Days 18 & 19: Roseburg, OR

We had decent weather for our ride to Roseburg.  It was cool and cloudy, with a following wind.  We've gained back a bit of elevation, but aside from one 2-mile-long grade, the ascents were very gradual.

Great place to park a train.

We would have liked to have pushed on after spending the night in Roseburg on Monday (Day 18), but with the chance of rain being forecast at 100% for most of the day we opted to stay put for an extra day.  On Wednesday the forecast returns to a more normal pattern for this time of year.  By Thursday we should be seeing lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s, with a slight warming trend from there.  And on Friday all the USFS campgrounds should finally be open for the season.

We managed to ride backroads and thus avoid jumping on the freeway for all but one two mile stretch.  The riding was great, with wide shoulders and/or low traffic volumes for most the day.  The exception was a five mile stretch between Drain and Yoncalla, where there were numerous logging and gravel trucks, and in many areas there was pretty much no shoulder.

We are camped at the Douglas County Fairgrounds ($25.50, power, water, adjustable showers, heated bathrooms), which is sandwiched between the freeway and a fork of the Umpqua River.  We are fortunate that we are camped right next to the Douglas County Historical and Cultural Museum, so for $5 each we were able to roam around the museum and stay dry for a couple of hours today.

We also took advantage of our layover to have our oil changed, since the Change Oil light came on while we were driving on Sunday.  It was a bit ahead of schedule, and we are a bit puzzled why that is?  But our gas mileage had climbed up to 22.6 mpg after having been below 21 mpg for most of the winter, so perhaps it is the amount of engine idling that we did during the winter that has caused the need for an oil change?

On our way to Roseburg we had been seeing a slow moving train beside us for a few hours.  As luck would have it, just north of Roseburg the train crossed our route.  I managed to cross before the train arrived, but Alea was not so lucky.  Especially since it parked at that crossing for close to a half hour.  We were glad that there is cell coverage in this area, so at least I didn't have to worry about what was keeping her.