Saturday morning was a busy day with all the soccer responsibilities to attend to before I left for Medford. Luckily, I had been packing throughout the week, and I was mostly ready aside from a few small things. I finally made it on the road around 12:45pm. It took about 4 hours to make the drive. There was a University of Oregon football game apparently because traffic was thick with all manner of yellow and green flags and stickers afixed to cars going south. I arrived in Medford just before 5pm. I had forgotten to bring anything to snack on or drink on the non-stop drive down, so I was quite thirsty and hungry by the time I arrived.
The long term parking was conveniently located on the elementary school grounds where the registration area was. I was able to carry my bag with me to the registration tables, and then continue on across the street to the park fields (soccer fields, no less) where I could set up my tent. I found a wide open area that really never completely filled up. I was close, but not too close, to the blue rooms (for frequent readers of Cycle Oregon related information, you know that these are the affectionate term used for the portapotties that CO uses) and a water truck. I set up my new tent and Luxury Lite cot that I was trying out for the first time. It was pretty easy to setup, and it was nicer than sleeping on the ground. I went back to the car for my bike and things. It was still in the upper 80's as I made my way in the long line for dinner. They were serving prime rib. It was pretty good. Light sprinkles were starting to be felt, but they didn't last too long. Back at my tent, I realized that I had forgotten a few things for the week - ibuprofen, vitamins, and lip balm. I settled into my camping chair on a small hill for evening announcements and called Jada to let her know I had made it. Light showers continued off and on during the announcements, and we could see lightning playing over the hills behind the main stage as our local meteorologist was delivering the forecast for the next day. He was surprisingly accurate all week. One of the new things that CO was doing this year was the introduction of waste management through a company called ZeroHero. They provided little tent structures around the site with 3 holes for different types of waste: compost, recycle, and waste. All of CO's vendors adopted cups, plates, utensils, and napkins that were fully compostable - utensiles made of potato, cups (where were really nice and solid) made from left over materials from sugar production, and plates made of rice. It was an interesting change. CO also provided us with musette bags (for those of you who don't watch bike races, these are the bags that professional races get out on the road that contain their lunches. It's a fabric bag with a strap that they can easily snatch from their support person out on the road on the move, place over their shoulders, pull the food out of it to place in their pockets) so that when we go to the lunch stops, they don't have to provide plastic bags for each lunch. We just carry our musette in our back pocket, and fill it as we move through the line.
This years ride was going to be in the Mythical state of Jefferson. Throughout the early 1900's, the settlers in southern Oregon and northern California were feeling like they were being ignored by Salem and Sacramento, and took it upon themselves to secede and form a 51st state - Jefferson. They had gone as far as putting up road blocks, mapping out the area, electing a governor, and making the capital city of Yreka (which is currently in CA). It was not to be since the day they were going to do their official announcement was December 7, 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The wave of nationalism killed the attempt to form the state, and eventually, the needs of the areas were met by the states that currently held then cities by the creation of roads to harvest the abundance of trees needed for the war effort. More can be found here http://www.cycleoregon.com/week-ride and here http://www.jeffersonstate.com.
Back at the tent, I prepped for the next day, and found that I had laid my camelback inside my tent with the nozzle under the bag allowing the water to leak out. So I had a nice little pool of water in my tent and soaked pack. Luckily, the grass was quite soft, and the puddle was pretty well contained to directly beneath my camelback. With the help of several paper towels, I was able to get the mess cleaned out pretty well. I was able to fall asleep ok, but woke up around 2:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. It rained over night, but not too hard and not for a long time. There were a lot of sirens throughout the night in that town. I don't know what was going on, but it was loud.
Continue on to Day 1.