Oregon Coast - USA Four Corners Journal Day 20 -

This was a day of long, scenic riding. I got started as Tony and Nancy’s children were getting up for school. They wanted to see me start the machine. I made it through traffic and headed south, but soon it started raining heavily, so I had to stop and suit up. I left the suit on for a good part of the morning.

At Portland I took a break. The town left a bad taste in my mouth. I was pan-handled in the parking lot of Mac Donald’s and to pay 50 cents to use my credit card to pay for gas.

Since I didn’t have access to my routing software, I let the Zumo pick my route to the Oregon coast. It picked a short route, but traffic was so heavy, it took a long time. I did pass through orchards and produce farms. The area had an “organic” personality you’d expect. For instance, at a vineyard along the row of vines closest to the road were rose bushes planted at regular intervals. These bushes weren’t just growing wild; the stems were tied together so the flowers formed a bouquet about three feet above the soil. There were just a few of these bouquets, there were many along the entire length of the row.

I crossed over the coastal range on a curvy, wet road. The trees formed a canopy over the road almost the entire way. I got to the coast at Lincoln city and rode south for 75 miles to Florence. There was rain near Lincoln city, but it cleared and the rest of the way was sunny. The coast is similar to the northern California with steep cliffs and rocks below.

The view at one pull off included the view of a picture-perfect light house and the keeper’s residence. I’ll bet pictures of it are in lots of coffee table books. On the rocks below were sea lions sunning themselves. There were a lot of bellowing going on as two males were challenging each other.