Monday, October 13, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Oct 1/08 - Home Sweet Home ...
Wednesday, October 1st/08
On this, the last day of our journey, we leave Portland and our sweet cousins with mixed feelings. Happy to be going home, seeing our precious dog Tobi and meeting back up with friends and… sad to be leaving the adventures of the road. I think there must be a little gypsy blood in both of us – we love to wander and wonder “what’s just over the next hill”, to ride I-5 home (not my favourite) I had my iPod all charged up and ready to “Rock ‘N Roll” or corner, valley or mountain pass or whatever. Had a few stops to make to pick up some last 
minute ‘tax free’ items and hit the highway at 11:00 a.m. Knowing that we were planning to help pass the miles. A squirrel is performing a ‘high-wire’ act on the telephone wire as we leave cousin Walt’s.
I’m following Rod and don’t give it a second thought until I see a sign that says “To Ocean & Beaches”. Huh ??? To Astoria ??? What the ??? I’m not sure if this is denial or we seriously need to look into buying a GPS unit.
We fuel in North Plains and pick up Cornelius Pass Road to Hwy 30 into St Helens and Rainier where we crossed the Columbia River into Longview, Washington. The maples are flaunting their coat of many colours now. Magnificent crimsons, luscious yellows 
and earthy ochres. The evergreens provide the matting and framework to help show off their splendour. One of the farms is burning leaves which immediately brings full imagery of autumn to mind. Pumpkin pies, Thanksgiving, jack ‘o lanterns, Halloween. 
At the old steel arch bridge that drops into Longview we pull in behind a semi whose brakes were so hot and smoking it looked like he was on fire. Except for the odour his brakes are emitting I am glad we are behind him and not in front.
Rounding the turn that brings us down to the Port of Olympia, my nostrils flare and I catch the unmistakeable scent of the Pacific Ocean. I lick my lips imagining I can taste the salt on them. It is here we see the first Hwy sign that gives the mileage to Vancouver, BC. 189 miles left to go.
The familiar shape of the Tacoma Dome in Everett brings us another step closer and catching sight of the Space Needle in Seattle evokes a thrill of familiar territory. 
We take the Express Lanes that run down below the city. You need to be on your toes here – traffic is moving fast but can come to an abrupt halt very quickly. The freeway here runs 5 lanes wide on each side with on-ramps, off-ramps, lanes merging left and right criss-crossing in all directions. On my iPod, Bobby Darin rasps out “Splish Splash I was taking a bath…” It’s a very catchy tune and Rod laughs as he sees me ‘dancing on my footpegs’.
After we fuel the bikes in Marysville we stop at Starbucks for a coffee to enjoy with the tuna sandwiches cousin Walt has lovingly prepared for us to ‘take with us on the road for nourishment’. The sun has burned off all the haze and we are able to sit on the outsi
de patio. A number of young ‘hot dog’ sport bike riders are lounging at the next table swapping bike stories. We join their conversation and you can see the disbelief mixed with curiosity when Rod tells them I rode a sport bike for more than twenty years. They are probably barely 20 now and can’t conceive that this older ‘gal’ could possibly have ridden anything that would be considered ‘competition’. I just smile. Oh to be so young, infallible and indestructible. No thanks – I’m pretty happy where I’m at now – been there, done that, no need to try it out again.
We make our last fuel stop before the border in Blaine, Washington at 5:45 and literally breeze through the border at 6:00 p.m. I had my ID out – she didn’t give it a glance. Asked how long we’d been away, total value of goods being brought in – didn’t ask to look at receipts – just said “You’re on your way then”.
As we cruise up Hwy 99 towards Delta, the sun is setting over the Pacific Ocean. What a perfect end to an amazing adventure.
As we pull in the driveway, Henry opens the garage door and Tobi comes rushing out to greet us. Tail wagging furiously, bark, bark, bark - he seems to be beside himself with glee to see us, as we are him. Henry has done a fantastic job looking after everything – the flowers are still blooming profusely even though fall should be allowing them to dwindle. What a joy and a relief it has been to have him stay and look after Tobi and the house allowing us the freedom to be away so long. I think we all will have to put in some ‘diet’ time but that’s for Monday’s – isn’t it???
Now the work begins. Sorting through 5 ½ weeks of mail, bills, real life …
‘Paladin’ logged just under 5300 miles (8500 km) and Rod’s ‘Wing’ just shy of 6000 miles (9600 km). We were ‘on top of the world’ in Colorado at 12,300 ft and at the lowest depths in Death Valley at 282 feet below sea level. We travelled through eleven US States and two Canadian Provinces. We saw some amazing sights and experienced a lot of history. We grew tired of hearing (as no doubt our American neighbours are) of all of the political goings on before the presidential election coming in November.
Stay tuned and I will endeavour to put up a map of our trip in the next day or so. To everyone who came ‘along for the ride’ – thank you so much for your support, encouragement and emails. I do hope you enjoyed. It kept me going when I thought I might not. Thank you to all the relatives and friends old and new who put us up (and put up with us). It has been such a pleasure and honour to meet up with you and share your stories and lives. We feel enriched and very blessed. I will again close with the line from ‘Desiderata’ – “For all it’s sham, drudgery and broken dreams… it is still a beautiful world”.
On this, the last day of our journey, we leave Portland and our sweet cousins with mixed feelings. Happy to be going home, seeing our precious dog Tobi and meeting back up with friends and… sad to be leaving the adventures of the road. I think there must be a little gypsy blood in both of us – we love to wander and wonder “what’s just over the next hill”, to ride I-5 home (not my favourite) I had my iPod all charged up and ready to “Rock ‘N Roll” or corner, valley or mountain pass or whatever. Had a few stops to make to pick up some last 
minute ‘tax free’ items and hit the highway at 11:00 a.m. Knowing that we were planning to help pass the miles. A squirrel is performing a ‘high-wire’ act on the telephone wire as we leave cousin Walt’s.I’m following Rod and don’t give it a second thought until I see a sign that says “To Ocean & Beaches”. Huh ??? To Astoria ??? What the ??? I’m not sure if this is denial or we seriously need to look into buying a GPS unit.
We fuel in North Plains and pick up Cornelius Pass Road to Hwy 30 into St Helens and Rainier where we crossed the Columbia River into Longview, Washington. The maples are flaunting their coat of many colours now. Magnificent crimsons, luscious yellows 
and earthy ochres. The evergreens provide the matting and framework to help show off their splendour. One of the farms is burning leaves which immediately brings full imagery of autumn to mind. Pumpkin pies, Thanksgiving, jack ‘o lanterns, Halloween. 
At the old steel arch bridge that drops into Longview we pull in behind a semi whose brakes were so hot and smoking it looked like he was on fire. Except for the odour his brakes are emitting I am glad we are behind him and not in front.
Rounding the turn that brings us down to the Port of Olympia, my nostrils flare and I catch the unmistakeable scent of the Pacific Ocean. I lick my lips imagining I can taste the salt on them. It is here we see the first Hwy sign that gives the mileage to Vancouver, BC. 189 miles left to go.
The familiar shape of the Tacoma Dome in Everett brings us another step closer and catching sight of the Space Needle in Seattle evokes a thrill of familiar territory. 
We take the Express Lanes that run down below the city. You need to be on your toes here – traffic is moving fast but can come to an abrupt halt very quickly. The freeway here runs 5 lanes wide on each side with on-ramps, off-ramps, lanes merging left and right criss-crossing in all directions. On my iPod, Bobby Darin rasps out “Splish Splash I was taking a bath…” It’s a very catchy tune and Rod laughs as he sees me ‘dancing on my footpegs’.
After we fuel the bikes in Marysville we stop at Starbucks for a coffee to enjoy with the tuna sandwiches cousin Walt has lovingly prepared for us to ‘take with us on the road for nourishment’. The sun has burned off all the haze and we are able to sit on the outsi
de patio. A number of young ‘hot dog’ sport bike riders are lounging at the next table swapping bike stories. We join their conversation and you can see the disbelief mixed with curiosity when Rod tells them I rode a sport bike for more than twenty years. They are probably barely 20 now and can’t conceive that this older ‘gal’ could possibly have ridden anything that would be considered ‘competition’. I just smile. Oh to be so young, infallible and indestructible. No thanks – I’m pretty happy where I’m at now – been there, done that, no need to try it out again.
We make our last fuel stop before the border in Blaine, Washington at 5:45 and literally breeze through the border at 6:00 p.m. I had my ID out – she didn’t give it a glance. Asked how long we’d been away, total value of goods being brought in – didn’t ask to look at receipts – just said “You’re on your way then”.
As we cruise up Hwy 99 towards Delta, the sun is setting over the Pacific Ocean. What a perfect end to an amazing adventure.
As we pull in the driveway, Henry opens the garage door and Tobi comes rushing out to greet us. Tail wagging furiously, bark, bark, bark - he seems to be beside himself with glee to see us, as we are him. Henry has done a fantastic job looking after everything – the flowers are still blooming profusely even though fall should be allowing them to dwindle. What a joy and a relief it has been to have him stay and look after Tobi and the house allowing us the freedom to be away so long. I think we all will have to put in some ‘diet’ time but that’s for Monday’s – isn’t it???Now the work begins. Sorting through 5 ½ weeks of mail, bills, real life …
‘Paladin’ logged just under 5300 miles (8500 km) and Rod’s ‘Wing’ just shy of 6000 miles (9600 km). We were ‘on top of the world’ in Colorado at 12,300 ft and at the lowest depths in Death Valley at 282 feet below sea level. We travelled through eleven US States and two Canadian Provinces. We saw some amazing sights and experienced a lot of history. We grew tired of hearing (as no doubt our American neighbours are) of all of the political goings on before the presidential election coming in November.
Stay tuned and I will endeavour to put up a map of our trip in the next day or so. To everyone who came ‘along for the ride’ – thank you so much for your support, encouragement and emails. I do hope you enjoyed. It kept me going when I thought I might not. Thank you to all the relatives and friends old and new who put us up (and put up with us). It has been such a pleasure and honour to meet up with you and share your stories and lives. We feel enriched and very blessed. I will again close with the line from ‘Desiderata’ – “For all it’s sham, drudgery and broken dreams… it is still a beautiful world”.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Sept 29-30/08 - Losses and blessings ...
Monday, Sept 29th/08We set out from our hotel at Mt Shasta under overcast skies that threaten rain. We decide to forego the very skimpy ‘continental breakfast’ at our hotel in favour of a proper breakfast with a few miles under our belt. Believe me; neither of us has been losing any weight on this trip. We have had some wonderful meal extravaganzas and I for one, look forward to getting back to my ‘normal’ routine of eating - and not quite so much. :-)
Mt Shasta itself lies veiled – almost ethereal – always mystical and magical to me. It is still hard to see her naked without her marvellous mantle of year-round snow and I 
imagine her as in past years. We are having a few localized ‘sprinkles’ but nothing of significance for precipitation. 
We cross the Oregon border at 10:00 a.m. and start the long descent towards Ashland. I had forgotten how much fun this 
section of I-5 is at 
this point. Long sweeping corners that are easy and very enjoyable to ride at speed. We have been blessed (translation – lucky) to not pick up any tickets on these many miles – now would not be a good time to start. Along the ride into Medford, the sun had come out and started to warm up nicely then chilled right back down again as we pull off the freeway to fuel the bikes and ourselves at Elmer’s.Our initial plan was to ride into Eugene, OR and spend the night there before going onto our cousins in Portland. We haven’t been able to give them an accurate ETA and originally had planned to be there before the weekend but the unplanned six extra days in Kingman, AZ with Rod’s bike repair made for a recalculation.
We fuel again in Roseburg, OR and decide to call cousin Walter and ask if they want us to ride straight through and be there tonight or hold-up for a night. “COME ON IN” – Walt says – “it’s been way too long since we’ve seen you” – gee it’s so nice to be missed and welcomed.
Getting back on the freeway after we talk to Walt, I am very excited to “get there” and although it will make for a long ride for today – I feel very energized. We always so enjoy our time with them and coming to Portland always feels like coming ‘home’ and it’s just a one day hop, skip and a jump of 300 miles to our house. We pick up an extra 10-15mph in speed. As Rod & I pace side by side on the freeway at 85-90 mph I pretend to take a riding quip out of my boot to urge my pony down the home stretch. Rod laughs and does the same.
About 11 miles out of Roseburg, Paladin suddenly ‘hiccups’ and seems to lose power. What ??? He recovers and then a bit further does it again. I ask him “What’s up Paladin – did we get you some bad gas back there”? This happens three or four times and I pull onto the shoulder of the freeway. Rod has also pulled over and asks “What’s wrong”? “I’m not sure but he is acting a little funny. It seems to be better now so we’ll just carry on and see if it gets any worse”. After so many miles together you become attuned to every sound and every nuance and feel of the bike. I love when you feel you have just become an extension of the bike and it feels like you ‘communicate’ telepathically.
About 10 miles later, as I check my mirror – something is missing ??? MY FLAG!!!! Oh NOOOOO!!! How could it be gone after all these many miles and just before we reach home. Sure enough, the flag pole has broken right off and of course the flag is no where to be seen. Was Paladin trying to let me know when he was doing his little acting-up? Perhaps – but we’ll never know for sure and never know what happened to my little flag and who may find it and wonder at its stories??? I am really feeling distressed about it and overcome with sadness which I try my best to ‘talk myself out of’ along the remainder of the way into Portland and Walt & Sandi’s. As we ride the last few blocks in however, it really seems to take hold and as we pull in the driveway and Rod holds me I am sobbing my heart out and trying to rationalize how ‘stupidly’ I am behaving. It’s just a silly flag after all. At some deeper level though I think I realize it symbolizes something differently and the pent up grief is trying to find an exit point.
I manage to pull myself together and put on a happy face to greet our cousins. Sandi has put together a wonderful dinner which we are able to enjoy on the patio in the early evening warmth.
Tomorrow we are doing a little shopping (not much as there is just no space to put it) it’s just always fun to look at the different things they have here and compare prices. Of course, Portland is always a treat because there in no tax – the price you see is the price you pay. (There’s that Scot again).
In the afternoon we are going boating with Walter on the Willamette. He loves to wakeboard and Rod is hoping to get some great photos of him getting some ‘air’.An astonishing surprise was waiting for us at the end of the bed in the ‘Bird Room’ where we have the honour of staying when we are here. Sandi has printed out all the Blog entries including the photos and has placed them into a binder. It is FAT and wonderful and I am tremendously touched by this gesture of love. What a terrific visual memory of our adventure. Thank you both – we love and appreciate you so very much. We always look forward to ‘next time’ and hope it will be sooner rather than later.
We had planned to stay here in Portland for a few days to visit but the unpredictable fall weather has decided to turn against us and turn stormy and cold. The temperature for Tuesday into the 80’s, for Wednesday the 70’s and from Thursday through the weekend drop to the low 60’s with steady rain and wind. No fun for 300 miles of freeway riding particularly through the Seattle crawl. Although disappointing for all, we have decided to head for home earlier and plan to leave first thing Wednesday morning.
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