet us. That is what real friends do.The traffic thinned out for the afternoon blast down the coast. A very winding road, with scenery that demanded attention that could not be spared.A surprising camp site and another barbecue and fireside chat.