Made it to Oregon!

On July 3rd I rode most of the way from Shasta to Ashland, OR, which should have been about 80 miles. I got a ride about 5 miles from town due to some weird issues with my front tire. 

Shasta and Shastina. Shasta got smaller and smaller as I rode today. I kept bidding it adieu, but then it was still there miles later.  

In Hornbrook, CA, the last stop before the OR border, I had lunch at this little diner. I was talking to a man and his 5-year-old daughter about my ride. They were very impressed and interested, etc. They left shortly before I was done eating. After they left, my waitress told me that he was the town pastor, and that he had paid for my lunch. My heart was warmed by that act of kindness. 

Free tuna salad sandwich and fries!

Sometimes when something good happens to me, I expect that something bad will follow. So I wasn't surprised when this air bubble formed in the casing of my front tire. 

I was riding on I-5 when I noticed this problem, and stopped for a while on the side of the freeway to figure out what to do about it. I examined the tube and the inside of the tire and determined that it wasn't hurting those. It was just disabling my ability to pedal efficiently - like running over a huge rock at each rotation, and then the rock getting stuck to your tire and hitting your fender on the way around. Every turn of the wheel. Should I have popped that bubble with my knife? Would that have just given me a flat? My solution was to let out some pressure from the tube, and just keep pedaling up to Siskiyou Summit, about 8 miles and 2500' vertical away (including the CA/OR border!). From the summit, it was an easy 5 or so milesof descending into Ashland, but I opted to accept a ride from some freelance loggers rather than risk the air bubble popping, my tire exploding, and other unpleasant scenarios I was envisioning. The loggers took me to Siskiyou Cyclery, where I got a snazzy new front tire, and was all set to explore Ashland. I snagged a ticket to the evening's showing of Henry V, a play very near and dear to my heart. This was the view from my seat at the Elizabethan Stage:

Michael met me in Ashland later that night, and we spent July 4 together. Ashland was so happening for the 4th! A parade, tons of food booths in Lithia Park, and free beer at one of the mountaineering type stores downtown. It was heaven!

For dinner we went to the Standing Stone Brewery, mainly because Caldera was closed. The beer was OK, but the food was fantastic.

Flash-fried Brussels Sprouts!

After that day off, I decided I was ready to call it quits on this bike tour. Several loved ones were (rightly) concerned about my safety as a young woman traveling alone on backroads. It was a bittersweet end, and I look forward to planning another tour if I can find a good touring companion. :)