The sun will come out, tomorrow
So you gotta hang on til tomorrow
Come what may...
Tomorrow, tomorrow
I love ya, tomorrow
You're always a day a--way!
Whoever wrote that can shove it up their butt to where the sun doesn’t shine. Tomorrow isn’t coming. In fact, there was more sun on Wall Street today than on us. Can you detect that we need a day off the bike and some sun?? We thought you could.
When we left home, we carried rain gear in case we got caught in the rain. It was purely a preventative measure – our plan was to sit out any rain. Plans change, especially when you wake up to unexpected spitting rain and low cloud on the coast. And, oh by the way, we already had a reservation for two nights in Ferndale as we were planning on biking today and taking a much anticipated day completely off the bikes tomorrow.
So, after a nice breakfast at our B&B in Trinidad, we set off on wet payment in full rain gear after checking the weather forecast in SUNNY Seattle. Fortunately, our route today was supposed to only have 5 harrowing miles on 101 with the remainder off of the highway. That plan also changed within the first ½ mile when we were greeted with a “road closed” sign. This would turn out to be a theme of the day. Onto 101 we rolled for a bonus 4 miles of dread and terror in the spitting rain. We made the observation that when it is raining, RVs pulling SUVs seem to be staying in the campgrounds so perhaps there is an upside to the bad weather. The downside is that we were covered in road grime – enhanced by a few passing trucks slinging water in our general direction.
We went through the scenic towns of McKinleyville, Arcata, and Eureka which aren’t actually so scenic, except for a super deluxe bike trail near the coast between the first two towns. While on that trail, we saw lots of bird life including some white storks and great blue herons. A highlight of the day was stopping at a 50s hamburger joint in Eureka – opened in 1951 and still displaying the newspaper advertisement from their grand opening day. A lowlight was miles of construction that tested our cyclocross skills. Muddy, slick, steep, dirt roads don’t work so well with slick tires and panniers.
As we got closer to Ferndale, our last 10 miles or so had us in violent cross winds and then brutal headwinds. The cross winds almost dumped Arn to the ground when it snatched the rear end of the bike on a steep downhill. When facing the headwinds, it was the first time on the trip that while Arn was pulling, Deborah was telling him to speed up. Yeah, it is easy to be a comedian while you are drafting.When we finally rolled into Ferndale we saw a little blue sky for the first time in 4 days – it is gone now – not to worry. But Ferndale is a super cute Victorian town sporting lots of beautiful heritage buildings. Arn can appreciate the buildings on the outside but the thought of staying in a room with his and hers matching clawfoot tubs and 600 or so doilies just wasn’t in the cards for Deborah tonight. So, instead we are in a room with his and hers queen sized beds – yeah, baby.
Tomorrow is a rest day but we’ll find time to post some new frequently asked questions. We’ll be in Garberville Friday night and then a couple of miles north of Westport on Saturday evening. California friends - call us on the cell phone @ 206-334-4479 if you are looking to get away this weekend. We’ll let you use our bikes and we’ll take your car back for you. In fact, anyone that can provide a description of the sun, warmth, shadows or other signs of late summer/early fall, call us tomorrow as well. We’ll probably be in a drunken stupor, but we should be able to hear the phone ring.
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