This was another day I was looking forward to! To see the ocean! I was impressed at how the SIR team could give us another way out of Tumwater/Olympia. Pretty cool. First long stop (15 min) was at a Thriftway to use bathroom mile 40.3. At the time there were 2 of us together. At Thriftway there were 4 others that I would eventually ride on off with. At mile 63 was a large Ocean Spray Cranberry warehouse/processing. That was surprising for me to see there around Markham, WA. Then we arrived, and I was sort of with another group of several cyclists, at Bay City. As we crossed the bridge, there were oyster beds in the South Bay area. See pic. Then out to Twin Harbors, turned south along the coast. Couldn't yet see the ocean, but little roads went out to beach. At 74.1 at Grayland, WA we turned off WA-106 to go inland and there were all kinds of cranberry beds. At mile 75.5 I stopped and talked for 5 minutes to a guy that explained cranberries! These are dry harvest cranberries. They use a machine about 3-4 ft wide that look like hair shears to trim down the cranberries and harvest the berries. Cool. He also explained that Ocean Spray is a farmer owned Co-Op. Right now the flowers are starting to be pollinated the farmers have brought in bees! In late Sept - Oct the berries ripen. He explained how they were Finnish in origin and were used to raising cranberries in Finland. Then at mile 80.6 got to see the ocean! Then finally had to turn inland to go around Willapa Bay, a huge bay! Amazing to see! In this section I was riding on off with 4 others. We got down to Raymond and all stopped in at Dairy Queen for 30 minutes! I had my burrito of turkey & string cheese + a large DQ Reese's pb cup blizzard. As we were leaving the group of Travis ( an SIS fast guy) and his couple riders appeared. I rode with Travis & group a bit on Day 2. Mile 131 was another heat stop at Pe Ell store (20 min). I had 2 root beers and some food from pack. Then over to bathroom and had to use my own paper! LOL. Then off onto the gravel section. Mile 151.3 another long stop, 15 min, for heat. I rode on off again with that ocean group, which I found at later were doing their 1st 1200km ride. Finally they stopped at mile 171.5 at Tinnio, so I kept going to home and pushed hard as I wanted to get in before they caught me again. Success. WOW - Stopped time of 2 hrs 5 minutes! It was hotter today than day before. Another 10pm finish. UGH. And it was going to be hotter on Day 4.