Souther Tier Bicycle Trip

Hello Family and Friends:

Ron and Sharon leave Feb 4 to fly to Florida and reunite with their bicycles that arrived by FedEx to a bicycle shop a week ago.  We plan to cycle from St Augustine, FL to San Diego, CA (3070 miles).  We will follow the Adventure Cycling Southern Tier route (google to see specifics) except for a few exceptions.  We will not have camping gear this trip so we plan to stay in motels/hotels each night.  We appreciate those of you who will be following and sending encouraging notes/calls etc and for those who are praying for us during this adventure.  We feel very blessed to be able to have this adventure.  We have a grand baby due April 29 so we plan to be home early in April to welcome him!

Some of the cities:  St Augustine FL,  Palatka FL,   Tallahassee FL,  DeFuniak Springs,   Gulf Shores FL, Mobile AL,  New Orleans,  Baton Rouge LA,  New Roads LA, Austin Tx,  El Paso Tx,  LaCruces NM,  Tempe, AZ

Diamond Lake to Odell Lake

We left diamond lake at 7:30 am after having a large breakfast and watching the sunrise over the lake.  It started raining at the same time. We put on rain gear and started pedaling. The rain was serious! We were drenched by the time we reached the hwy 97 junction. We had reservations at Odell Lake for tonight. We asked at a hotel about getting a driver. The money we gave the woman was well spent! We arrived at 11:30 am after the 37.5 mile ride in her 4Runner. It was a tight squeeze for 2 bikes and 3 people. Our good neighbors will drive down and bring us home tomorrow since more rain is promised. At least no coffee pot accident ending to this trip.

Breakfast at Diamond Lake

Sunrise.

Our cabin for the night

Odell Lake

Prospect to Diamond Lake

41 miles.  We got an early start at 7 am. We had our 2nd breakfast at 11 miles at Becky's cafe in Union Creek--a great meal plus we got a sandwich to go since there were no other food options until Diamond Lake. The next 30 miles included a lot of climbing. The summit was 5316 ft.  The weather was nice and cool. We still had Rogue River views and Mt Thiesen. Rain is forecasted for the next several days. Our goal is Odell Lake tomorrow but we will see.

Shady Cove to Prospect

23 mi. It was a short day today--riding along the Rogue River. We had up and down roads which was nice since the hotel hostess said it was all uphill. We rode by Joseph Smith State Park where we had several family camping trips. Prospect is a beautiful setting in the wooded area near the Rogue.  Tomorrow we will be at Diamond Lake. we are not riding Crater Lake this trip since we have done that twice. We will explore another route.

There are still lots of fires in this part of Oregon and California.

We are staying in the motel section but enjoying the grounds and eating in the restaurant.

Ron stopped and chatted with a man fishing. No fish being caught today.

Last night's dinner with a Rogue River view out our window.

Canyonville to Shady Cove

52 miles. If we were smart we would stop biking over mountain ranges. The first 25 miles today was pleasant, almost perfect riding. Then we hit 15 miles of uphill that rivaled two days ago. When we did not have shade it was hot in the 90s. Luckily the last over 10 miles was downhill!!! one-mile was gravel because of road construction.  That is always a challenge with road bikes. We are now south of crater Lake and will begin going back north.

Our two night stay at the casino was very nice. We had long hot tub soaks.

We passed Milo Adventist Academy

Completion of Powers to Riddle ride

67 miles. So I told you the ladies from the Powers bike ride told us there were only 3 miles of bad Hills. What they should have said was the first 20 miles from our campsite was going to be very difficult. We did not complete 30 miles until five hours of riding.  Luckily there was hardly any traffic. We got up before daylight and started riding at 7:15. It was very scenic but very remote. We really were not sure if we were going to be successful. We finally flagged a pick up and asked the driver about the route. He told us we were very close to a long downhill so that helped our spirits. We made it to riddle by about 3:30 and stopped at the first café we saw. We are staying in a nice hotel in Canyonville which is about 5 miles from Riddle. We will stay here for two nights for a rest day.

Coos Bay to "island" Campground 9/18

62 miles. We left Coos bay expecting to stay in a cabin at Powers. They called and told us it was not available after all. So we had no choice but to camp. It was a lovely campground and the weather was perfect. But sleeping on the ground is still less than ideal. We were able to have a lot of food today. The continental breakfast at the hotel was nice, we had a second breakfast in Myrtle point, and lunch in Powers. About 10 miles outside of Town we were stopped by two ladies in bright yellow T-shirts. The town hosts an annual "tour De fronds"bike ride. The employees at the store had told them we were riding so they hopped in their car to give us a pen and brochure about the ride. They were very enthusiastic and told us there were

really only 3 miles that was very tough on the ride. That made us feel better until we experienced reality the next day