June 14, 2010 – Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right, But Three Lefts Do, High Winds on the Highway, Strange Barking in the Distance

The day started in Hermiston, OR, south of Umatilla and took us along WA-14 west toward Portland. We took a few wrong turns in Portland. Lewis & Clark (the originals) didn't have that problem because they could follow the river. We have to content with more bad signage and traffic...and motorcycles don't float as well as canoes, so we have an excuse, at least.

The first hundred miles or so was through some mighty bleak looking country, the foremost feature being towers for power lines and some windmills. We should have taken note of the windmills because in the second hundred miles, the wind picked-up. A man told me a few days before in the Lolo, MT laundromat that the wind along the Columbia River really never stops blowing--and he was right! I spent the next couple of hours leaning into what felt like 50 mph winds to make turns and the wind kept standing me back up. I tried loading rolls of quarters into my pants pockets for ballast, but that still wasn't enough. No, only sheer determination, brute force and finely-honed skills kept me on track in some of the turns...I got off and walked the bike on the others ;-)

We made it to Vancouver, WA, just across the Columbia from Portland by lunchtime where we dined at Gustav's restaurant. Great German food! Leaving Gustav's took us through Portland on US-30 (Lombard Street) which was where we took those wrong turns I mentioned earlier. Usually, "next left" on a sign just before a fork in the road means take the left fork, but in this case they meant for us to take the right fork and then the next left after that. Lesson learned.

The last hundred miles took us up US-30 along the river with some nice vistas to the right and the usual little riverside towns with their attendant shops and service stations to the left. We arrived in Astoria, OR at 6pm and heard seals barking in the harbor next to our hotel as we shut down our engines. Lewis and Clark (the beagles) wanted badly to run them, but we figured they'd completely lose the element of surprise with all their swimming and splashing across 100 yards of water on the way to where the seals had landed on a floating pier that had been condemned. Some barking back and forth (inter-species communication?) and we headed for bed. Long day, but we are poised to make the final run to Fort Canby, WA tomorrow to plant the flag and claim the entirety of the west coast of North America for the United States. You will probably read about it in the papers soon.

Here's today's route:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=N+1st+St&daddr=WA-14+W+to:WA-14+W%2FLewis+and+Clark+Hwy+to:WA-14+W%2FLewis+and+Clark+Hwy+to:WA-14+W%2F2nd+St+to:WA-14+W%2FEvergreen+Hwy+to:I-84+W+to:45.717686,-122.884827+to:astoria,+or&hl=en&geocode=FTeVuwId1cbj-A%3BFT-2uQId8nfU-A%3BFc7VuAId5lXL-A%3BFXB-uQIdGmrE-A%3BFdAPuQIdYPC7-A%3BFe4xtwIdwce2-A%3BFSTDtgId3v-w-A%3B%3BFWzFwAIdK3ye-CmL-5UJRHuTVDG_ihuh8XLd9w&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=7&sz=10&via=1,2,3,4,5,6,7&sll=45.665886,-122.78183&sspn=0.505764,1.234589&ie=UTF8&ll=45.862281,-123.123779&spn=0.503987,1.234589&z=10