Day 8

Well, I've offically been on the road a week now. The first five days I never really dried out. I spent Sat and Sunday in Tillamook waiting out a storm. I made my way down to Lincoln City today and I may have to hang here a second day as well. There is storm rolling in that will have 40 mph winds (head wind for me) with gusts of 60 mph. The wind is due to start tonight around mid night.

I gave up on camping. According to the Fed Ex lady I sent 26lbs of geear home today. I am traveling with pretty much only my clothes and break down stuff. Today was the most enjoyable day yet. Between lightening the load and spending nearly the whole day right on the coast and a touch of sunshine here and there it was pretty nice. Tonight (and possibly tomorrow night) I am in a beach side hotel in Lincoln City, OR. My room is on the third floor overlooking the breakers. It has a fireplace and a full kitchen. A steal for $59 a night. This hoteling is going to make my trip a lot more expensive but a lot more enjoyable as the riding goes not lugging so much gear. I'll be warm and dry each night too. I'm glad not to be lugging the gear. The hills/mtns are short but I added the climbs when I was at lunch today and I had climbed as much as climbing Independence Pass twice in 60 miles. That would be like climbing Massanutten from the guard shack about 4-5 times. I feel a lot safer riding by myself than I do camping by myself too. Can you see how I am justifying to myself why I'm spending so much money?

The coast is amazing! It still seems weird to me that there are mtns right on the ocean. Being an easterner the water country was always flat country. I saw some huge dunes today that people were running ATVs on. Sort of like Kitty Hawk but trees sticking up here and there in the dunes. Made me miss my dirt bike. Saw some surfers at Kiwanko (sp?) Cape. There were some cool rock formations there. Then the route turned inland for a few miles and I climbed this big hill. The trees were really huge and it was very wet back in there. No traffic either! I nice down hill later back to the ocean. You can hear it long before you can see it. I think that is one of the best parts of being on a bike for this stuff. You hear as much as you see. Well, my time is up on the computer for today. Still searching for a place to get these pics on!