We started today by drying out the tents, partly by hanging them and wiping them down with my pack towel.
I should say that by about this time, a lot of my normal human concerns about hygiene started to diminish. “Yeah, so what if this is the same towel I use to dry off after a shower, it’ll be just fine for drying off my tent.” Hmm. There’s probably some sort of negative commentary for that. (I’m back to normal now that I’m at home, though.) Ok, enough of that.
There were problems with the registration computers last night so we went up and paid for the site as we were leaving. That’s where I saw the trail to the Peter Iredale wreck. It was pretty impressive 20 years ago (and more so even further back, I’m sure). Heidi had never seen it so we took a detour and went over to it. It really has diminished quite a bit, but the minifigs didn’t seem to mind the opportunity for a photo and then a couple of them relaxed for a bit.
The scenery along the coast today was absolutely stunning. I’m sooo disappointed in my camera failures. We ended up going through a tunnel which wasn’t a big deal although it would have been with a lot of traffic. I think I picked the right time of year for this ride.
We stopped at the local grocery store in Manzanita. Heidi was inside buying our food and beer for the night and next morning while I talked with a cyclist who had just come out. We had the usual exchange of “where are you coming from, where are you heading?”. I told him the name of the state park we were headed to and he said they were already there. Then he told me they were all full, but you have to take that with a grain of salt; hiker-biker spots aren’t supposed to fill up and worst case I’m sure that someone would be willing to let us setup on their site. I mean, tents just don’t take up that much space.
Anyway, we were headed to the campsite and Heidi took us on a short detour to see the family vacation home. One of her uncles happened to be staying there and they invited us to join them. I felt I was intruding on a family vacation but they made me feel very welcome. I’m glad we chose to stay there instead of the campground, if only because the conversation that afternoon and evening was so enjoyable. There’s just nothing like everyone relaxed, listening to good music, fire in the fireplace and a drink in hand. It was quite the departure from the rest of the tour, but a welcome one.
Heidi says that the best part was not waking up soaked as we’d otherwise have been. Yeah, I think I have to concur with that.
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