| Distance | Average Speed | Max Speed | Time | Elevation gain |
| 90.9 miles | 14.5 mph | 35.0 mph | 6:14:07 | 3500 feet |
I woke Ellen up a bit earlier today (5:15am) since we had such a long way to go. She wasn't happy, but she got up without too much fuss. I explained that with 90 miles ahead of us, I wanted to get an early start. We went to breakfast (forgot our mugs...again) and went back to pack up. We didn't dawdle over breakfast other than reading the Cycle Oregonian. Camping so close the baggage trucks had it's advantage again as I only had to chuck our bags over the fence to the footballers to put on the trucks, and we were on our way by 7am.
We didn't get to ride through any covered bridges, but we did get to ride by a covered bridge on the way out of Cottage Grove. We got the first hill out of the way pretty well, and the downhill was nice and twisty with good road surface. Sadly, the road surface became horrible not long after this. It was cool and overcast all day which kept us in our warm clothes all day. No one got to see our cute matching kits.
We started the horrible chipseal after about 25 miles, and it stayed with us the entire rest of the day. It was constantly jarring, and we had to fight for every inch we progressed. We still managed to pull a some pacelines to the base of the big hill climbs where they would promptly drop us like we were Jens Voigt delivering the Schlecks to the bottom of Tourmalet before falling back to the autobus to barely make it into the finish before the time cut. As the people rode by us thanking us for the pull, I told them the tip jar is in the back, or they could find us at dinner and donate their desserts. No one ever took us up on that offer.
The rest stops were crowded. Everyone had the same plan to get out early today due to the distance it seems. I'm not used that when I ride solo. One of the ODS stops ran out of some food. I've been letting Ellen have some snacks with sugar in them because she needs to keep her furnace stoked. She seems to be burning it off quickly enough because she hasn't had much bad attitude. That is, no big blow-ups like we can usually count on after the amount of sugar she's been eating. I always try to make sure she has a hard boiled egg first since they almost always have those at the stops. Cyclists love them for the protein and energy they provide.
The last stop had a fun band that played the blues. They were also going to be the entertainment on the main stage after announcements. We got to listen to them for a bit because the road had vibrated the screw out of my bell, so I had to tighten that back up. We finally arrived in Reedsport just before 4pm, setup camp, and hit the showers. Ellen's shower buddy, Jeri, was there again. That made Ellen happy to have a familiar face. I met a tandem captain that I had met a few years ago in the San Juan's at the Santana Tandem Rally there. We talked about trips that he's taken, and that we are planning to take as well.
Camp was about a mile from the main stage. Thankfully, there was a shuttle between the two. Dinner was pasta with meatballs. I had them give Ellen some extras. We just ate and chatted with people. It started to sprinkle a little bit during dinner. Not that uncommon on the coast. We turned in early skipping announcements all together tonight. Sadly, we couldn't hear the band from our tent. Ellen fell asleep almost as her head hit her pillow after we brushed our teeth and pottied.
Continue to day 3.