I have so much material to share it's almost overwhelming. I hung out with Elephant seals in the wild, rode one of the finest motorcycle roads ever (Named La Honda road of course, seriously!). Escaped a thug in Tijuana, got my picture taken with a 50ft woman, and more. The trick has been by the time I get to where I'm headed and dump the files from the cameras I'm pretty well exhausted. I'm headed for the Salt Flats now, should be home in a few days, then I'll get this stuff up quickly. Stay tuned!
April 2009 Archives
Day two brought me from just south of the Canadian boarder to the western most point of the Olympic peninsula, Neah Bay. Then south to Humptulip, Wa and no, that is not a typo. I took some shots at Deception Pass and at the Port Townsend ferry dock:
I met some pretty interesting characters on day two. First a friendly toy Fox Terrier named "Goliath" and a fellow who claimed to have worked for US Army Intellegence and had more stories than a NY skyscraper.
He did tell me that the Korean conflict was due to US intrest in the sizeable tungstun deposits in South Korea and had nothing to do with, freedom, democracy, or any other noble pursuits. I plan to dig around and do some reasearch on this when I get home. He had many interesting tidbits that I want to look into further. We chatted, or rather he chatted for over an hour and I had simply stopped to take some pictures of the beach, go figure...The one thing I could not reconsile was how someone from an intellegence organization got to be so chatty, don't they dispose of those types with rather brutal efficiancy? I went out to Neah Bay after I left my new friend who now was a photographer from Arizona.
So I was making tracks down 101 making pretty good time when I passed a sign in the Olympic State Park that simply said "Ruby Beach". I flew past it and thought, no more pictures, make up some miles, but that little voice in my head kept nagging me to check it out, Finally I subcummed and fliped the bike around and as I pulled into the entry way this is what I saw:
So
How does a town come to the conclusion that Humptulips is a suitable name? It's just wrong on multiple levels.
I met some pretty interesting characters on day two. First a friendly toy Fox Terrier named "Goliath" and a fellow who claimed to have worked for US Army Intellegence and had more stories than a NY skyscraper.
He did tell me that the Korean conflict was due to US intrest in the sizeable tungstun deposits in South Korea and had nothing to do with, freedom, democracy, or any other noble pursuits. I plan to dig around and do some reasearch on this when I get home. He had many interesting tidbits that I want to look into further. We chatted, or rather he chatted for over an hour and I had simply stopped to take some pictures of the beach, go figure...The one thing I could not reconsile was how someone from an intellegence organization got to be so chatty, don't they dispose of those types with rather brutal efficiancy? I went out to Neah Bay after I left my new friend who now was a photographer from Arizona.
So I was making tracks down 101 making pretty good time when I passed a sign in the Olympic State Park that simply said "Ruby Beach". I flew past it and thought, no more pictures, make up some miles, but that little voice in my head kept nagging me to check it out, Finally I subcummed and fliped the bike around and as I pulled into the entry way this is what I saw: So
How does a town come to the conclusion that Humptulips is a suitable name? It's just wrong on multiple levels.Day three got a late start and consequently not a lot of miles. I did manage to make it to Karen's birth Mom's house and they treated me like a king. Great food, comfy place to sleep and great conversation. Thanks Barb and Bobby!
Day four got me well on my way down the Oregon Coast Highway but not without some equipment casualties. Apparently during a fuel stop I forgot to put my headphones back on and they worked their way down the side of the bike and ended up looking like this after dragging on the pavement at 60mph for an hour or so:
Hold on the story does not end there, with my best sounding headphones trashed I went with my backup set. These where really nice Shure noise isolating headphones and they sounded pretty good inside the helmet, not as comfortable as the newly departed Sony's, but a close second. Trouble is that these sit in the ear canal and have a soft silicone boot that seals the speaker to your head. Had they been designed to limit the amount of penetration into the ear that might have been ok, but my helmet rim managed to shove the left one all the way into my head and then became disconnected from the speaker leaving the silicone cup pressed against my ear drum. It was driving me CRAZY! I rode to Eugene, OR where I found a Primary Care Facility and the doctor there was kind enough to reach into my head with some forceps and yank that sucker out of there, the relief was indescribable. I'll be penning a Nastygram to Shure about these ear cups and see if I can't at least get them to cover the medical bill. Glad that's over with. Should be well into California tomorrow where i hope to see some friends in San Fransisco. Stay tuned!
Here are some shots of the Oregon Coast...
Day four got me well on my way down the Oregon Coast Highway but not without some equipment casualties. Apparently during a fuel stop I forgot to put my headphones back on and they worked their way down the side of the bike and ended up looking like this after dragging on the pavement at 60mph for an hour or so:
Hold on the story does not end there, with my best sounding headphones trashed I went with my backup set. These where really nice Shure noise isolating headphones and they sounded pretty good inside the helmet, not as comfortable as the newly departed Sony's, but a close second. Trouble is that these sit in the ear canal and have a soft silicone boot that seals the speaker to your head. Had they been designed to limit the amount of penetration into the ear that might have been ok, but my helmet rim managed to shove the left one all the way into my head and then became disconnected from the speaker leaving the silicone cup pressed against my ear drum. It was driving me CRAZY! I rode to Eugene, OR where I found a Primary Care Facility and the doctor there was kind enough to reach into my head with some forceps and yank that sucker out of there, the relief was indescribable. I'll be penning a Nastygram to Shure about these ear cups and see if I can't at least get them to cover the medical bill. Glad that's over with. Should be well into California tomorrow where i hope to see some friends in San Fransisco. Stay tuned!Here are some shots of the Oregon Coast...
Click here to see me starting off
Well I'm finally in it! It's almost surreal, I've wanted to do this trip for a very long time and it's really happening. I had not been further north than Sedro Wooley before today. The riding in the northern Cascades is spectacular. After crossing the boarder into Canada I tried scouting some banks to exchange some currency to cover my campsite, every one I checked was closed. I wasted an hour asking around and finally decided to get back to Washington and camp there, at least my money was good there. The last time I camped a site was $10 to $15 dollars a night, the KOA I stopped at was $38.50 AND the restrooms would not be open till May 1st. Plus there was no one working to check me in. I could believe they wanted that much money for a damp patch of ground. I thought about leaving but the sun was setting and the next place was 20 miles out, so I pitched my tent made some fried Spam and red beans and rice then crashed for the evening. the combination of my old mattress pad AND my 40+ skeletal system made for a poor nights sleep. It rained for a little while and the tent stayed dry so that was a success (I had waterproofed it the night before). The little camp stove I picked up has been great, Breakfast the next morning was eggs and bacon and it tasted great after a long night. I hope to replace the tent and the mattress pad before the end of the trip as the pad no longer holds air and the tent door has an issue with the door zipper, no fun when you have to pee at 4 in the morning. The sun rise proves to be spectacular over my little pond next to my site. The air is crisp and I get on the road by 8am.
Here is my campsite!
Here are some more stills:
Well I'm finally in it! It's almost surreal, I've wanted to do this trip for a very long time and it's really happening. I had not been further north than Sedro Wooley before today. The riding in the northern Cascades is spectacular. After crossing the boarder into Canada I tried scouting some banks to exchange some currency to cover my campsite, every one I checked was closed. I wasted an hour asking around and finally decided to get back to Washington and camp there, at least my money was good there. The last time I camped a site was $10 to $15 dollars a night, the KOA I stopped at was $38.50 AND the restrooms would not be open till May 1st. Plus there was no one working to check me in. I could believe they wanted that much money for a damp patch of ground. I thought about leaving but the sun was setting and the next place was 20 miles out, so I pitched my tent made some fried Spam and red beans and rice then crashed for the evening. the combination of my old mattress pad AND my 40+ skeletal system made for a poor nights sleep. It rained for a little while and the tent stayed dry so that was a success (I had waterproofed it the night before). The little camp stove I picked up has been great, Breakfast the next morning was eggs and bacon and it tasted great after a long night. I hope to replace the tent and the mattress pad before the end of the trip as the pad no longer holds air and the tent door has an issue with the door zipper, no fun when you have to pee at 4 in the morning. The sun rise proves to be spectacular over my little pond next to my site. The air is crisp and I get on the road by 8am.
Here is my campsite!
Here are some more stills:
Well as luck would have it the trip Karen and I had been planning since we rode west had the time table pushed up. While on a "temporary" furlough from work it made sense for me to sneak the trip in now and burn off some vacation time. Karen really wanted to go and I would have loved to have had her join me but it just wasn't in the cards this time around. I'm still packing so i'll keep this entry brief. The trip leaves from Marysville, WA tomorrow and heads north to the Canadian boarder then southwest to the coast in Washington and follows the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) all the way to Mexico. The route home is set to go through Las Vegas, NV and then up to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. I'll ride around the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake and head for home. Since this is largely an unplanned vacation the budget is tight so I'll be camping most, if not all, of the way. Here is a shot of the route, it's roughly 3,800 miles so we'll get those wings stretched out pretty good. I hope to complete and entry each day, internet connections and gods willing. I may have to compose entries and upload them in batches as resoaurces become available. I would love to hear your comments and suggestions so use the comment link to reach me.
