Friends, Fun, and Food aka Oregon

I’ve been traveling a lot for fun this year. My goal for 2016 is one trip a month. This last weekend’s trip to Oregon was easily the best trip of 2016. The competition so far includes Miami, Thunder Bay, Costa Rica, Austin, and Colorado. Oregon was filled with friends, lots of fun, and tasty food.

I flew out to Oregon and took a shuttle down to Corvallis to meet up with Trobairitz and Troubadour. It has been too many years since we last had fun together. I first met them on my Everyday for 7 Weeks trip and we have been friends ever since.

Of course, before I left Portland, I had to grab some delicious food. This is the southwest bowl which went perfect with a marionberry cider.

Trobairitz was gracious enough to let me ride her Gladius, so Troubadour and I took off into the Oregon mountains for some two-wheeled fun. After trying on a combination of their gear, her helmet, my gloves, his boots, my buff, and his spare roadcrafter, I was ready to go. The flowers and butterflies on the helmet were cute; too bad they didn’t show up in photos.

The riding was magnificent despite the minor rain here and there. It is Oregon after all; rain is expected. The Gladius is very similar to my SV650 which made me feel very comfortable riding it.

Troubadour took me on a tour around the area stopping at Alsea falls and then we had a spirited ride up Mary’s Peak. So fun

On my last trip out, we ran out of daylight before we could ride up. It was great. The wildflowers blooming made it even better.

The top of Marys Peak ~4900 feet.

Afterwards, the three of us had a great lunch and then hung out at the local ciderhouse: 2 Towns. We played games and drank some low priced, delicious ciders. My favorite was the gingja ninja.

Troubadour about to win at corn hole.

On Saturday we attempted to eat all the food in Portland. It was a valiant effort, but we didn’t succeed. Did I mention it was delicious? We stopped to look at a few motorcycle shops in between stuffing ourselves. We had fun being silly.

Troubadour trying on a new helmet at the Vespa shop. What do you think?

We took turns drooling on the Ducati Scrambler down the street at Moto Corsa. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to ride it.

Vespas also make great wheelbarrows and flower pots. Who knew?

My last full day we met up with another friend who had just moved into the area from MN. It was nice to see her again and introduce her to T&T. After an enjoyable brunch, we headed to the coast for some more eye candy interspersed with some brief hiking.

I was gushing a bit on the drive out there. The mountains vistas and ocean views were beautiful. My camera hardly does them justice.

Me taking a picture of Trobairitz who is taking a picture of Troubadour who might have been taking a picture of me. More tasty food was had in Eugene on the way back from the coast. Yes, those are whole cloves of garlic. Yum!

It was a great trip! I ate entirely too much food; my scale must be lying as it said I gained six pounds?! I got to ride a motorcycle in the mountains and gawk at the ocean. The best part was being able to visit three awesome people. I can’t wait to go back to Oregon!

Everyday for 7 Weeks–Day 35–Corvallis to Brookings

We got a late start from Corvallis. We were having too much fun chatting with Trobaritz and Troubadour. They gave us the suggestion to take OR34 instead of 20 which the GPS wanted us to take. They said it was a favorite with local motorcyclists. I had gotten a small taste of it the night before on my ride with Troubadour. It was felt much more comfortable to ride it on my own bike. Traffic was light, so we enjoyed the tight corners and deeply cambered roads.

Several miles down the road there was some construction which turned the road into a one-laner. There was a 2008 blue SV650S sitting and waiting. We had a brief chat. When the flagger flipped the sign from stop to slow, he waved us in front saying he was really slow. Hah. He was sand-bagging for sure. He was quite competent in the 15-25 mile corners, but the faster more flowing 30-45s slowed him down. I prefer the more flowing corners to the tight technical ones when loaded down with luggage and a passenger.

We stopped for gas for the third and last time in Oregon, and I got a bit of a surprise. Oregon is like New Jersey in that you can’t pump your own gas. There is an exception for motorcycles, but the employee is supposed to take your card, put it into the pump, press the buttons, and then hand you the nozzle. The first two times I filled up, I didn’t see any employees and no one approached me. I had no idea. Which caused a bit of friction with the third stop.

I pulled up to an empty pump, and we started our routine. She gets off and holds the tank bag. I put the card into the machine and get gas. I was a bit slower as I was covered in rain gear, and had to remove some of it to get my card out. An older guy came over and said he was here to help. I told him I didn’t need any help can kept going. He wasn’t wearing a uniform or logo of the station; he had on a gray shirt. I tried to put my card in the machine, but he squirmed into the little gap between my bike and pump and blocked me.

“Let me do that for you” he said.

“I can do it myself” I said.

He took my card out of my hand and started pushing buttons.

“How much do you want to spend” he said.

“Full”

He pushed the enter key.

“Premium” he asked?

“Yes”

He handed me the pump and then began to lecture me on how it was supposed to be done in Oregon.

I find the forced “full service” model that Oregon and New Jersey have to be quite annoying. I am quite capable of doing it myself and have done so since I was able to drive. Maybe if I grew up in one of those states, it wouldn’t be so annoying as I would be used to it. It slows the whole thing down. If I wanted to chat, I’d pay inside and not at the pump. Being forced to have someone help slows the whole thing down. I guess every state has to have something goofy about it. I was a bit surprised by the whole thing.

We stopped for lunch in Waldport before continuing down the coast. Once we were on the road, we wished we had waited ten minutes as the scenery got much better.

The Oregon coast was just as gorgeous as it was described to us. The mostly misty/foggy day didn’t detract from it either. I found the fog flowing around the hills and large rocks added some drama to the scene. It kept the view from completely revealing itself and made you want just a little more. Lingerie for the ocean I guess. We will have to visit again to get another view as we didn’t get enough of it today. We would ride for a bit and the ocean would appear then the fog would take it away or a bend in the road would do the same. The pounding of the surf on the large rocks or the screech of a seagull let you know the ocean was near.

 

We saw some sea lions too.

A short ride on a forest service road revealed this:

We found a lighthouse on one of the roads

I want this sign in my yard!

Between Gold Beach and Brookings we saw some great scenery. It looks like it was photoshopped to me, but these are un-edited straight out of the camera. I barely have time to upload and write a post much less edit any photos on this trip. My slow netbook doesn’t help either. :)

We got a glimpse for just a few seconds before the fog engulfed the hill we were on.

This little stretch was the highlight of the day.

When we stopped in Brookings, the fog rolled in thick like the foam on a nice chai latte. It hid the sunset from us which was just as well. We were too tired to enjoy it, and instead curled up on the couch to watch a movie. We stayed at Ocean Suites. They had a large collection of DVDs to borrow, and that sounded really nice. Each of the “rooms” was a fully furnished one bedroom. It was very comfy and felt a little like home. We both commented that we’d like to come back and stay a week.

 

 

 

Day 35 Full Flickr Album

 

Today’s Route:

View Larger Map