In Oregon Traveling South

 

We are now 530 miles into our 1,800-mile trek down the West Coast. Our good fortune has been good weather. It is not all sunny skies, however. Some mornings we find ourselves inside a low hanging cloud, but by late morning the sun either peeks out or takes full control of a blue sky. Another challenge is finding hotels or campsites. August is high season when hotel rates hit the stratosphere. Helen found a potential vacancy at a small hotel in Seaside, OR. When she contacted the property owner, he shared with great encouragement that he indeed had one last vacancy that we could have for $319.00 for a single night. Yikes! Helen continued looking and found an RV campsite for $30.00.

We deployed a strategy for securing a hotel or campsite in this high season, high rates, low vacancies situation. We found a campsite midway on Jay’s bike route. In the morning, Helen drove Jay to his starting point and retrieved him at his endpoint in the afternoon. We got to avoid the high sticker shock of hotel rates and Jay got to ride his full route.

The cycling reviews of this West Coast ride stressed that this route is very hilly. Jay booked 16,221 feet in the first 400 miles. The next 400 miles will require 24,000 feet of climbing. Hills on major roads like Route 101 are long graceful climbs. Others on backroads are sharp, steep climbs requiring Jay’s lowest gear, a firm grip on his handlebars, and very determined strokes on his pedals. As a result, Jay plans to ride between 45 – 55 miles per day, fewer miles than originally anticipated. 

The rewards on this trek are great vistas and wonderful experiences along the way. Three highlights of the past week include going to the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center, camping on a dike at Elochoma Marina in Cathlamet (pronounced cath LAM et), WA and visiting the Tillamook Creamery in Tillamook, OR.  While we were in Cathlamet we ate lunch at The Spar restaurant and bar on Main Street. It’s an old dive where the locals hang out, but we found it fascinating! There were a number of interesting signs on the walls, and they have an electronic juke box! Six plays for $1. The food was so-so, but the atmosphere more than made up for it.

The Tillamook Creamery Visitors Center was recommended to us by our friends Keith and Marcia. We arrived on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 and signs on the doors let us know they were closing at 3:00 that day for a private event. We immediately got in line and spent our 30 minutes waiting to get ice cream. Fortunately, they didn’t kick us out and we had time to sit at a table and eat our delicious frozen confection. 

On Monday morning we packed up our gear at the Paradise Cove RV Park, Helen drove Jay 26 miles to Tillamook where she had picked him up on Sunday afternoon, and then drove two miles back to go to the Tillamook Creamery again. This time she took the self-guided tour, took lots of photos and a couple of videos, and bought some cheese to enjoy along the way. We ended the day at a KOA in Otis, right outside Lincoln City, OR.

         Jay sitting in front of The Spar restaurant and bar.

                                           

We took the ferry from Washington to Oregon.

A sign in a campground restroom. 

       Some people are so creative! These posts were painted to look like minions.

            This David statue replica is at the end of a driveway on Route 101. You never know what you're going to see! 

A typical camp breakfast. 

  

We laughed out loud when we saw this cemetery and recycling center sign!

 The sign on the restroom door at the Spar restaurant and bar.

     

Another sign at The Spar with double entrendres.

  An electronic juke box!

Starting point for Jay one early morning.

 

Beautiful vistas all along the way. 

  We're at the bottom of this map.