Days 3 and 4 – Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway – Albany to Brownsville and then on to Armitage County Park

I did not get to post a blog for day 3, so here are Days 3 & 4.

Day 3

Our ride for Day 3 would take us from Albany to Brownsville. We didn’t have any particular stops planned, so we thought the ride would take about 3 hours. Bill had asked Keith to bring his old bicycle seat to dinner Friday night because he was not happy with a new bike seat he had purchased just prior to the trip.

Since we did not have the tool needed, we decided to stop at a bike shop, we had noticed near the restaurant the night before. So while Bill was making arrangements to have the seat exchanged, I took some daytime pictures in the neighborhood.

It gave me an opportunity to take a pictures of the Sybaris Bistro building.

The original two story building was remodeled into this open plan in 1893 to serve as a mercantile store. The building is in the Albany historic district, across the street from the Carousel Museum.

The Carousel is not a historic restoration, but a carousel shaped building to house a modern carousel with restored and new pieces, all hand carved wood. It is a monument to the great carousels of our past.

On our ride to Brownsville, we rode along the banks of the Willamette River for a while.

Passed beautiful rows of blueberry bushes

Look carefully and you can see the just ripe blueberries. No, I did not sneak a sample, tempting as it may have been.

Just as we were arriving into Brownsville, a Datsun Car Owners Road Rally came by. We watched for some 10 minutes as one Datsun after another passed by. Remember, Datsun was the predecessor to Nissan in the US.

That is Bill’s “thumbs up” in the right of the frame.

After the Datsuns were past, we walked across the street to our Airbnb for the evening.

This is the front of the building. Our space was the entire ground floor and the loft bedroom.

It is a fun space, originally built in 1912 as a homeopathic pharmacy owned by two sisters. It later housed the local newspaper, The Albany Times. The current owners bought it in 2017, and are slowly restoring it in their spare time. They have clearly done a lot, but have a ways to go. My favorite aspect of the space are the pressed tin ceilings.

On our evening walk to the store, we passed a great example of Italianate Villa style. Here is a little about this beautiful hime.

I know how I spend time on the buildings in my blog, but I so enjoy finding gems like this.

So, Sunday mornings in Brownsville do not offer much, no coffee, no breakfast, not even a bakery. They have these, but they are all closed on Sunday. So Bill and I decided to hit the pavement early.

Day 4 – Brownsville to Armitage County Park, Eugene

Today’s Ride was short, 25 miles and uneventful. We did notice the agriculture had changed. Gone were the hops, hemp, fruit and berries and instead, wide open fields of hay and seeds.

South of Brownsville, the trail goes up into the foothills of the Cascades with a climb of over 600 feet in just a mile or so. We didn’t really want that climb, so I plotted a flat path that reconnected with the official path after about 11 miles. It was quiet with almost no traffic. In fact, in the entire 11 miles two cars in each direction passed us.

As we got close to our destination, I called Keith and asked if he could come and take pictures as we arrived.

And here we are, 143 miles from Champoeg State Park at the entrance of Armitage County Park. We have biked the entire Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway..

We had a great ride, riding 4 days, with three very different overnight venues, a great dinner with Keith and Joanette.

Tomorrow, the 4 of us travel to Florence, Oregon, where we will spend two weeks along the Oregon coast at Heceta Beach RV Park. I won’t post daily, but will every few days.