Motorcycling into the Sunset: Day 8: Bullards Beach State Park, near Brandon, Oregon (Parental discretion advised.)

Day 8: Bullards Beach State Park, near Bandon, Oregon

Distance for the day: 59.3 km

Cumulative distance: 1,485.7 km

Top speed: 102 kph

Moving average: 35 kph

Temperature: 5.8 - 19.0

We had a great day of being tourists. The turkeys had us awake at 6:30 am and i was praying that one of the neighbour dogs would rush out there and waylay those birds. I'm certain that they walked between our tent and the neighbour's tent and the neighbours have two dogs. All I heard was snoring. Some of it from the dogs. None of it from the turkeys. What I did hear from the turkeys, everybody in the campground heard. It's isn't really "gobble, gobble". That is a cheap imitation of how they really sound. It really sounds more like "GET THE F*CK OUT OF BED!!!" At 6:30.

Make sure you look at this video of 34 seconds

of Face Rock. It took about 15 minutes to upload.

Being up early, we got out of bed and were on the road by 7:45 am. YES, AM. We went to Bandon, which we have determined, is short for "Abandoned". However, their most redeeeming feature is a little coffee shop called Bandon Coffee House and we were making our second apperance on this trip. Likely the second of three. Great coffee, great food, if simple and very popular, as there is always a line up, any time of day. At least, that we have been there. I'll endeavour to get a picture from inside for tomorrow's post.

Murres

After lattes and a breakfast sandwhich, we did the tourist thing, which consisted of riding around town, along the coast, looking at the houses and gardens and then we stopped at a couple of viewpoints which gave us access to specatular views of the beaches and waves. At Face Rock, referenced in the above video, we were riding along the main road and as we approached the entrance to Face Rock parking, we were waved in by a volunteer at the entrance KEEPING CARS OUT. She shouted at us something about "...more people ride motorcycles..." or something. Then I saw the parking lot, which was full, and I understood why and what she was shouting about. We had no idea what was going on at Face Rock but here we were. There were wildlife volunteers

"Crop circles in the sand being investigated by paranormal researchers, as they do every Sunday morning.

with spotting scopes trained on the rock formations just off shore and we looked at large numbers of murres, which are black and white birds. I don't know their occupation but the prime target this day was for puffins. One had been spotted before we arrived. None while there. But hundreds, if not thousands of murres, which in their own right, were interesting appeared in a huge gathering on the near by rock formations.

Carrying on, we went further down the coast road looking at more houses and yards. We saw a bicycler who had been camping in our campground. Clearly, he was following us. We passed through a gully with warning signs about passing while water was in the gulley. We just thought that meant when there was a storm or a tsunami. There was water in the gully while we were there on this beautiful, sunny spring day. We didn't even have Water Wings.

When we got back to the campground, we showered, for a change, then, with fresh clothes, went for a great walk to the beach with pinic provisions we had picked up while in town. This included a side stop at the local lighthouse, which, while decomissioned, made for a great stop. The building was falling apart but there were two volunteers, husband and wife, in there manning the gift shop. $50 hoodies and $25 T-shirts (US) produced by the state of Oregon. We didn't buy any.

After our walk to and along the beach, we returned to the campground and shelled out for the meanest bundle of fire wood for $7. And a dollar for a fire starter puck made of cedar shavings. The puck burned great but the wood was nasty and had it not been for our friendly neighbours sending over a piece of decent firewood in the hands of their 3 year old, we would never have had a fire.

I'm going to let the pictures tell the rest of the story.