Bob on BAC Seattle to San Francisco 2010

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I was up early, packed my bags, loaded them into the trailer and backtracked into town to have breakfast at the Paradise Cafe. Eggs, hash browns, bacon, toast and coffee got me ready for the day. George and Ed Chambers joined me. We enjoyed watching the locals – mostly old men. We figured that the cafe would lose money if it offered senior discounts.

I started pedaling at 8:40 with cool temperatures and a nice tail wind. I rode along US 101 for about 15 miles then turned east onto Cedar Valley Road. This gave us a nice bypass to the main highway. The road weaved along a creek in lightly forested land. It eventually left the creek and returned west to the ocean at Gold Beach.

After Gold Beach, I continued on US 101 until I reached Brookings and The Best Western Beachfront Inn. I got in after 2:00.

About 19 miles north of Brookings I crested a hill. The road had a passing lane going in my direction and the shoulder that I was riding in was very wide. My speed was just under 20 mph. All of a sudden I felt a hard, rough slap on the back of my left thigh. Then I heard and saw the remnants of a car's side view mirror shattering across the road. I realized that I had been hit by a car's mirror. I couldn't understand why I was still upright and my bicycle was still rolling. The driver of the car stopped to check on me and clear the road of her mirror. Another car stopped to see if I was OK. She told me that she was a volunteer deputy sheriff. She took our names and our location and drove down the road to get cell phone reception to call in the accident. Pretty soon a fire truck, an ambulance, two state patrol cars and a sheriff car pulled up. I had the EMT clean my leg which had some cuts on it from the broken mirror. The state trooper took my statement and told me that I could leave. As I did, the two troopers were interrogating the woman who hit me. I have the case report in my files in case something comes up in the future. I discovered later that the mirror had hit the bag on my rear rack. If the bag wasn't there, the mirror would have hit my handlebars. That would have been very serious.

Here is today's route.

This was a real nice hotel. I had a ground floor room with a small terrace that was 30 feet from the beach. I could see and hear the surf through the window to my terrace. The surf was brilliantly blue.

After Happy Hour, I walked to a restaurant that won the best chowder award in 2009. Unfortunately it was closed. So I turned around and went into a restaurant that the hotel recommended. It was not good.