33: Just another day on the bike - finally!

What was most remarkable about this day was that it did not rain! There were clouds all over, and sometimes they were pretty dark, but we did not have any rain and there was even a bit of sunshine in the evening after dinner.  I confess I went outside to see the sunshine and my eyes hurt - it was so bright after days of gloom!

Holly from Redlands

We left Katherine and Stuart with big hugs (after they got a taste of the stoker's role on the back of the tandem.) We had a relatively easy ride into Forest Grove, where we are staying at Warm Showers hosts Dave and Carol. They are super nice, and have fed us supper and Carol made strawberry shortcake for dessert!  OMG. The Oregon strawberries are in season and they are delicious - small, sweet and juicy. The real thing. Yum.

Love the mixers on the ceiling!

On our way in, we had our second breakfast at the Wild Wood Cafe in McMinnville.  It was absolutely fabulous. The bacon and eggs were just better than anywhere - I don't know what the deal was - and the French toast is the best I have ever eaten. They use thick bread which they make, then after soaking it in the egg, they roll it in granola and then grill it!  It was just amazing.  Not often I go crazy for French toast but this stuff was special.

And, in the small world department, our server asked, "are you from Redlands?" when she saw our jackets.  Her family ran Melzer's Fine Books in Redlands and she lived there for a while before moving up this way. So say hello to Holly!

We finally learned what the trees were that we saw being planted all over.  Oregon grows hazelnuts (aka filberts).  Who knew? They also have large pastures full of grasses that I had heretofore only seen growing on the side of the road. Turns out they are growing them for seed. So if you have a lawn with fescue grass, chances are the seed was growing up here somewhere.

Lots of filbert trees in the area

Every little town we passed through has a coffee shack like this.  I guess folks here do not want to have to get out of their cars in the rain to grab a latte!

The day's report:  Willamina to Forest Grove, 46 miles/1561 to date

Not sure how this solar array would pencil out, given the weather!