10 days.  We’ve been riding everyday for 10 days and we are kind of done.  The great thing about Astoria is that it is:

• a cool town
• has stuff to do and a Brewery
• and is close enough to home to make an earlyish end to the trip viable.

So that is what we decided.  Let’s go home, get some stuff done around the house and relax a little.  But first, we wanted to check out the Oregon Film museum, which is purported to have a Goonies exhibit.  And who doesn’t like the Goonies!   So off we went to find the museum.  Hot travel tip!  Just skip this if you are in Astoria, what a giant waste of money and time.  It cost $4 a person to get into what amounts to a 30×30 room (The museum is housed in what used to be an old jail).  The Goonies exhibit consisted of a lot of cardboard standing cut outs and a few real and recreated props from the movie.  And part of the actual movie set where one scene was filmed.  The rest of the place was being reconstructed to create movie sets where people can apparently come in and shoot scenes from movies and then edit them, etc.  It was a serious disappointment.  Oregon is the backdrop for a lot a movies, but actual interpretive information was a bit scarce and the place was seriously cramped.  So we spent a total of about 10 minutes and then hit road.

Really! FTLOG!

Just over the bridge into Washington we ran across this little vista point.  How could we not stop?!

And then the long ride home.  We pulled into our driveway just in time for dinner.  So good to be home!

Our trusty steeds, back in the stable.

In hindsight, Matt and I should have expected that the ride up 101 on a Sunday would be something of slog.  It is the Oregon Coast and it was the end of the weekend, so RV dodging was the theme of the ride between Coos Bay and Astoria.  The Oregon Coast continues to be a beautiful thing and I never really tire of seeing it.  Since we were riding quite a few miles Matt and I made a promise to take a break at least each hour.

We stopped in Lincoln City for lunch at this cute little open air cafe/gift shop, where I picked up a tiger cowry shell.

Since it was father’s day we took the opportunity to call our Dads.  And then back on the road, to catch up with and pass once more all the RV’s we passed to get there.  Sigh.  And then Matt had a fabulous idea…  The Tillamook Creamery. (cue angels singing) Hey, we need to keep our strength up for all this riding!

The rest of the trip to Astoria was fairly uneventful.  We did get a nice upgrade on our room at the Best Western.  The desk clerk took pity on our bedraggled state and gave us a jacuzzi suite!  Woot Woot!  By far the nicest room we stayed in on the trip.

We dropped our things and struck out on a 1.7 mile walk to Fort George Brewery for dinner.  Not the best food or service in the world, but the beer was top notch.

After 8 days of riding we are heading back towards home to the north.  I do love the coastline between Crescent City and Port Orford.  Today’s ride from Arcata to Coos Bay, Oregon was pretty darn long and we really weren’t taking the breaks we should have.  As evidenced by the increasing attractive red mark on my forehead from what is turning out to be an ill-fitting helmet.  But it is good to be back in Oregon again.  Or at least it was until she started smacking us around with the wind, pissing rain on us and throwing some coastal fog in our path.  Thanks a lot Oregon!  On the plus side, the bikes are cleaner!  But we were colder and wetter.  We pulled into the hotel, checked-in, and hopped into the hot tub in 6.5 seconds.  Never has a hot tub been more welcome!  We also found a great Italian restaurant in Coos Bay of all places.  We are going to head to Astoria tomorrow, another long ride, but from there we can either continue up the Washington Coast, or head for home

What to say about day 6.  Well for one, there are no pictures.  There could have been pictures, but our quest to find Lassen was sort of a failure.  We were looking for the visitors center, which is supposed to be off Rte 36.  Find it we did not, and by the time we realized that we would need to turn around, well… I hate backtracking.  Really, I can’t stand it.  So we decided to soldier on to Redding and return to Lassen when we were less annoyed with Garmin.  Speaking of Garmin, I mean really this GPS is on drugs or something.  It likes to route us onto some country lanes, which can and have been super fun to ride.  But the first turn off today, was clearly on a private ranch road which was well gated, so we skipped it.  The second turn off however was a winding and bumpy country lane, which actually turned out to be hysterical to ride.  Here is what I have learned on this trip about the type of rider I am.  You can keep your twisty, narrow mountain roads with no guardrails.  I like my roads wide and winding, with plenty of shoulder and some freaking guard rails next to the high bits.  So anyhoo, we rode straight into Redding, Matt took his call, and we rode straight to Chipotle.  Now I’m not saying that we went to Redding for the Chipotle, but I’m not saying we didn’t either.

Day 7 had us riding to Arcata via route 299 on a recommendation from a bicyclist we met in Susanville.  I was well pleased with the 299, wide and winding and perfect for the day.  The heat of the I5 corridor followed us most of the way on 299, so we made some more frequent rest stops.  My scooter continues to be an object of interest.  This time posing for pictures.

When the heat finally broke, we had about 30 miles to ride into Arcata and once we got there we were confronted with one of the nicest hotel rooms we have had on the trip complete with jacuzzi tub and a fresh remote.  Seriously, what are people doing with the remotes in this place, that make a fresh remote an amenity?  Creepy.

Who new the Best Western in Lakeview would have memory foam mattresses!  I might have to rethink my opinion of them as basically creepy.  So the ride to Susanville started out on roads we have traveled before.  Still beautiful, as only southern Oregon and Northern California can be, but we have been down this road so we decided to take a different route and were the better for it.  395 is home to many a suicidal gopher.  I don’t get what they are thinking in their little gopher heads, but there is a 50% chance that a gopher will run out in front of you or run back to the side of the road.  Crazy little critters!  Our alternate route took us higher in the hills and pine stands of Modoc National Forest.  The road wasn’t in pristine condition, but the warm pine-scented air more than made up for having to dodge the rough patches and tar snakes.

Matt and I stopped on the side of the road about 30 miles outside Susanville to devour some apples we bought in Oregon and take some pictures of the range land.

Susanville was HOT!  But Matt and decided to walk into town anyway and see what was to be seen.  Well, the Best Western map was, shall we say, NOT to scale.  We walked at least 2 miles into the historic down town, which I think is historic because their used to be something open there.  On a wing and prayer we followed signs to the historic train depot museum, hoping that would be open, and bless them they were.  The curator took pity on us and gave us both some water and left us alone to explore the interpretive displays.  Refreshed we left there, walked to our dinner restaurant and back to the hotel.  Not having had enough physical activity for one day, and hoping that air conditioning did exist in this town, we ran across the street for some bowling and called it quits after two games on mostly malfunctioning lanes with no A/C.

Tomorrow we will look into the Lassen National Monument.  A check with the locals confirmed that the roads are still closed at the higher elevations, but we should be able to get to the visitors center and the sulphur works provided we can find them. We’ve learned that the NPS doesn’t necessarily believe in signage of a readable size.  Matt has a work thing at 1pm so we will need cell reception by then.

So yesterday we decided to stop at Crystal Cranes Hots Springs about 24 miles outside of Burns, OR.  The ride down was supposed to be short, but Matt and I have discovered that the Garmin GPS can’t be trusted.  We have it set to avoid expressways and unpaved roads.  So it routed us onto a forest service road that it said was paved.  Matt and were both a little dubious at the existence of a paved forest service road, but we figured we decide when we came to it.  It wasn’t paved.  But I, being the dutiful wife decide, because it was well graded gravel, to give it a go anyway.  That and Matt does this puppy thing with his eyes.  So off we go.

Stopping and wondering what Matt is doing. Ohh a picture, k, I'll keep moving.

And I'm moving. See, the road is nicely graded...

And then Garmin wants us to turn.  The road becomes a little sketchier, the ruts deeper, puddles start to appear, and still I soldier on, until this happens about 2 miles in.

End of the road.

That yellow sign is a no trespassing sign.  I tend to take the traditional interpretation of that whole ‘no trespassing’ as meaning, thou shalt not pass.  Matt was a little more optimistic, but I had to pull rank, I mean really, my scooter is many things, but a 50cc dirt bike it is not.  I had visions of yet another tragic Fox 12 news bulletin about another couple lost in the wilderness of Oregon.  Would they find us in before our food ran out!  Would we, with no rational explanation, leave our bikes to forage for food and become even more lost, eventually building our own cabin out in the wilderness and regressing to a pioneer lifestyle?  Or, more likely, would my irritation at having to drag my scooter out of  mud puddles 15 to 20 times overwhelm my sanity, causing me to climb a tree and regress to ape like behavior, never to be seen again…  No thank you, I had Hot Springs to get to.  So we back tracked and headed towards Burns and Crystal Cranes Hot Springs.

I can’t recommend this place strongly enough, it is a truly well run establishment.  The springs are privately owned, the facilities can accommodate several types of travelers, for RVers they have full hookups and level pads, for people who want a bed for the night they have rustic cabins and common bath facilites, they also have sites for tent campers and they have three teepees.  The bathroom facilities were scrupulously clean.  The hot springs itself is a large pond and they have 5 private soaking tubs.  It was such a relief to be in a nice place after staying in that crap hole in John Day, OR.

Outside our Cabin

The cabins aren't big, double bed only, but they are very clean and homey.

The hot spring fed pond for swimming.

Matt and I in the pond. I'm on the right.

While relaxing in the Hot Springs, Matt and I decided we would skip going all the way down to Yosemite when a fellow traveler told us that the passes might still be closed.  We were starting to consider skipping it anyway, so that just made the decision for us.  Instead we are going to focus on Lassen National Volcanic Monument.  With that in mind we decided to head to Lakeview, OR, a town we had ridden through on a previous trip and thought was cute.  When we awoke on Tuesday morning, all comfortable and rested from the Hot Springs I found this little guy outside the cabin.

Wook at the wittle bunny a shoo shoo shoo!

One of the highlights of the ride to Lakeview was emerging into the Lake Abert valley.  You come around a curve and you are confronted with a valley that seems to be filled with iridescent light.  I haven’t actually looked up the details, but it must be a relatively shallow lake.  It was gorgeous and pictures don’t quite do it justice.

Since the Lassen National Volcanic Monument is on our agenda, we are heading for Susanville, CA on Wednesday the 15th.

Morning dawned in Yakima and we promptly left.  I’m sure it’s a great town, be we have places to be, like John Day, OR.  So off on the road we went.  So far the scooter has performed swimmingly, and it gets a lot of attention, which is always funny.  One down side is the gas tank is only about 3.2 gallons, so we stop to fuel up about every three hours or so.

I also learned today that my scooter is part mountain goat.  During one of our many confusing moments ala Garmin, Matt decided to turn, more confusingly, in a no turning zone.  So I followed, but realized a little to late I had taken the turn a little to wide and there was 4 inch curb about to meet my front wheels.  Well my scoot ate that curb for breakfast.  One of the wheels jumped it and to my horror I road half on the road half on the rocky median for a few feet before I finally got things back under control.  I’m sure I was a picture of riding grace.  Matt was impressed I didn’t dump the bike.  We stopped for lunch soon after and learned we needed to make alternate arrangements for lodging in John Day, since the Best Western and every other hotel of good repute was booked.  We were a little dubious about the quality of America’s Best Value Inn.  And rightfully so.  See Matt’s sad face below.

This hotel is so creepy it comes with its own Alfred Hitchcock silhouette.

I briefly consider burning the place down, but Matt convinces me to conserve the fuel for the road.  Kidding!

Well after two days of iron butt riding I am rebelling.  I have demanded that we stay at a hot springs that’s about 80 miles away.  So that is where we are off to tomorrow.

So despite all intentions to the contrary, Matt and I didn’t leave the house until about noon.  This can be attributed to several things.  Poor prep, lack of sleep, alignment of the stars and such, but really, we were just being lazy.  Matt set our goal as Yakima, so off we went to Issaquah to have our traditional leaving on a road trip lunch at Chipotle.  Because its so yummy.

From Issaquah we snaked up 203 and took route 2 over the cascades.  Not sure how high we got, but there were some impressive snow banks and melt waterfalls; the road was bone dry and there was little traffic.  Once we got over Stevens Pass the real crown jewel of route 2 was the Wenatchee River white water.  That was truly impressive and we would have stopped to take a picture, but a still shot would not have done this justice.  It was intimidating.

Other highlights of the day:

Leavenworth, a town trying desperately to be German.  We didn’t stop, but we did giggle.  I hear it’s lovely at Christmas.

Yakima River Canyon Scenic Byway:  Matt and stopped in Ellensburg for dinner at about 1800.  We were dead tired and considering skipping this byway.  I’m glad we didn’t.  It’s was a serene end to the day, with the sun setting to the west and a calm river running at our side.

Tomorrow: John Day, Oregon