Thanks for all of the helpful replies, everyone!
Originally Posted by
Gyrine
My wife and I live in Seattle but my daughter and her family live in the Bellingham area so we know it well. If you are interested in a tour of the area, please don't hesitate to PM me. We would be glad, actually enthusiastic, to show you around.
Wow, thanks for the offer! We will perhaps try and make it up to Bellingham for the Northwest Tandem Rally in July. Just found out about that event.
Originally Posted by
B. Carfree
Twenty-nine miles from downtown Eugene, five miles past the last house, lies the Lane County Sheriff's Forest Work Camp. The County is looking to either lease it out or sell it off since they closed it about a decade ago. It's got many buildings, but will need work. It has full utilities and phone service, but no cell phone coverage (you might want a satellite phone available for your customers to use when they're out riding).
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Al...341bb7e61f29ad
The county says it would prefer to lease it to someone to do drug treatment, but tourism is important to the county as well. You could even partner with someone who does drug treatment and do both with live-in staff. (Community Supported Shelters is looking into the site as well and would probably welcome someone to partner with.) A stand-alone B&B would need a zoning change, which is doable with support from the County Board of Commissioners (almost a sure-thing), but partnering with someone who meets the zoning would be easier.
Work camp put up for rent | Main News | The Register-Guard | Eugene, Oregon
The site is located along the Siuslaw River on the main cycling route between Eugene and the coast. In fact, there are two great routes to the coast from there, either down the Siuslaw River (there's about a dozen miles of gravel road (Richardson Upriver and Stage Coach roads) to Florence or over Oxbow to the Smith River to Reedsport. One can easily connect the two in a loop by riding down the coast from Florence to Reedsport (actually to Gardiner). There's lots of ~100 km loops that can be done from the site, both paved and gravel, flattish and hilly. My wife and I ride our tandem along there regularly; it really is an ideal place for riding a tandem, or anything else (it's also popular with motorcyclists).
A somewhat popular cycling loop from town passes within a mile of the forest work camp, so I could see some local weekend cafe business happening as well.
I could see some synergy between a B&B at the forest work camp and an existing cycling-oriented B&B on the west edge of town.
Velo Bed and Breakfast
This is freaking crazy! But probably too much for first timers like us. I can definitely imagine it being some kind of awesome retreat. But that Velo B&B is right in line with what we'd want our own B&B to be like! Still, might have to start off a bit simpler...
Originally Posted by
j-law
What do you do for work?
Mechanical engineer. Remotely working can be a challenge unless it's just contracting CAD/drafting work. So I'd need to figure something out. Plenty of bicycle companies in Bellingham, of course. Maybe one of them needs an engineer...