Woo-hoo! We made it to our first rest day. Unfortunately, I woke up with a cold. I was pretty stuffy and still sleepy...April thought it was cute, so she took a video of it. I think she gave me the cold though...at least she shouldn't get it again!
We also had our first warm breakfast this morning! It was maple and brown sugar oat meal with hot apple cinnamon tea to drink...perfect on a slightly chilly morning (with a cold). After breakfast, we visited with our neighbor, Casey, for a bit and even got him on video so you could meet him too.
After that, I took a nap and April read some in the book she bought in Astoria. It's about a team of four cyclists who biked around the world. So far, it's been very interesting and informative to her.
After my nap, we decided to eat lunch and, even though it was our rest day, ride eight miles into Hood River, OR so that we could spend the day in a coffee shop or someplace else with wi-fi in order to work on our website and get everything up to date and keep me in someplace nice and warm to hopefully help my cold go away.
Hood River is located on a hill along the Columbia River, and it's known for two things: micro-breweries and wind surfing sports. It was a great little town with lots of colorful buildings, lots of people walking around, and a wide variety of retail stores, coffee shops, and pubs. We stopped at a laundromat on the way in and washed all our clothes. I went to the drug store and bought some DayQuil for my cold.
Then we headed to the Dog River Coffee Shop, where we stayed until it closed at 6:00. It was a great little coffee shop, with amusing cups and an extra computer...which was extremely useful since we have so much to do! It was pretty neat to watch all the people that stopped to look at our bikes and check out our bags and stuff. We've started handing out little note cards with our name and website on it when we talk to people. So, hello to all our new friends!
When the coffee shop closed, we weren't quite done, so we moved down the street to a little pub, where we had dinner. I had fish and chips and April had bangers and mash. It was very good.
April found us a church to camp at, the Asbury United Methodist Church. They are even leaving the side door unlocked so that we can use the rest-room! Bonus! They came by to check on us and make sure we found everything ok. A very friendly and thoughtful gesture. They have a great little play ground and a cute little entry way complete with clear Christmas lights. We set up out tent under the lights :-)
After taking a quick ride in the playground's airplane, now it's time for bed...goodnight!
