Newport to Coos Bay

So we continued our journey minus a King of Adventure, the weather was dull and cold enough for us to stay wrapped up in our clothing. In honour of Seth, we took any detour off the main highways. Perhaps it was a habit we'd picked up from him? The usual, incredible coastline remains a constant delight in our visions. We maintained a casual but constant pace. Climbs were just part of the road and something none of us seemed to give a second thought about now. We joked with Taj that he was now a climber and even though he was cold, he'd realised it was part of what riding is sometimes. He actively sort to cure his coldness by stopping to buy some trackie bottoms, we hadn't killed Taj but he'd reinvented himself as scally Taj2k. Me and Sandy were happy to sit behind Taj and watch him cruise up anything now. After ditching some ill-advised pedal straps he could stay out the saddle for as long as he wanted, he knew his cassette selection and he just got on with a good rhythm. Taj 2k was finding his stoke!
We stopped off at Florence for lunch. We chatted to a really interesting old dude. Taj went and got a Chinese meal to warm himself up and me and Sandy went off into a super strong headwind looking for a surf beach. Armed with a load of picnic snacks and the chemical set, it wasn't long until I was on a deserted beach drawing huge Sano knobs in the sand. After that it wasn't long till we found ourselves staring at some huge sand dunes, in a huge empty car park, attempting to draw massive Strava Sano dicks. The lolz were flowing, jibber, jabber, crinkle, crinkle. All the stupid phrases and jokes of the trip so far were flowing out of us. In what could be described as, 'a lost hour' we went back to Taj with nothing more than a few Strava lines that resembled strange potatoes to show for our efforts.

The miles rolled by, we had a good pace, Sandy stopped for some photos and we eventually hit Reedsport skatepark which sits on the side of the road. No one was ever in the skateparks that we saw, so Taj took a few carving runs through the fullpipe. Taj 2k was loving road bikes, his bike control was translating into any situation. To our surprise, it was getting late if we wanted to make it to our potential stop at Coos Bay, roughly 29 miles away. We decided that we'd take it steady up the hills but mash it the rest of the way and before you know it Sandy is on the front banging out a speedy pace and so began a well worked chain-gang session that saw us get to Coos Bay in about an hour and 15mins.
Good effort and one that we all managed and enjoyed. None of us flinched at clocking another century+ (117 miles) and we headed off to find pizza and beers. We'd all found our stoke!