Bliss and crashes

Newport and the Rogue beer factory- Chocolate Stout and American Amber.  Brit calls me a wimp cuz I don't like the dark beers, only the IPAs.  French fries have become one of our food groups, and hamburgers.  I hear my legs call for milkshakes and my lungs for the inhalers.  There was sun; honest to God-light-from-the-heavens-sun jutting through the cumulus that pass like great silent ships.  The weather held for an afternoon as we went swerving amidst the rock outcroppings and ocean mist and we remembered exactly why we had started.  The next day was another window in time, and I felt as though everything had aligned for us.  Gentle hills as we rode next to the beach, whale-watchers in the turn-outs and that great seething, rolling nothingness beyond us, lapping against the blue horizon.  The pictures and words are but many fingers pointing at the moon.  But all things, blessed and bad, are fleeting and growing smaller towards eternity, and the raindrops began again as we set up camp outside of Florence in the dunes.  Early the next morning and even the branches of the hemlocks couldn't keep back the rain.  But we had had our taste of the miles beneath us and resolved to put away fifty.  Brit's bike is fine.  I should mention that Brit's bike is now fine- we stopped in Newport the day before.  The layers that I had so easily shed days before now climbed on with little effort.  Three jackets, long underwear, spandex tights and shoe covers.  And it all mattered little as we stood soaked to the bone cooking ravoli on the bus stop bench outside the Safeway in Reedsport.  Snickers bars, snickers are another food group.  Thitry miles later and it was North Bend and Coos Bay.  We were exhausted, sedated and Brit was leading.  Every sidewalk in Coos Bay has a inch long trench between it and the road.  EVERY sidewalk.  The problem is the rain puddles up and it just looks like a smooth transition.  I knew ahead of time there is at least one crash on this long a journey.  And thats what i said to myself as I went over the handlebars.  "This is your one crash Chris, and its happening now...(skidding sounds)"  I laid down and kicked my shoes against the cement and generally wimpered in front of the Taco Bell, a salon, and a Comfort Inn.  I know these exact businesses because a representative employee from each came out to ask me if i was alright.  Then, when i was back on my feet, I saw two police cars speeding through traffic, sirens blaring.  I wondered where the bank robbery was.  They stopped next to me and two officers came out with their hands on their pistols.  Unfortunately I've had some experiences with the law so I instinctively threw my hands up.  "Put them down," one said, "now are you alright?"  I tried to explain to the police officers what i told the employee of Taco Bell, that nothing was hurt too bad but my pride.  There was no hit and run driver to pursue, no antagonist to arrest.  I tried to explain about the one inch gap near the sidewalk.  Then the fire truck came.  Then the two ambulances.  It was bedlam in Coos Bay, and everyone was on red alert.  There were ten medics standing around me.  Some lady had pulled Brit aside and was trying to give her a twenty dollar bill.  "Have you lost conciousness?" "Does something hurt?" "Do you have any known allergies?"  I felt slightly bad, because it was high school kid in a fireman's outfit and this must have been his first time out beause he was holding the clipboard very firmly and his eyes were wide like he was hoping i had internal bleeding or something more interesting.  "would you like us to take you to the emergency room?" they finally asked.  I thought of the lights, and bed, and the roof that was pobably in the emergency room, but then i said no.  "Well," said the older medic "you do realize that if you refuse care...fire department not liable...please sign this...." for about five minutes and ended with "up to and including DEATH."  So I said "you better let me have some band aids."  And we were back on the road.  The next day we rented a car and drove to Pertaluma, California.  Thats where we are now, and its all sun and there is wine and there is no rain.  Brit and i only spent the first three hours of the ride going, "can you imagine pushing up this hill?"