day 6 - florence

92 miles today. I'm starting to flow into the rhythm of touring, making today exceptional. Now, in recalling the events of this morning, it seems like days ago. We had a large breakfast at Pigs in a Pancake and saw Greg and Jason off. Matt and I continued down to the 'Devil's Punchbowl' and had chowder at Mo's then strolled into Waldport where I left him. After that I climbed through fog that splashed up the cliffs and through my spokes like waves of a waterfall in reverse, rising to the tops of the trees and vanishing in the warm sunlight. The gulls surfed on the breaks and hung in the air over the waves and the roadway: the habitats of other animals. I arrived at camp and met fellow cyclists. The brothers from DC, the DA from Holland, the locals from Eugene, and the graduate from Germany. We rode downtown and shared pitchers of local IPA and watched fireworks. We all tell our stories of who we are, were, or who we want to be in the real world, but never speak of the dire actualities of leaving this life.
-niko (by Florence Bay)