Saturday, September 3, 2011

Day 15 - Williams, CA to Home!

The picture says it all...15 days and 4,091 miles! Excuse the dirt on the speedometer but I haven't washed the bike yet and boy is it dirty!
We left Williams at 8:00 this morning and it was already quite warm. We headed south on Interstate 5 and saw a traffic advisory that the Interstate was shut down to 1 lane further south. We decided to eat at Harris Ranch and took Highway 198 over to Highway 99. From Highway 99 we went to Highway 58 and finally to Highway 14 and home!
The dogs were crazy happy to see us and I have to say I sure missed them!
We had 15 wonderful days of mostly wonderful, perfect riding weather. Jeff had quite the experience as this was his first ever motorcycling road trip. I think he'll do another one, but it may be a year or two!!
Thanks for following along with us on this crazy journey. When I planned it over a year ago, I had planned on doing this ride solo. I'm so glad I found somebody who wanted to come with me on this crazy journey.

Day 14 - Florence, OR to Williams, CA

We decided to take the inland route instead of continuing down the Oregon coast. We left Florence and headed down the 101 and took Highway 38 that runs along the Umpqua River. What a beautiful ride! We saw several elk but unfortunately, didn't get any pictures of them. We passed through many small, quaint towns on our way over to Interstate 5.
The weather was perfect for riding today. We stopped in Medford, OR to visit the Harley dealership there (technically it was in Phoenix!) and had lunch at Debbie's Diner. Great food, great pricing in a 50's theme restaurant.
From there we headed to Williams, CA. The weather warmed up once we crossed the CA border and quickly got quite warm. This is our last night on the road and after riding 439 miles, we were quite happy to get off the bikes!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Day 13 - Sammamish, WA to Florence, OR

After a wonderful breakfast (thanks Tara!) we headed towards Florence, OR. The weather in Sammamish was in the 50's but clear. As we headed towards the coast, the morning fog burned off and we had beautiful, sunny skies for our 357 mile ride.
We got onto the 101 and followed it south along the coast. The coastline is beautiful with lots of trees, cliffs and beautiful scenery. We rode across the Astoria Bridge which separates Washington from Oregon. We has to stop for road construction, so I was able to get a picture of the bridge. The speed limit in Oregon is 55 (what is up with that??!!) and through the many, many towns we rode through on the coast, the speed limits are 25 or 35 mph. So, while the scenery was beautiful, we were growing tired of the stop and go traffic.
We're staying in the town of Florence, OR which is a cute little town. Unfortunately, we got here so late, we didn't get to see much of the town. Our room overlooks the Siuslaw River and there is a cool drawbridge that we can see from our room. We ate at Bliss' Hot Rod Diner. Great food, good prices & quick service. The interior of the diner was car-themed. There were a couple of cars inside that had been made into dining tables. Lots of pictures on the walls of hot rods owned by locals and automobilia signs. Just the right kind of place for Jeff & me to eat!