Everyday for 7 Weeks–Day 33–Portland

We woke up to an early breakfast. We are staying at a B&B in Portland, and the house smelled so delicious! So nice to wake up to a full breakfast made just for you. Our stay included free day passes for Portland’s great public transit system. We left the SV parked. The first day on the whole trip it didn’t move! It almost happened in Seattle, but then I needed a haircut.

We love riding, but sometimes dealing with the ATGATT gear when playing tourist can be a pain. Yes, we could have seen more city by riding, but we chose to experience it on the busses and trains instead. I think it is a nice way to get a feel for a place as a local.

We took the bus into the downtown area and walked around for a bit. We both wanted to visit Washington Park, so we hoped the first train heading that way. The park has a nice shuttle that runs around inside of it as well, so we didn’t have to hike between the different parts. It is a huge park. There are hundred of acres to explore. We made a bee-line for the Japanese Garden as it had come highly recommended by several people who know more about these things that us.

We caught one of the free tours just as we arrived and got some learning for the next four-five minutes or so. The tour was nice as it helped me appreciate some of the more subtle aspects of the park like where some of the stone came from. Why the paths were not straight for example, so the viewer spends more time looking around enjoying the park as the path twists and turns.

The park was a very relaxing and serene place. I could have easily spent all day there enjoying the calmness, but our stomachs were telling us it was time to go find food! We hoped the bus back into downtown and feasted on some tasty food before continuing to explore.

 

We didn’t get to see as much as we wanted and could easily spend a few more days here, but we got to get the taste we were hoping for on a very relaxed pace.

Mt Hood is just poking out of the clouds in the center.

 

Interesting mask

 

Interesting scoot

We liked this mural

and thought this sign was funny.

Thanks to everyone who has been sending me emails and leaving comments. I appreciate them even if I haven’t replied yet. It’s quite a lot of work just to get the posts and videos up. I do read all comments and will respond. :)

Tomorrow some blogger meetups!

 

Day 33 Full Flickr Album

 

thanks for the tip William, enjoy the video.

Video: Portland Japanese Gardens 

Everyday for 7 Weeks–Day 32–Long Beach to Portland

We awoke eager to leave Long Beach. There wasn’t anything wrong with it. We enjoyed the quiet and the ocean. We’ve been wanting to visit Portland for several years now, and were finally less than 100 miles away! However, we wouldn’t be getting there until much later in the day. A small crisis with the bike was discovered in the morning while loading up.

I found a small, but alarmingly large crack in the tubing of my luggage rack on the left side. This was not what broke earlier, but something else. Half the tube was still clinging on, so I splinted it up with a pile of zip ties and a tire iron. I put some feelers out for a welder further down the road, and then set off. We followed 101 again further south.

At 11:28 it happened. We crossed into Oregon over the Columbia River.

 

The 48th state in the US I’ve been to, and one I’ve been wanting to visit for some time. We had heard Oregon was awesome; now it was time to see for ourselves!  We got glimpses of the ocean through trees and houses, but not a clear view until we reached Seaside, OR.

While riding through town, I saw a sign for “Welding, Repair, and Fabrication”. I quickly made a u-turn and went back. It was a large operation that did all sorts of work. I chatted with the staff. They thought they could fix it after looking at it, but there was a catch. All of the guys just went to lunch. What to do but wait. I asked if where the beach was, and was directed a few blocks down the road. We headed straight there and enjoyed a quick picnic on the beach. It was very peaceful. There was one person off to the left about a 1/2 mile away and one person to the right about the same distance.

After lunch we headed back. I stripped the bike of luggage, and I removed the zipties holding things together. Dellwin was the welder assigned to work on my bike, and he helped me wheel it back to “his lair”. He had a couple ideas how to fix it, and sent me off to “put my feet up and wait”. There were worse places to wait. It was nice to get caught up on some emails and phone calls during the hour he was fixing the rack. He said it took more time to remove the powder coating than it did to weld up the tubing and add a support.

An hour later it was all fixed. He had repainted it black. He figured it broke because when it was fully tight the support was pulling on the inside of the tubing. He put in a 1/8 spacer which relieved the strain. We both guessed that when it was repaired last in Dawson Creek, the frame tab was bent in slightly requiring the luggage bracket to strain ever so slightly. The thousands of miles of bumpy roads took their toll. The luggage it much lighter now too as all of my camping gear was sent home in Seattle. The repair cost $80; half the price of the rack and top case. We were back on the road.

 

This shot shows the spacers (washers) he added to relieve the stress on the joint between the vertical and horizon piece.

I guess this is the three years of trouble free trips making up for lost time. It was a good day to have and deal with the problem. We had time, and help was easily found.

Dellwin also taught us how to pronounce Oregon. According to him, it is Ore-gun not Ore-gone.

We took 26 towards Portland it was sort of scenic and it carved up and down some hills and through some forests. By 3pm, we made it to the outskirts of Portland and rush hour. The afternoon traffic became thicker the closer we rode to the city center. We crawled through town in first gear waiting for our exit to appear.

We had found a convenient B&B and were eager to check in. We wanted to start exploring the town. The motorcycle was parked and luggage removed. We briefly thought about riding around the town, but both of us agreed walking would be nicer. We found  a nice place to eat a few blocks away, and then wandered around. It was nice.

Portland is very bicycle friendly. We saw lots of places to park them like this

Several cool looking houses too.

 

Tomorrow, more Portland.

 

Day 32 Full Flickr Album

 

Video: Broken Rack in Seaside

 

 

Today’s Route:

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Everyday for 7 Weeks–Day 31–Port Townsend to Long Beach

We woke up early so we could have breakfast with family in Port Townsend. While at breakfast, I received a tweet from Richard; He said to say hi to his uncle, Carl, who had moved there from Minneapolis. Our new friends Max happened to know Carl. Small world indeed. How many more places will I run into Richard’s family? This is the third now! Small world indeed.

The first café we tried to eat at was closed for the holiday, so we ended up at a popular place downtown. The service was very slow. From the time we walked in until the time we had food in our mouths was an hour! Yikes. Fortunately, we weren’t paying too much attention to the clock as we were busy catching up. Since breakfast turned into lunch, the art gallery next door had opened up. It belonged to Max. We stopped in to pay him a visit. He was getting ready for a sculpture show in a few days, but took the time to show us some of his work. Cool stuff.

With all the visiting, we left Port Townsend much later than we “planned”. I put planned in quotes since we aren’t planning much on this trip. We are mostly making it up as we go. We are primarily directed to places with tasty food or friendly people. Good scenery is nice too. We like making things up without much planning. Then you can stay if you like it or leave if you don’t. You aren’t ever late as you don’t have anywhere to be. I know not all of you could travel without extensive plans, routes, and reservations, but it works for us.

We enjoyed the time spent with family in Port Townsend.

Saggy bottom rain gear. It’s the latest style!

We got on US-101 and just followed it around the coast. We were unsure where we’d end up for the night, but were thinking it might be Hoquiam.

Crescent Lake didn’t disappoint.

The road followed the peninsula around until we hit the Pacific Ocean on the west. The views we were waiting for all year finally arrived. We saw the sign for Ruby Beach and pulled in. It didn’t disappoint. It was big and blue. The skies cleared up and the temperature rose. We had been riding in 50F and rain most of the day until this point. We loved Ruby Beach. The towering trees, giant rocks, crashing waves, and heaps of drift large wood. We liked it all.

Our first glimpse of the Pacific together. A short hike later, we were on the beach.

We lingered on the beach for a while.

101 followed the coast a bit further before turning inland again. I missed the turn off for 109, so we stayed on 101 heading right back into the rain. bleh. It only lasted a few minutes and the road turned again right back for the coast.

Hoquiam was described to us over brunch as “a very blue collar town”. After we arrived, we started laughing. That was the nicest way to say crap town I’ve heard. We took one look at the town and said no way. Calling it blue collar is an insult to blue collar. It looked like a dump. Maybe we missed the good parts, but we didn’t see anything that made us want to explore further. We got back on 101 and went south.

There had to be somewhere nicer – preferably with an ocean view. We looked at the map, and Long Beach sounded good, so we went there. It was quiet as almost everyone left to return home for work Tuesday. Nice! We were the only people in our 42 room motel. We would have eaten on the beach, but we were both cold. We enjoyed watching the sun set over the beach while we ate dinner. It was quiet; the only noise after dark was the sound of the ocean.

For more gratuitous ocean pics, click through to the full flickr album below.

 

Day 31 Full Flickr Album (61 pics)

 

Today’s Route:

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Everyday for 7 Weeks–Day 30–Olympia to Port Townsend

We barely made the noon checkout. Between trying to sleep in and lazing around, we were moving at a snail pace. We had intended to go out for breakfast but it turned into lunch instead.

We like the rules at the café

After lunch we headed north on US-101 towards Port Townsend 97 miles north. The weather was warmer than most of my trip, but cooler than the past couple days. I was a bit cold in my mesh riding gear, but again the heated coat came to my rescue.

While I enjoyed the twists and turns of the road, my wife was enjoying the view of the Hood Canal and all the flowers. We saw brief glimpses of the mountains far in the distance, and they remained that way throughout the day.

Random statue on the side of the road:

Lots of flowers blooming:

My wife couldn’t get enough of them. Taking photos with class – both pinky’s out! hehe.

They were very beautiful and we both enjoyed looking at the. This stuff is called Scottish Broom. It is an invasive species and is doing a good job taking over the countryside. The roads are covered with them.

Port Townsend is a small town of 7,000 people in the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula. It was out destination. Our new friend Max told me that in 1896 it had more residents than Seattle, but never took off. Many of the downtown’s old buildings didn’t have the top floors finished until recently. It is a charming little town with a very strong art community. There are lots of activities happening from music, art, and movie festivals. If you were retired, you MIGHT have enough time to do it all. We enjoyed our time in Port Townsend visiting family, and we hope to come back soon.

We saw a movie in their historic Rose Theater. It was called The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. A British comedy about retiring in India. The director chose to film most of it with hidden cameras and cameras on vehicles to capture the chaos of colors and sound that is India. He did a great job. The acting was well done as well. We both enjoyed it.

We had a cute room with a great view of the harbor. We fell asleep listening to the waves.

 

 

 

Day 30 Full Flickr Album

 

Today’s Route:

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Video: Day 30 – To Port Townsend