...with a subtitle of, "The Oregon
Coast". Yesterday would have been a long, painful day had it not
been for my girlfriend. She bought me a few things for my trip,
things I wouldn't have thought about but thankfully she did. One of those
things happened to be a plastic poncho. I said thank you and put
everything in my bag naively hoping that I wouldn't have to use most of it (she
bought me things that would keep me alive if I found myself alone in the
Alaskan wild....matches, tourniquet materials, etc. Great things to have
for a trip but the kind of things you don't want to need.) Anyways,
yesterday morning I loaded up my bike and hit the road, making a quick trip to
the gas station where I joked with the attendant about hoping that it didn't
rain that day. (By the way, Oregon is Full Service only...for motorcycles
it's a little strange. They have to start the pump and hand the nozzle to
you and then you do the rest. Weird.) Twenty minutes later I was in
a Rite Aid parking lot and it was pouring. Got my rain jacket on.
Got motocompy covered and in a dry spot. Oh, all of the stuff loaded on
the bike....hmmmm...enter girlfriend's poncho. So, anyways, thanks goes
out to her for that and for her help the rest of the day. I don't know if
you all noticed, but my post on the 28th was a little strange. I just
realized that I entitled it "July 28". A possible reason for this is that
I wasn't feeling that good when I made the post. A probable reason for me
not feeling good was that my meals for the day consisted of breakfast bar for
breakfast, breakfast bar for lunch, and breakfast bar for dinner. I was
probably a little dehydrated, too. My girlfriend explained that I should
probably have at least one real meal a day. I did that yesterday and, sure
enough, it worked. Lastly, she provided me with helpful info on camping
sites which I'm very grateful for because it landed me
here and this is a great
place.
Ok, so I'll begin with some quick catch-up from the previous day.
Here's a quick video from my drive through the Redwoods and my time at Crater
Lake, followed by some pictures from the day, including the lake and my first
campsite. GPS files here and here.
Yesterday was fun and relaxing. I made it back to the coast at Coos
Bay, OR, which seemed like a cool city. I stayed there long enough to eat
at Quiznos and buy some spandex pants (long story, but my legs were sticking to
my waterproof motorcycle pants) and then turned north to head up the Oregon
coast. The coast was beautiful and the drive was easy and
comfortable. I stopped in Tillamook and ate some ice cream which my
parents had told me was some of the best around...and it was. I checked
out their cheesemaking capabilities and they met with my approval. Grade
A, Tillamook. Well done. From Tillamook to Nehalem Bay State Park it
was a quick trip and I got here just as the sun was setting. I've been on
many beaches throughout the world but this one at sunset easily ranks in the top
three. It's absolutely gigantic, and the grass comes down onto the
dunes. Alright, well I need to break camp and head north. Apparently
Astoria is where they filmed Goonies and there's some spots I need to check
out. Pictures below: Oregon Dunes, Tillamook Cheese (with a
nonstandard pose for Chad...I had noticed the eerie cardboard cutoutedness of my
pictures, too), Nehalem Bay.
