2017 West Coast - The Pacific Ocean

Another goal met today: Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and now the Pacific Ocean. We are 4/6 done.

We left the motel, topped off the tank and started West on I 84 into Portland. Just miles down the road we hit traffic. It was the stop and go variety. Nothing worse than sitting in traffic, pulling a trailer, not really sure where your going. 

Downtown Portland has banked corner road surfaces, that we were stopped on. It's not good to be stopped, feet on the ground, on a banked road surface. Once moving again LoriAnn got onto the cell phone and guided me through all the turns.

LoriAnn travels with her cell phone in a water proof pouch that has a lanyard wrapped around her neck. She also has the camera on a lanyard. This makes her a great co pilot, navigator, and photo journalist.

We ran out of Portland on HWY 26 for about 30 minutes. Then we turned West on HWY 6. This was a excellent route thru the mountains and the Tillamook state  forest on winding roads. I highly recommend this route.

When we reached the city Tillamook, we crossed over the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH 101) and followed a county road along the coast until it joined with the PCH. Then we jumped onto the PCH and enjoyed the vista.

At Boiler Bay we stopped a took our first good look at the Ocean.

In Newport we stopped at the Chowder Bowl on Nyes Beach. Believe it or not we ate lunch before 1:30. LOL.  LoriAnn had chowder and fish tacos, I had fish and chips. A ☆☆☆☆☆ lunch stop.

Sine trip advisory is a vital tool on this trip, I have gotten used to rating the motel and restaurants we use.  I rate places good and bad. We have learned that not enough people post good or great comments. Most just rate a place when they ahve a complaint.

After lunch we walked around town and down to the beach. The wind was blowing so hard the beach had few visitors. We took a moment for a quick pic.

We cossed a lot of bridges. Passed through a couple tunnels. Saw numerous wildlife carved from logs. And pulled over at many overlooks. At one overlook, the wind was blowing so hard i had trouble keeping the bike upright. We heard the coast is getting 40 kph wind gusts.

We arrived in Reedsport where we are stopped for the night. The room is the cheapest of the trip.  The beds comfy, and the room is clean. We hiked into town a half a mile to another ☆☆☆☆☆ restaurant, Harbor Light! We started with Crab cakes.  LoriAnn had Pacific Snapper, and I had Pacific Salmon. And we ended with hot Marion Berry cobbler with ice cream. I'm afraid the 1/2 mile hike back to the room may not have been enough.

Today was a great day riding along the coast. Even with the wind. The cell coverage today was pretty good, the tracker maintained a good upload.