Tonight it’s Oregon! Although we’re barely over the state line and are at mile marker 0 for Highway 101 – more commonly known as the Pacific Coast Highway.
Before we were even out of town this morning we had confirmed our re-entry into the USA by stopping at Mickey D’s for our free goodies on Mocha Monday. Neither of us can pass up a freebie and I have to admit their free iced mocha was pretty tasty. Then we went to Burl’s favorite place – Wally World – to pick up a few staples. There’s nothing like Wally and Mickey to let you know you’re back home.
We hadn’t been on an interstate highway for well over a week and I’d forgotten how much I hate all the noise – but sometimes it’s the only direct route. We sped through Seattle as evidenced by this shot I got from the back of the motorcycle.
Seattle Space Needle
So far I’ve taken almost 600 photos (net after erasing all the duds!) and the majority of them have been taken while we’ve been moving.
We might have stopped in Seattle but we were on a mission to see Mt. Rainier National Park and wanted to maximize our time there and still get to the coast. Burl had visions at the start of the day of also going to Mt. St. Helens but one look at the map verified that we couldn’t do it all and Mt. Rainier won out.
Mt. Rainier
We got to the park around 1:00 and found a great place for our daily picnic. Then we drove up the tree-lined road to the Information Center where we saw a fascinating video about the park and toured the museum. The mountain is so fascinating to see from the different angles and we were intrigued by the entire park which also featured a natural rain forest at the lowest level – lots of ferns and wetlands.
After we determined Mt. St. Helens was a no-go we regrouped and decided to head for Astoria, OR on the coast. For once Burl opted to allow the GPS to get us here even though he didn’t always agree with Ms. GPS or his co-rider who was following along on a map – but the GPS voice and I won out and we made it.
For the second day in a row we ignored our cardinal rule of having a place to stay by noon but we lucked out and found a great little local motel with friendly owners who plied us with maps and ideas for our trip tomorrow.
Sunset in Astoria, OR where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean
We had dinner and then walked along the riverfront waiting for this beautiful sunset. Since we’ll be turning left (east) tomorrow from the 101, we won’t have another opportunity to see a Pacific Ocean sunset on this trip.
We had a team meeting this evening and decided we basically screwed up when we were <100 miles from Yellowstone Park and didn’t go there. At that stage of the trip, we were more concerned with our Alaskan adventure and instead of planning each leg, just assumed we’d pick up Yellowstone on the way back.
But – tonight we took a good look at the map and figured out getting to Yellowstone will now take a couple of days since it’s not easy to get there from here and then head southeast to home.
The game plan now is to go a couple of hundred miles down the 101 and then east through Oregon, across part of Idaho, into Utah where I can see Burl’s favorite ski place and then jump on I-80 going east.
Don’t tell Mulligan we’re coming home earlier than planned – we want to surprise him!
