Day 5: More Maintenance

Day 5: Lincoln City, Oregon  

Distance for the day:  4 km

Cumulative distance: whatever

Top speed: 2 kph

Moving average:  2  kph

Temperature range:  around 12 or 13 

Pretty laid back day. Did a walk on the beach after getting a latte and burrito at a near-by espresso bar. We met (accosted) a patron getting breakfast and Nan asked her if we could take her picture.

The bike looks pretty lonely this morning by all the murals in the parking lot of the Anchor. However, with the Memorial Day weekend this weekend the Anchor is full, along with any kind of accomodation but we did manage to find camping at a state park down the highway by taking Friday night in one spot then we have to move to another for the following four. Small incovenience, after looking at a few campgrounds that were fully booked. 

Apparently, not everybody
here is a Trump fan.

We are in the Anchor Inn restaurant for dinner and hockey tonight. The restaurant is open only on Thursdays and weekends. And everybody here (staff) all do a couple of jobs. The bartender did our food prep as well as served us wine. We initially ordered salads with chicken but she tells us that the lettuce is not up to snuff so we order pizza instead. The pizza - pulled pork - comes with cole slaw on top and our bartender tells us the cole slaw is not up to snuff. We are not stressed about it. I've befriended a young man who works here (Joseph) and he is the duty manager, cleans rooms, fixes stuff and he mentioned to me earlier today that he may end up cooking tonight (he dodged that bullet). AND, he also rides a KLR. We talk extensively about bikes.

We are the only patrons sitting in here, which we find a little surprising especiallly given how much busier the motel is tonight. It's o.k., we have the best seats to watch the game. We have to decide if we are going back to our room to watch the 3rd period so that the staff can go home.

You can see that the place isn't too big: 12 seats. But it's sweet.

Oilers up 2-1 after two periods.

Day 4: Maintenance Day

Day 4: Lincoln City, Oregon  

Distance for the day:  4.0 km

Cumulative distance: whatever

Top speed: 2 kph

Moving average:  2  kph

Temperature range:  around 12 or 13 but unknown for sure

We are staying at the Anchor Inn in Lincoln City. This is a budget motel but with wonderful, quirky charm. When we saw the weather yesterday, we looked for a place a suitable distance from Centralia (we have come to the conclusion that there really can't be an incorporated town called "Centralia", it is just an area in the midst of a network of roads around a spot on the interstate; we have said the name to several people and it means nothing to them). We were pretty excited to roll into the gravel parking lot. We were debating about whether we had gone further yesterday or the day before. Turns out it was 50 fewer km than the prior day but it felt like 50 or more kms than the prior day. We ended up in bed early and slept late this morning.

There is no real front desk per se here, once they have your money, they send a link to an app and the app will open the door to the room. We go straight to our assigned room and we can't get the app to work.  After fussing for a few minutes, we have to go to The Red Phone which is in a phone booth in the common area and speak to the manager. She looks like she has been through this drill before and is probably thinking "dumb foreigners" but she is good natured about it. She holds my phone to the key pad and turns it 90 degrees and the lock immediately releases. I ask for some rags to wipe off the panniers, which I like to do so I am not bringing in so much road dirt into the motel room and she takes us to the room next door, which is an ammenities room. Inside there is a free washer and dryer, laundry soap, dryer sheets, hundreds of dvds, ice, Kuerig coffee maker, plenty of coffee pods, extra towels, extra quilts, tooth brushes, tooth paste, razors, ear plugs and towels marked "dog towels" which are also suitable for panniers. 

The hotel is old, having built in the 1940s. There are two strips of "cabins" flanking the

common area, which is a large patio with several fire tables and assorted rhododendrons, cow lillies and other foliage. The cabin has two beds, a king and a queen and the queen is in a tiny little room at the back. There is a Keurig, microwave, fridge coffee cups, wine glasses, plates and cutlery.  Walls look paper thin of the old varished wood style common of the era. But it is quaint and the owners have done a good job making an old dog do new tricks.

The rain has largely stopped this morning, though there is the occasional smattering of rain drops before noon. When that lets up, we go for a walk to the beach, which isn't that

far but there are homes all along the top of the cliff and we have to walk a ways to get to a public beach access. The surf is somewhat dramatic with the heavy weather that has been around and we spot numerous seals lounging on a sand spit in the bay.

After our beach walk, we are walking by a local brew pub and decide to go in for a beer. Somehow, it is not what I expected but Nan says it is exactly as she expected. To me, a craft brewery is usually a little bit Bohemian, decorative, trendy or that sort of thing but this place is just a tavern that makes its own beer. Dark, pool tables, TVs with sports, dollar bills stapled to the ceiling and the

owner is walking around dressed like he has been in the brewery making beer. 

We perch ourselves at a high top table and Nan excuses herself for a few minutes. While she is away, a gal probably around our age, who has seen Nan, comes and sits beside me... uncomfortably close. I have my arms on the back of the bench and this gal sits and is pressed right up against me. Then her hand is on my thigh. And she is staring deeply into my eyes, telling me I am for her and she is for me for all time.  Nan is coming back to the table and sees there is a "situation" and I am thinking one of us, either this gal or me, is going to get punched out. Since my hand is behind the gal I signal to Nan that "we have a situation". Nan sits beside me. At first, it doesn't seem too serious and Nan is trying to talk to her (to find out what is going on) but it is clear that there is something wrong, so Nan again excuses herself and talks to the staff and somebody comes and asks our interloper for her attention, ultimately asking her to leave. My honour is saved.

We have a couple of pints then are on our way, resolving to come back for dinner because the menu looks pretty good for a tavern. When we do return a couple of hours later, the staff tell us that our "friend" returned after we left and they ended up having to call the police to escort her away. It was more sad than anything. I got the sense that she had possibly confused me for her husband but she was certainly confused.

Drying boots.

 Emergency rations provided by
the Anchor Inn: a S'mores kit,
which we ate after dinner.

Day 3: Misery

Day 3: Lincoln City, Oregon  

Distance for the day:  370.8 km

Cumulative distance: 1,157.5 km

Top speed: 111 kph

Moving average:  72  kph

Temperature range:  10.2 -13.0

It was a challenging day. It was raining hard when we got up and didn't let up until we 

Gearing up for departure.

were a half hour out of Lincoln City, and that was for at most, five minutes. Despite wearing rain suits over our motorcycle clothes, including rain covers over my riding gloves, we were both wet. Our feet, our gloves, our chests and our posteriors. It seems this rain gear just wasn't cut out for this kind of rain. Our leather boots are soaked through; I guess that is no surprise. It was ironic that a riding friend of mine this morning posted a message about buying boot covers this past week. In anticipation of the bad riding conditions, we foregoed yet another night of camping and judging by the looks of it, might be for several more days. With this weekend being Memorial Day, we will still likely to be o.k. finding accomodations in this weather.

We left the motel beside Interstate 5 felling satisfied that we had lucked on a budget motel that was amazingly clean and with a super comfortable bed. On the road about 10:20, we had the usual gremlins to dispense within about 20 minutes. Mainly, getting the GPS positioned better so that I could see the dash, understanting what it was trying to tell me and getting our electric vests connected to that we could hopefully stay warm. 

Our first stop was in Raymond, almost at the coast. With the GPS settings set to avoid the interstate highways, especially on a day like to day when we would have been completely sprayed down with water from other vehicles, let alone rain, Nonetheless, we were having trouble making sense of the GPS instructions because we were so close to the interestate that, in a fit of defeat, I said I was just going to jump on the interstate to get us to our turnoff. It couldn't be more than a few km away anyway, so how bad could it get?Fortunately, we didn't have to test it because we found the correct road which bypassed the interestate.

As it turned out, we were actually retracing some steps from the previous day, and this allowed Nan to get this cool shot! a large forest of trees - aspens or poplars - planted for miles in tidy, even rows. It was not clear to us if they had been planted for later
harvesting or by design to satisfy some strange compulsion.

Raymond, an hour out from our prior night's stay, was a welcome relief. We were still dry  at this point but it was clear we were in for a slog.  We were hungry, too, as all we had eaten the day before was the enchilada soup and the salad for lunch, then a bag of peanuts and a can of wine each for dinner. Still a long way to go to lose the sins of our first day! Hope to get that done before the end of the trip! So we each had an omlette for lunch: minimal carbs and loads of protein! (And a cookie for the road. Can't be too pure!)

Meat omlette at the Hungry Heifer

Astoria-Megler Bridge. At the other end,
(5km away) the bridge rises to a huge are with enough room for cargo ships to cross.

It was pretty much just a day of endless riding in the rain. We stopped for gas with about an hour to go and after that, it just couldn't be done soon enough. All we saw was rain and fog. Very little of the coast line, sadly, especially because riding down the coast was one of Nan's requests. Probably the best thing we saw was the Astoria-Megler Bridge where famed Hwy 101 crosses from Washington to Oregon where the Columbia River finds its way into the Pacific Ocean.

Arriving at our destination in Lincoln City, we were thriled to find out accomodation super cute and very quaint. Built in the 1940s, it was set up for families with fire pits, (wood, electric and gas), croquet, even a complimentary s'mores kit in the room. Also very thankful that we had the foresight to book two nights, which will give our gear a chance to dry out.

Day 2

 Day 2: Centralia, Washington

Distance for the day: 419.6 km

Cumulative distance: 786.7 km

Top speed: 122 kph

Moving average: 76  kph

Temperature range: 13.8 - 29.2  

Outgoing weight update: 169 lbs. (estimated, after all that Mexican food yesterday)

Welcome to Wenatchee. 

Whew! we survived the invasion of Mexico yesterday. Get this: before the trip we each thought, SILENTLY and INDEPENDENTY, that we wouldn't go food crazy on this trip and keep it under control. DAY ONE, complete and utter failure. 

This morning, Nan fetched Starbucks lattes and we did manage to eat some motel breakfast: yogurt and raisin bran. We gave the waffles, sausages, toast, biscuits and gravy a miss. 

We had tried to get a room here but they were full.

Got a reasonable start without being in a hurry. Bike was loaded by 9:10 am and we were out of there. For about a minute. Then Nan asked me if I had the camera. I said "no" but I knew I brought it out to the bike. So we went around a large block and returned to the motel and where we had parked the bike. Looked around the spot (under the canopy at the front entrance) but didn't see it so Nan jumped off to have a look. There it was, on the bike seat behind her butt! Back on the bike and on the way out of town, with only two more stops: one to get gas and the other to sit in the sun while a broken down vehicle trapped traffic in the downtown. That was about 15 minutes. So by the time we had made all those stops, we had gone 3 km... in about an hour.

Yakima River

We were treated to some stellar riding, once we finally got out of Dodge.  Twisty but not gnarly, excellent pavement, along rivers providing outstanding scenery and then through the Cascade mountains. Sadly, we didn't get much of a view of Mt. Rainier as it had clouded in and threatending rain by the time we were in the neighbourhood but we were still treated to great scenery.

Tieton River

White Pass,  elevation about 4200'. There
was lots of snow along the side of the road.

Our only view of Mt. Rainier.

We stopped in Morton for a late lunch and had salads. And enchilada soup, which was outstanding.  We had managed to find our way to the back of town and avoided a roadside Mexican restaurant (no offense), prefering to find a place oriented to locals. We were richly rewarded, especially with the soup. We whined to the owner, who was wearing a Seattle Kraken t-shirt, that in about an hour we woud be looking for a sports bar so that we could watch game 7 of the Edmonton - Vancouver series. (Woo hoo!)

We rode the last 75 km to Centralia and checked into a roadside motel. I asked if there was internet (yes) TV (yes), ESPN (unknown) and if there was a bar within walking distance. Turns out there was ESPN on the cable package so we elected to stay in house to watch the Oilers and Canucks finish off the series. 

Watching the Oil win game 7 in our room with spicy peanuts and finest canned red wine.

Day 1: Wenatchee

 Day 1: Wenatchee, Washington

Distance for the day: 367.1 km

Cumulative distance: 367.1 km

Top speed: 117 kph

Moving average: 78 kph

Temperature range: 14.8 - 24.8

Outgoing weight: 159 lbs. (not saying who!)

We woke up without an alarm today, determined to operate on "holiday time" and not be in too much of a rush for the sake of rushing. Even though we had packed our panniers yesterday, they still had to be mounted and all the extraneous rocket launchers - tent, sleeping bags, shoe bag and sleeping matts strapped to the tops. Also, we had to do a little tidying around the house because a friend of ours is moving in for the duration of our absence and we wanted to give her a clean slate. 

We were loaded by 9, on the road at 10:15. Because Nan had not been this way, we rode

Nan, ready to roll.

down 3A through Keremeos so that I could introduce her to the Nighthawk border crossing as it is a much prettier, fun ride on the motorcycle versus 97 straight through from Osoyoos to Oroville.

We were fortunate not to encounter inclement weather at all down to the 3A turnoff, though once we were heading to Karemeos, we kept hitting patches of rain soaked tarmac but didn't get rained upon at all. Through Keremeos, we were saddened to see the state of the vineyards

Vines, decimated by the cold
snap in January.

in the area. We are fans of wines of the Keremeos area and all the vines were all either dead or cut down to the root stock. I fear for the Okanagan wine industry and all the related businesses.  It will be bleak for several years and only the strongest will survive.

The Nighthawk border crossing is a small, little used crossing west of the 97 crossing. The pavement is good on the Canadian side but almost like gravel on the U.S. side. We rolled up to the stop light at the crossing and waited for the border guard to wake up from his slumber due to the bike going over the signal strand (like you used to see at gas stations in the days when your gas would get pumped for you). We sat for a few minutes before the light changed to green - there were no other vehicles for many kilometres - and we entered the covered portion where we were greeted by the U.S.'s finest.

 

I had trouble to get the bike in a good postion to stand without being tippy; with the weight of two people and gear for many weeks, the suspension is a little compressed and the bike sits low, so there is less lean on the side stand. I mention to the border guard that I would like to get the bike into a better position but the guard tells me lots of bikes come through there and they are all good so I will be, too. Then, he is giving us the Third Degree about coming through the Nighthawk crossing. This is my second time through and because it is such a lonely crossing, they all think that people crossing there must be trying to get away with something. He asks us twice if we are packin'. He also asks if we are carrying any alcohol. I say "no" but Nan blushes but doesn't say anything. After we are on our way, Nan tells me I lied to the guard. Whaaaat? She is such a bad ass! Apparently, we ARE carrying alcohol! I tell him we chose this crossing because of the beauty of the ride and my motivation to bring my wife that way.  That seemed good enough for him.

It is noon and we are in Oroville looking for lunch. Only place we see open is Rancho

Very colourful.

Grande, a Mexican restaurant on the main drag through town.  We park out front and go in and there is one other person and she is leaving with her leftovers. It's a bit gaudy inside but we get seated in a front facing booth so that we can see the bike, and get treated to the "best" table mural in the house. We both had a look around at the other tables and there is no question that there is no comparison. 

This will help you enjoy
your lunch!

The food is surprisingly good and that a two hour motorcycle ride with some friends would be totally worth a dedicated trip. Portions are generous, price is reasonable and the food is enjoyable. Can't comment on the quality of drink, I'm afraid. Motorcycles and booze don't mix. But not according to the person serving us. 

Quesadilla, normal size.

Pretty easy ride all the way to Wenatchee. There was a fairly strong crosswind but nothing onerous. Rode by a series of radio dishes quite large near Brewster and we learned later that one is associated with the Very Long Baseline Array, a series of ten 25 metre radio telescopes spread across 8,000 km of American soil (including Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands). The large number spread over such a vast distance allows for much higher resolution of astronomical radio images. There was also a collection of smaller radio dishes used for... radio. 

Burrito, super sized, apparently.

For our first night, we are motelling it. Off and on weather all day led us to seek shelter under cover and not exposed to the elements. We are saving that for the summer weather. We were thirsty and tired when we checked into the motel and we decided that a beer would go down nicely so we walked over to the nearest restaurant to our motel and, sure enough, Mexican! But the place was deserted and didn't look in very good order so we decided to keep walking. The next place we came to was a km up the road and looked busier from the outside so we opted to go in and discovered... Mexican! Well, it was the beer we really wanted and if we had dinner there, we were honouring our Mexican relatives. Sadly, the food was half as good for twice the money that we had at lunch time. But the beer was great!

Someone is having
too much fun!

Preamble

Welcome to our latest motorcycle blog Motorcycling into the Sunset. That sounds like it has a certain sense of finality to it but that is not by design; I just happened to notice that that is how Nan had recorded our departure date in the calendar. 

As with many of our motorcycle trips, this one was years in the making. Prior to retirement, I had dreamt of riding all around the U.S., with a goal of hitting each corner of the continental U.S. (amongst other ambitious rides). After the Riding with my Friends solo motorcycle tour of September 2023, which was in fact a "test ride" for this trip, I realized that a circumnavigation of the entire U.S. might be just a little over-ambitious. The result is a scaled back ride that we can do in under a couple of months rather than the entire summer. Maybe future trips will take us to those other parts but for this journey, we will stick to the western side of the continent.  

First layer, top case.

The timing of this scaled back trip was planned so as to beat the heat of the south and the busy roads that come with summer driving holidays. I went for a ride around here last Sunday and it reached a scorching 35+ degrees and I thought that I may have misjudged the timing as, if it is that warm here, what is it going to be like in Arizona in a few weeks? Today, Saturday May 18th, the day before departure, it is a whopping 10 degrees and the snow level is down to 1200 metres. If we were traveling west first, then we would have been trapped here in the valley. Fortunately, a few days ago, we made the decision to go towards Yakima, then west. Looks like I DID misjudge the timing! 

Third layer, top case.

Second layer, top case.

It has been a few years since we have done a BIG tour together and we are having a little trouble deciding what clothing is going to make the cut into our limited space. I always say to Nan, "you can take anything you want, just as long as it fits in your pannier". We each get one. On one trip we were riding to Tofino and she couldn't squeeze her rain gear in her pannier. I said to her "you can't go to the west side of Vancouver Island without rain gear", so somehow, by taking a few things out of my pannier, I was able to pack her rain gear. Turns out that she didn't have room because she had cans of red wine! (Oh, for the record, it was sunny our entire time in Tofino.) Now, with the cooler weather, we are trying to load up clothing for two seasons: mid-summer and mid-winter. shorts, tanks, sandals, heavy gloves, heated vest and jacket, hoodies. We will have it all. 

Interestingly, she hasn't had too much trouble to get her clothes into her pannier. I had more trouble and in fact, I had to have her help to decide what I should jettison in order to get my pannier closed. She came up with the great idea of ditching my shaving bag and throwing all my meds bottles, toothpaste, razor, soap and hand cream into my pannier loose, so that it could fill up all the nooks and crannies.

What we THINK we are taking.

The other big aspect of this trip is that we have little in the way of an agenda. I have sketched out a route on the back of an envelope only as a guideline to where we might find something to see. First, we are going to ride southwest. Then we are going to ride south. Then we are going to ride east. Then north. That pretty much covers it. Hopefully, we will hit some highlight spots along the way in Arizona and

Packed! I had to take my shaving kit out.

New Mexico.  We will be back this summer, not sure when, but in the interim I will send out one or two reminders to check out our recent pictures. Oh, and this time we hope to stop more often and stay places longer rather than always being on the move. See the back of the envelope HERE. No promises, though.

We invite you and welcome you to post your comments. Keep in mind that we likely cannot respond directly to you as that has failed in the past. In addition, we cannot identify who is posting unless you have a Gmail account so please, put something in your post to help us to know who is telling us where to go! (on our travels.) 

Thanks for following the blog. 

Howie

Update ALREADY! Oilers beat the Canucks tonight, so we will be looking for a sports bar Monday night!