Some good luck, some bad

I joined John and Joanne, Oregon Randonneurs members, who were on their tandem today and rode the Cows and Capes Permanent. We were starting early and on my drive over to the coast I had to run windshield wipers for most of the way. Once I met them in Manzanita the rain stopped but the roads were still wet. They remained so for most of our first 40-50 miles, however, it never rained on us. Before too long the clouds dissipated and we were left with beautiful blue skies with a trailing wind for our ride from near Seaside south to Cape Meares.

A tandem is traditionally slower on the climbs and lightning fast on descents. Their Canondale was no exception. I felt like I was in a Polka-Dot jersey denoting the "King of the Mountain" today as I didn't have to work too hard at all to stay ahead of them on the climbs. They make up for it though by making me pedal hard to keep up as they coasted down the hills at 40+ mph. (I got to use my new 56-11 setup!)

We were on a set route that Rando folks call a "permanent". They can ride it at anytime for credit, but it has very strict rules as to direction and time. We also had to stop to get receipts to "prove" we were on the course. I missed a turn coming off Cape Lookout and was finally informed by a passing motorist that my friends were waiting for me back up the road. That added about 5 miles to my planned trip today!
One of the legs sent us over the Trask river. The sign at the beginning of the road told us "road closed at Trask River", which concerned us but hey, rules are rules. ;-) We rode to the bridge and luckily for us, yes the bridge was under construction and closed to traffic, but there was a construction access crossing that we were able to walk the bikes across.

We had stops along the way for lunch in Tillamook, looking for the colored zip tie "control", and trying to ascertain the answer to the question concerning the distance to the Trask River. (as well as changing a flat tire on my bike!) It's all in good "Rando Fun". We were "off bike" for nearly two hours total, and it was enough to run us out of daylight. We finished about the last 45 minutes in darkness.
It was a good thing I still had the RAO reflective material on my bike! My HID light was safe in my pickup... :( ... but I did have my blinkies. John and Joanne put on the very bright front light and we just pedaled on.

We had a few miles on Hwy 101 as we returned north and were very happy to note that during the day the wind had shifted........ we now had a tailwind again!

As I tallied the score for the day I noted:

Good luck
Perfect weather,
Tailwind BOTH directions,
Good company
and another 100+ mile day on the books

Bad:
Ruined a tire
It got dark on us

Looks like there was more good than bad!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............135...............0................135
Jan total.......98.....+........402....=..........500
Feb total.....385.....+.......220....=...........605
Mar total.....659.....+........41.....=...........700
April total...629.....+........57.....=...........676
May total.....642.....+........23.....=...........665
June total....804.....+.........0.....=...........804
July total....933.....+.........0.....=...........933
August total..732.....+........23.....=...........755
Sept total....338.....+.........0.....=...........338
YTD...........5802....+.......766....=.........6568