Two Grads and a Dad Bike Across the USA: Day 3

Mileage: 40
From: Mapleton, OR
To: Veneta, OR

Today we’re sleeping in an awesome and friendly marina in Veneta, OR. We were directed here by a local old man named Bill. He was very helpful, and actually went out of his way helping us. He gave us detailed directions to the library, a bike shop in Eugene, and hooked us up with the best free campsite ever. He actually came to the library while we were there to bring us a map.

The campsite actually cost -2 dollars, because we asked the lady in charge if she could make change for us for laundry, and she wouldn’t accept our money. Yay for clean and dry clothes, although something in the water stained some things. My long sleeve jersey and dad’s ducky pillow case were probably hardest hit.

Today was a good day for local advice. This morning we ate breakfast at the only shop in Mapleton, where all the locals also seemed to eat breakfast. We actually changed our route on local advice, which turned out to be very accurate both on distances and climbs. I think the one man drives a logging truck, so he probably knows his stuff.

We were kicked out of last nights “campsite” at 8 so as not to scar too many children, but we may have scarred some on the way out anyway. Luckily, getting kicked out meant we got a lot of mileage in early. We would’ve gone farther, but Bill informed us that there was no other place to stop, so we hung out and checked email, updated the webpage, etc. for a long time in the library.

We cooked in camp tonight—pasta, canned chicken, and fresh broccoli, along with some Squirt (western soda). It was tasty.