June 29: Hooray for Girlfriends

…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.