Because we had a short-ish ride to Cape Lookout and we've finally seemed to have left the 90-degree heat for the 60-70-degree heat, we did not feel the need to get up too early to ride. That said, we had the possible opportunity to meet up there with my friend Clint, who thought that if he got up early enough and took care of his business he might be able to drive to Cape Lookout and meet us around 3 pm! Woo hoo! That was enough to inspire us to get up and go, and we hit the road just before 7 AM. We had a beautiful ride through the old growth forest outside of Grand Ronde as we headed toward the coast, though highway 22 had a surprising number of pickup trucks and log trucks on it through this narrow, twisty stretch of road through the Coast Range. The ride would have been easy, except for Vanesa having gotten her period and having terrible abdominal cramps that morning. It was hard for me to watch her riding one-handed, with her other hand applying firm pressure to her belly, and in an effort to reduce her misery as she rode. But she did it, somehow. Again, what a champion that girl is. At the 11-mile mark of the day we hit the summit of the Coast Range and started descending along the beautiful Little Nestucca River, knowing that Highway 101 was just around every next bend. In reality, it took longer to reach 101 than anticipated, probably because of just that, I was anticipating it. Hitting Highway 101 REALLY means we're close to home. We got to Pacific City 26 miles from our starting point that morning, and though we got a glimpse of the impressive Haystack Rock in the distance, we didn't see the ocean before we got to the breakfast cafe where we stopped to fuel up. It was a mediocre meal, kind of a trip theme, with mediocre service, another trip theme, and annoying when I got up to the register and they told me they only take cash or check, not a credit card. I had to walk down the block to the gas station to use the ATM to pay for breakfast, but their ATM was out of service, so I had to then walk to the sports bar down the block where I finally found a place to get cash. We quickly paid and got on the bikes to go to the Pelican Brewery, not to drink, but for our first view of the PACIFIC OCEAN! And then there it was. Haystack Rock in all it's glory, the big sand dune just to the north, and the magnificent Pacific. Have we really done this?! Yes, COAST TO COAST. We enjoyed the view but that was not our destination so after about 10 minutes we went across the street to pick up some more groceries for the campground dinner and breakfast tomorrow and then we headed north on the quiet 2-lane road toward Cape Lookout. With decent traffic and lovely views combined with minimal hills, we got pretty quickly to the base of the climb up to Cape Lookout. It's about a 3-mile climb to the peak, and actually somewhat steep, so it required some effort, but soon we were there and hitting the glorious, freshly-repaved descent down the other side (the campground is at the base of the descent). And just like that, boom. Cape Lookout State Park! This is one of our favorite places on earth; I brought Vanesa here on the very first weekend she came to visit me in Portland shortly after we met in 2011 (and it's probably the main reason she married me, because I knew of this amazing place). She has been coming here for years, much more than I ever did, and she brought Trasto here in the last months of his life quite often. Since then she has come here a lot during the daytime with Clint when I am working since they are good friends too, they have similar work schedule freedom while I'm more locked into a consistent daytime schedule, they can walk further than I can due to my knee/hip issues, and, let's be honest, because on Saturdays in the fall I like to watch the University of Oregon Ducks Football and they don't. Anyway, we arrived and now we REALLLLLLLYYYY feel like we are near home. The hiker/biker campground at Cape Lookout is better than the car/RV camping area, I think; it's nestled in the trees right next to the crashing ocean, and is quite private and quiet (the campground is LOUD with people and their big machines). And we were pleasantly surprised to see they'd brought in a (very clean, thank you State of Oregon) portapotty so we don't have to hike to the campground bathrooms anymore and also installed a phone charging station for us! And this hiker/biker camping is available for $8/person, no reservation required. Awesome! Clint showed up around 1:30 so we ended up having the whole afternoon to sit and chat, both in our special spot right in front of the beach and in our shaded campsite when the sun ultimately proved too powerful to linger. After Clint left, we prepared our glorious dinner of kidney beans and colby jack Tillamook cheese wrapped in, you guessed it, flour tortillas; I even had one packet of mild taco sauce left from Scotty's Hells Canyon store where we'd had burritos and a COVID lecture one morning for breakfast a week or 10 days ago and that kicked up the taste quotient enough to make it actually pretty satisfying. We fell asleep to the sound of the waves, again before sunset, having decided to try to ride the 87 miles to the finish line in Astoria the next day and knowing we'd have to leave pretty early. Vanesa wanted to go home with Clint and end our trip there as we'd already gone coast to coast, but since the route officially ends in Astoria I wanted to continue on. I didn't press her, but just left the decision up to her as to what she wanted to do, and though she didn't WANT to ride to Astoria, she decided she wanted to come with me and end together. We had a "bailout" plan of riding only halfway to Astoria the next day, 43-something miles to the also quite beautiful Nehalem Bay State Park hiker/biker campground, but we both wanted to and planned to reach Astoria so we can get home to our lovely home.