California Days 5&6

					California - days 5&6 Washington, Oregon, California

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	Tuesday 8-24-04: Seattle, WA to Florence, OR After a great dinner and sleep in Seattle we had to battle workday traffic out of town. The rain had moved in overnight and was there to stay for a couple of days. Our original route was going to take us around the north side of Mt. Rainer. Unfortunately with the rain, came the clouds. There was no chance to see Mt. Rainer so we took a more direct route to Mt. St. Helens. The road to Mt. St. Helens was an extremely narrow forest service road. It was nicely paved and heavily canopied with trees. Winding through the dense forest you would never know a volcano was nearby. We turned off the main road to the Windy Ridge scenic overlook. The overlook sits right over Spirit Lake and normally offers great views of Mt. St. Helens. About 5miles in the road started skirting a mountain side. Massive trees were strewn like toothpicks and very little vegetation was to be seen. We were high in the clouds but the stiff 30mph winds would blow them out of our path occasionally showing us the devastation mother nature is capable of. There were many people at the overlook. A couple of tour buses sticked to there schedules. The wind and the driving rain kept most people in the bathroom entrance which offered little shelter. After Mt St. Helens we headed south to meet the Columbia River. The road stayed narrow and the rain fell the entire way limiting our speed. Its hard to make good time on a road like this. We popped out on the Columbia River in Carson. After a sandwich and some gas station Mexican food. We stuck to the freeway down to Portland. The river gorge was very scenic but the rain and clouds continued to hamper our views. Through Portland we made our way over to the coast at Lincoln city down highway 99 then 18. The highway was very slow with many street lights. In the early evening we arrived at the coast. There were many towns to go through but every so often the road would open up to show us the coast. We stopped for the night in Florence and found a Best Western where we were pointed to a great little restaurant for dinner. They had great Mussels.
	Day 5: 418miles
	Pictures: Click the thumbnails to enlarge

	Need a flush?	Carrie at Spirit Lake. Mt. St. Helens is hidden in the clouds behind her.	The tourists seek shelter in the bathroom	Mother nature can't dampen our spirits


	Carson, WA. Great Mexican Churritos	The clouds moving through the valley at Carson	Bridge of the Gods crossing the Columbia River. The toll was $.25 per motorcycle. What's the point?	The river from the bridge deck.


	Waterfall view from the freeway	Yet another	Outside of Portland. Looks like Wisconsin	They even have Indian casinos here.


	Getting close to the coast	The Oregon Coast is dramatic	The weather just adds to the effect.	Bridge on the coast


	A port	Kerry and Carrie	Great coast shot	yet another


	even better	sick of coast yet?	hope not	more to come


	This GS was at the Best Western in Florence. It was from Baja Mexico. Even had a camera on the fender.	Bridgewater Restaurant. Decent food. Great Mussels.	Paul and Kerry happy to replace there sore muscles with fresh mussels	Even though I don't like Mussels I'm happy.


	Wednesday 8-25-04: Florence, OR to Eureka, CA The day started with more rain. We skipped our normal breakfast before leaving and decided to find something a little way down the road. Success was found at the Pancake Mill in Coos Bay. When leaving Kerry notice I had a headlight bulb out. We had already consumed one of our spares and were getting low. A trip to an auto parts store was in order. Carrie was having CB switch problems and it needed some WD40 to clean the water out. A GPS search showed a NAPA down the road a little. We passed not one, but two auto parts stores looking for the NAPA. Not wanting to turn around we kept on course. We followed the GPS off the highway down some side streets next to the wharf. Turning onto North Front Street there was a nasty set of railroad tracks running parallel through the middle of the road. The tracks had huge trenches on the inside about the width of a motorcycle tire. I crossed fairly perpendicular before my turn. I looked back and Carrie had ended up in the middle of the tracks. She couldn't talk on the CB since here switch was bad but was honking the horn. I couldn't hear the wimpy horn but she was worried about getting out of the tracks. Paul and Kerry had separated from us a bit getting stuck at a street light and I never saw them behind us as the road turned. Carrie jumped out of the tracks as the road turned and made it over safely. There was no NAPA. I stopped at the stop sign and waited for Kerry and Paul to catch up. Carrie yelled about how nasty the tracks were and maybe they had went down. We couldn't see back down the road due to the curve. I tried to raise Kerry and Paul on the CB but they didn't answer. Suddenly Paul got on the CB in a panicked voice. "Ron, Kerry's down and its bad, come back here quick" I turned quickly around and drove back. Kerry's Goldwing was on its side on the shoulder of the road facing the opposite direction in which he had came. Kerry was on the shoulder and an attendant from a Chevron station was already at his side. Paul arrived shortly before I did. He had went down closer to where we had turned onto the road while Kerry had went a couple of blocks. Kerry sat up and looked ok. His gear was in perfect condition but he said his shoulder hurt. A volunteer fire fighter was onsite quickly and secured Kerry's neck to prevent an possible further injuries before EMTs arrived. Paul and I righted the Goldwing to survey the damage. The left side was badly scraped but it was mostly cosmetic. The force of the impact caused the engine and saddlebag guards to collapse. No one witnessed the accident and things happened to quickly for Kerry to remember much. Kerry had tried to cross the tracks at a low angle of attack and the current theory is his tires slipped on the rails, got caught in the track trench, pitched and high sided him. Paul's accident was similar but he did not suffer any motorcycle damage and had only a little pain in his hip. He was a little surprised to find his face shield heavily scratched since he has no memory of helmet contact with the pavement. EMT's arrived and secured Kerry to a stretcher and took him to the hospital for x-rays. We secured Kerry's motorcycle in the Coos Bay Towboat Co parking lot. I ran to Kmart to get Kerry some button shirts and we met him at the hospital. After some x-rays it turns out he had a broken shoulder blade. Its a very hard bone to break. Kerry trip was done. He would fly home Friday but his bike would stay at the dealer getting fixed up for shipment back at a later date. After we got Kerry into a cab on the way to a hotel we continued south along the coast. 4 became 3 but we tried to make the best of it. As soon as we crossed the California border the sun came out. After 700miles of rain Kerry was only 70miles short of sunlight. Continuing down the coast we took some time to play in the ocean and bring back a little water as a souvenir. We ran through a patch of redwoods south of Crescent City that was very impressive. More of those would be on tap for tomorrow. Our original goal was to be in Napa that evening. With the delay we had to pull up short in Eureka. This would insure we would hit Hwy 36 in the daylight. We found a hotel with Laundry since our clothes were pretty stinky and found a brew pub for dinner

	Day 6: 263miles

	Pictures: Click the thumbnails to enlarge

	Those railroad track go down the middle and there is no NAPA	The road. The rain stopped as soon as Kerry fell.	Kerry gets attended to	onto the stretcher


	These are the tracks. The trench looses some scale in the picture	The damage to the rear	Damage to the front. Notice collapsed engine guard	You killed Kerry! (not really)


	Kerry's wing in the Coo's Bay Towboat Co. Parking lot	Everyone was very helpful	Coo's Bay emergency room	Kerry says "I feel great!" after a shot of morphine


	We say our goodbyes as Kerry models the fashionable clothes I picked out of the Kmart bargain bin.	Bye Kerry! Off we go.	Must be an ocean view at the end of that road. The sign says so. But why stop there?	Here is a ocean view on the main road.


	and another	and another	and another	yet another


	yet another	and another	and then.. a dinosaur?	this is better..and another


	and another	this is a nice shot	Carrie and Paul take the curves on the coast	rocks loom in the mist


	Welcome to California	They pay taxes to keep the roads dry here	starting to get into some bigger trees	Paul rejoices in a short stretch of 4lane before Crescent City.


	A stretch of beach after Crescent City	Some giant Redwoods!	What the heck is Paul Bunyan doing here? Vacation?	A little gas stop before Klamath


	River in Klamath	Sometimes climbing hills along the coast put you in the clouds	4lane through the hills


	They have Elk here!	We stopped in Dry Lagoon State Park to play in the water	Paul and Carrie on the beach	Ron and Carrie on the beach


	I feel the sea calling me	Time to get my sand and water.	Paul says "Those waves are big. You're gonna get wet idiot" Video	Oh O. This is looking good.


	Aggh! Paul gets caught in the waves. He hates wet feet.	A little sand and water in the boots is sure funny	Dinner in Eureka at the Lost Coast Brewing Co	Some weird beer demon

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