Day one - June 26, 2011

Seaside, Oregon to Astoria, Oregon.
21 miles
Start time 2:05PM
End time about 7:15PM
Weather dry and cool about 70

We found a quieter spot on the beach to put our bikes in the ocean. Avenue U was the spot. We carried our bikes to the beach and Marcee's Brother Willie JR, who drove our car to the coast from his house in Vancouver, Washington took pictures. We brought the bikes back to the parking lot loaded up our gear. While loading our bikes we met Herman from Bismarck, ND who gave us a business card and offered a complimentary massage if we made it up his way.

Our route will roughly follow adventure cycling's Lewis and Clark route to Williston, ND and then the Northern Tier for most of the rest of the way. Our final destination is Bar Harbor, ME.

Our first "road" was right down the Promenade leading to the Lewis and Clark Statue. It was a great place to start! Nice easy pace, great view of the Pacific Ocean, people strolling by. When we got to the Statue we met Helen and Richard from New Zealand who were biking to Los Angeles. We shared email addresses and our blog.  We followed the Adventure Cycling Association map which put us on a country road to Astoria.  Once we turned on to Lewis and Clark road we followed that all the way to Astoria.  It was a great quiet road to start on with light traffic, We did not have to turn off at all.  This route provided the shortest easiest bridge crossing (a big deal for us as I will explain later). After crossing the bridge we stopped in a small convenience store for a bath break.  A woman named Jennie asked about our trip and camping plans.  She drove across town and checked into an RV park but city reg did not allow tent camping within city limits and we had passed on the camping recommendations of Helen and Richard near Fort Stevens we wanted to stay on the route.  Jennie called us and told us this and then gave us the number to the hostel. Thank you Jennie. We got a private room without bath for $44 and then found a pasta restaurant in town for breakfast. All in all a nice start to the trip. The one thing I wished we would have had time for were the Astoria Columns which give a panoramic view of the city.