THURSDAY 19 MAY 2016
BANDON - COOS BAY
1100 - 1630
54 km (33.55 miles)
Av. Speed: 17.8 km/h (11.1 mph)
Max. Speed: 46.6 km/h (29 mph)
Time On Bike: 3h 01m 59s
Bandon Inn being located where it is directly adjacent to the Old Town was highly convenient for what I needed to do after checking in and taking a shower - get a feed somewhere.
I wandered down around 7 pm, still pretty rattled from what had happened and still very much on the lookout for anything untoward.
With the coast apparently clear, Foley's Pub looked to be exactly what I needed so I entered and went straight to the bar.
I'd struck up conversation with a couple of locals in no time and of course related what had just happened.
There was a unanimous vote of sympathy and clearly also an amount of embarrassment that there should be such a redneck freak living in their midst and that a first-time overseas visitor to the town should be exposed to their radical behaviour in such a way.
Still feeling pretty fragile, I was more than happy to take any sympathy or support that was on offer and made a point of enjoying both the company and meal a whole lot more as a result....
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BANDON OLD TOWN |
So at least this was something, although as much as I didn't really want to get back on the road, I couldn't stay hiding out in Bandon forever.
And it was probably a good idea to try and put as much distance between myself and any further trouble as possible.
The worst case scenario was that old mate would be out on the highway the next morning looking for me so I came up with a plan to cover this and decided to get back on the horse (or Grasshopper in this case) immediately.
I'd received plenty of encouragement from the folk at the pub the previous evening so I ran with it.
Some of the advise dispensed over the bar was to drop into the bicycle store on the way out of town as they came highly recommended as local doyens of getting out and about.
Given there were about 3 or 4 potential routes available to me for the next destination, I thought this to be pretty sound counsel.
I also made a point of calling by the cop shop and notifying them of my plans.
Officer Lombardo was not about but I recounted my story to his colleague who expressed similar amounts of apology and embarrassment to what I had received at the pub.
Without further ado, I hit the road about 11 am and called in via South Coast Bicycles and was directed towards the North Bank Drive which not only followed (as the name suggests) the northern bank of the Coquille River but got me off the 101 for however long it took to get to the other end.
Sounded good to me, so this is what I did.
North Bank proved to be a great call.
Flat, scenic, peaceful and little or no traffic in the 2 hours or so it took me to ride it.
Not to mention the blustering tailwind either.....
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NORTH BANK DRIVE ALONG THE COQUILLE RIVER |
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VIEW OF THE COQUILLE RIVER VALLEY |
Things were not quite so rosy at the other end of North Bank Drive when I reconnected with Highway 42 which in turn re-entered the fray of 101 a few miles south of Coos Bay.
Both roads are about as bicycle un-friendly as it gets - the southern approach to Coos Bay in particular is nothing short of disgraceful and utterly dangerous.
A deathtrap of the highest order.
The entire 21 kilometers was a very treacherous and unsettling experience which was no doubt compounded significantly by my experience in Bandon.
When I eventually pulled into Coos Bay at around 4.30 pm, I was almost as equally rattled as I had been 24 hours earlier in Bandon and feeling just a little unloved to boot.
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