A day off.  Yesterday was a tough ride I never got over my aching nut, so I'm taking today off then I'll ride from honeyman park to elk prairie without a day off.  I rode with shorts on for the first time yesterday, that seemed to keep the breeze under control but the repeatative knocking of my nut is something that shorts or a sock can't deal with.  Maybe I should try some of that shamey butter.  I took a lot of stops yesterday for pictures, the coast changed from beaches to rocky shores.  One guy out for a morning ride caught up with me after Yachats.  We rode together for a few miles before I needed a break, I almost kept sight of him until the tunnel, after the tunnel I stopped to visit the sea lion caves.  In florence I stopped in for some granola at the fred meyers (I really like this grocery store, I can easily find the bulk section and stuff on sale) I met up with the couple I leapfrogged a bit between astoria and nehalem.  At the seal caves one guy asked me about my skinny tires, then another old guy took a look at my bike and asked me about my trip.  The second guy apparently used to race.  He said the 100 mile training rides were the killers.  Now his knees are glass so he can't ride.  Inside the caves one einstein looking guy asked me about my trip, and how the cars were treating me, he said he thought holland was a better place to bike since that is the expected form of transportation.  Later he told me about yan who he met in nehalem, I remember seeing the einstein looking guy at nehalem.  Now I can say it took as long to bike to the sea lion caves as to drive.

I was planning to make it to umpqua yesterday, but I spent an hour riding a 4-wheeler (atv) around the sand dunes.  That was a lot of fun, I got stuck once and almost tipped it another time, but I came in safely when my hour was up.  So I arrived at Jessie M Honeyman memorial state park about 1615.  I got in took a walk around to find the washrooms, the ones the signs point to are still closed for the winter still.  By the time I got back to the park Faiza had arrived (again on her own, she and Kathleen had decided to ride on their own for another day.  As much as they love each other 12 days without any break is a little too much).  Not too long after Faiza had arrived martin arrived.  Then there was a steady stream of people, about every half hour.  First anthony (anthony was also recently laid off) and nathan who are crazy good riders and are going to attempt to make it to harris beach today.  Then an englishman (Ian, a vegan) riding from vancouver to argentina, apparently this is his mid life crisis.  Then kathleen, and finally 3 boys from utah who plan to make it to the mexican border.

To start the fire last night, I needed to burn my receipt from south beach.  The fire was small and didn't burn as well as I wanted but the 20 minutes of woodgathering was enough to keep the fire going for the couple hours or so that everyone ate and talked as it got dark.

As expected today was super lazy.  I took a walk over to the lake, checked out renting a boat but they were taken for most of the day by students taking a fun field trip on the last day of school.  So I explored the dunes for a bit and laid on the warm sand.  By the time I was moving 20 minutes later the school kids had arrived and the dunes were covered with kids.  I went back to my site and noticed there was a yurt available, so I'm staying in a yurt tonight.  Once I had moved my stuff, I went back to the lake got a hot dog and popcorn.  While eating my lunch in peace the school kids from thre dunes all came over to start swimming.  Oh well, eventually I got myself moving to go over to the shower thoroughly rinsing all my clothes and having a shower myself.  They rest of the afternoon I read the louis l'amour book I picked up yesterday and drying my clothes.  The book read like a tv show episode with all the clean endings and bad aim by the bad guys.