End Of The Trail

Life on the road with two real estate agents is all about computers and telephone calls. Let's just say we went to sleep after the last click and their telephones dogged them all day. And we still had a great ride! We started the day with waffles at the Comfort Inn. Well, actually, we did. Sandy and Nancy went to the breakfast at Holiday Inn Express. They serve meat with their complimentary breakfast. Nancy also modeled her new helmet. It is the 40th anniversary Woodstock version. Really groovy! Our ride began in Fortuna and we took scenic HW 36 to Red Bluff. Nancy, who has been struggling with taking turns , found her inner speed demon and we finally caught up to her in Red Bluff. For George, the ride was less impressive as he was carrying, as he politely explained, a lot of weight. Sandy said he wanted to go slower to see the sights. We ate at a wonderful Mexican restaurant and headed for Chico and another beer and diet Pepsi break. When it is hot out it is imperative to take breaks for water and to douse yourself with liquid. I was still feeling pretty awful so the ride was not as thrilling as it could have been. We arrived home in the late afternoon.

It has taken me a few days to complete the blog. Both George and I have been experiencing some lassitude about the trip being over and I was struggling with the final blog. This is the longest vacation we have ever taken alone and some great things happened. Being on the back of the bike is an act of faith. There are plenty of people who would ride with anyone, but for me, it is a contract between rider and passenger. To ride together for almost two weeks on one bike, and to be sad that it has ended, truly says more about what we experienced then I can explain with mere words. There is just an intimacy with a motorcycle trip that makes it so intense and exciting. And physically exhausting. So, after traveling 2,800 miles we are home again. I

find myself smiling as I write this as pictures of the past two weeks are flying through my head. When I look into the future though, I see two gray haired people sitting together pouring through this and future blogs, maybe with a few tears, lots of laughs, remembering when.....

One of my favorite Christmas books is called Star Mother's Youngest Child. The Youngest Child begged his mother to let him celebrate Christmas the way they do down there (on earth). There was also an old woman on earth who was also shouting to the heavens about how she would like to celebrate Christmas, just once. The story is about the circumstances of their meeting and making a Christmas. Quite wonderful. When the Youngest Child returns to the sky that night his mother is anxiously waiting to hear about his day. "Tell me about Christmas. Is that too much to ask?"she says. "It was-oh Mother-"Youngest Child yawned- "it was...enough," he said.

the end

Uncle Nancy & Aunt Sandy Join the Ride

Today was really a humptulip day. George and I went out to dinner last night at a very nice restaurant where he had lamb chops and I had a pasta dish with mushrooms, dried tomatoes, and spinach. Around 3:00am I woke up with a migraine. Things plummeted from there. I thought vegetarians could not get food poisoning. Wild mushrooms? George asked for a late checkout and I scraped myself together and we finally on the road to Fortuna around 11:45. As awful as it was and continues to be....it is not a broken wrist or ankle. There will not be pictures.

We are now in Fortuna awaiting the arrival of Sandy and Nancy. They are joining for the final leg of our journey. We are sharing a suite at Comfort Inn which means lots of laughs and hopefully some good pictures. More later.

Today, August 26th 2009 is Ben and Elizabeth Platt's 3's anniversary! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! WE LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!!! The only picture I could find for today was this one of Ben, Liz, and my nephew Greg.


Sandy and Nancy didn't get here until 8:30 after a very long drive. We went to dinner at a brewery, where I still did not feel like eating, and Nancy is now doing real estate work. Funny story though. When they got to the room they brought this 19 gallon bottle of vodka. Sandy mixed them drinks, vodka and tonic (diet tonic which I totally don't get!) and we walked to the restaurant. They hadn't finished their drinks before we got there so they brought the cups in with them. The waitress comes up to the table and asks Sandy if there was water in his cup and he said yes. She asked if she could smell it and he said, so sweetly, yes. She took and big whiff and said," oh good, you wouldn't believe the things people try to sneak in here." It was hysterical! The drink had been 90% vodka. Anyway, we fooled her and ordered a pitcher of beer. Great dinner by the way, wish I had felt better.....Jenson

Count Down

Today was humptulip. The weather was overcast and a bit drizzly. George is a man's man and nothing seems to wear him down, but I must admit I am finding poling the river a little harder each day. This is not to say that today was not splendid. We left Florence around 8:00 and stopped at the Harley Davidson dealership in Coos Bay. From there we drove through Bandon, but decided that we did not need to see anymore cheesy stuff. We arrived at our final destination of Gold Beach around lunch time. I had made a reservation at the Gold Beach Inn and we were able to check in early. Before I go on I need to interject a little story. It was like this. Years ago my sister, Karen, and her family traveled to Oregon. When they returned she raved about Gold Beach. Now if my sister raves about something that generally means the shopping is good. So I have always thought that Gold Beach is the place to be. Sort of like a nice Carmel. We pull into town and I am expecting the Gold Beach Inn to be, well, different. I was expecting Gold Beach to be different. I don't even know how to explain the town. Except this. I decided to buy one tiny more gift and we could barely find a store to buy it in. We were both in stitches. But back to the Inn. What a wonderful place. Our room has a large window overlooking the ocean. There is a small balcony and a very large bedroom. The grounds are incredible. The best part is this huge deck that has two spas, one covered, one outside, and an enclosed room to warm up in. You can see the ocean from there. Unbelievable. This is a place I could stay and really relax. We walked to the beach and George hunted for agates. After the walk and spa he decided he needed another ride. He is also insisting we go out to dinner tonight as we have been eating in our room every night. The man needs a steak. I hope they serve vegetables. As I am writing I am watching the big blue ocean watching me. It is unreal. I will miss the road. I am also aware that it is becoming humptulip.

Say Cheese

We sadly left our wonderful room on the ocean and roared off for Tillamook. The wonderful place we stayed at had a binder with recommendations of things to do in the area. One of the recommendations was to take the self-guided tour at Tillamook Cheese. It also said that the Cafe served an excellent breakfast and lunch. That was all we needed to read. When we arrived we were surprised to see a cafeteria type setting and were prepared to be disappointed with our meals. When they came George make a noise between a mew and a purr and I asked him what he said. Something like, "the sausage" came out and I took it to mean he was in heaven. He was so excited he even took a picture of our food. My pancakes were plate size and perfect. Neither one of us could finish the meal. Oh, about the tour. Yes, we did take the tour. Quite intersting. We just kept saying that we could not do the same job on a conveyor belt all day long. And as they work they are being stared at by visitors to the plant.

The rest of the day we rode along HW 101 enjoying the views of the ocean. We did stop by Cape Meares Lighthouse. Wow! The lighthouse itself is something to see as is the view from the area around it. We stopped in Newport for a very light lunch and were entertained by a flock of sea lions who live on the pier below the restaurant. It was so wonderful watching them interact.

Oregon has the most amazing coastline. It is easily assessable and in most areas there are no entrance fees. What a pleasure it was to be able to smell the sea air and see the ocean as we traveled to our next destination.

By the way, I noticed I have a new follower. Hi Muffy. I am guessing you are of the canine persuasion-I just cannot remember meeting you. Can you give me more clues?

Tonight we are at the Comfort Inn in Florence, Oregon. It has been another gorgeous day. We are going to sit back, relax, and discuss the splendor of the day. George said he is going to walk next door and have KFC for dinner. Can you imagine? Jenson

The Thing About George

We left the city of Aberdeen and headed south on 101 for Astoria. George found a great place for smoked salmon there. Yum! A few hours later we arrived in Cannon Beach. It is Oregon's answer to Carmel. Very crowded, lots of shops and eateries. We had lunch there and walked around and then headed for our final destination-Rockaway. I found this motel online and it turned out to be most excellent. It is called Tradewinds Motel. We have a room right on the ocean. We can literally open our slider and be on the beach in 10 seconds. George is as happy as I have ever seen him. Which makes me so happy. He has taken a walk, a million pictures of himself, and two million of the sun setting. It is bliss. I believe as the tide goes out it is taking all of our muscle aches and pains with it. This would be an awesome place to come with a large group. We were sitting on our little deck watching family members and kids play catch and fly kites and laugh. Tonight there will be bonfires on the beach. We are so happy. Hang ten everybody. Jenson

Humptulips

I admit that I began the day a little irritated. (Nothing a large bag of plums would not help.) So off we went to Neah Bay the most western part of the continental US. It was a cold and damp ride and I could not understand why we needed to go. George said we were going to ride somewhere, so why not there? When we arrived there was not even a sign we could take a picture by. However we did visit a beautiful museum for a Native American tribe the Makah. This was truly a top notch museum with wonderful exhibits and it is located at the far end of no where. The gentleman who ran the museum told George that the area gets 8 to 12 feet of rain a year. This is apparent in the fabulous greenery that grows everywhere. The ride from there was absolutely breathtaking. It it a rain forest and being on the bike you are treated to the constant shifts in the environment. We were very lucky to be there on a foggy/sunny day. One of the things I have loved the most are the wildflowers that bloom on both sides of the highway. The backdrop are the large green fir trees fronted by the wildflowers of every color, shape, type. It was impossible to be bored riding through such beauty.

HW 101 runs through the Olympic National Forest. We could have spent all day visiting the beaches that populate the peninsula. We did stop by Ruby Beach and a kind stranger offered to take a picture of us together. It's part of the oddity of being without other people. We take pictures of each other and so it I often think the pictures will come out looking as though we had separate vacations! Anyway Ruby Beach was quite beautiful. Filled with driftwood. Our best find though was Lake Quinault Lodge. The lodge was located in the Quinault rainforest. The lodge was amazing. The back of it was this immense grassy area where people could sit and watch Lake Quinault. The lodge was booked so we were unable to stay, but we will be back!!

Humptulips: A small town. The name is Native American meaning hard to pole in the Humptulips river.

We ended the day at Aberdeen. As George says it is a , well I won't quote. It isn't much. But we found the only hotel worth staying at so we were happy. They have an ironing board in the room so I can actually iron a shirt for today. Life is good. More later. Jenson

Happy Sequim

We are having the most interesting experiences. It is though there is this network of unrelated strangers out there connected in no particular way except that they all are helping to make gandjdiscoverthepnw the best trip ever! So here's what happened.

We left Anacortes and were quickly driving over the Deception Pass Bridge. This bridge connects Whidbey Island to the rest of Washington. The bridge is beautiful and is actually built in two sections. It is called the Deception Bridge because the Spanish lied about it being a small bay a million years ago. The sailors from the Vancouver Expedition led by Joseph Whidbey apparently did not like that. Anyway, we arrived at the Port Townsend Ferry and were fortunate enough to get on the ferry despite having no reservations. If we were in a car we would not have gotten on today. On the ferry we were talking with some random strangers when, a special one, recommended that we go to Sequim. (Pronounced Scquim) Oddly enough George had done business in Sequim before. (Sequim is the lavender capital of the world. ) We disembarked from the ferry and drove into the very quaint Port Townsend. We were looking for a place to eat so I went into a shop and sure enough, another two special strangers gave me a great recommendation. Before George knew what hit him, we were sitting at Jordinis On The Water, at a table over looking the Puget Sound, sipping our favorite beverages. The really funny thing is that they had an Italian Stallion on the menu! We arrived in Sequim expecting to see Lavender everywhere but we actually ended up at a Safeway where there was a Starbucks so we could use the free Wifi and find a place in Port Angeles for the night. I was watching this mom with her two kids eat chinese food and finally decided to that she would know where to go for lavender. And of course she was another great stranger. We took a little ride and ended up at Cedarbrook Lavender and Herb Farm. This will be a cute blog when we put pictures to it. Think George at a Lavender Farm. We have also used the recommendations of strangers to find two great places to stay the last two nights.

I am finishing this blog up on Saturday August 22nd, 2009. This is Sandy and Nancy Platt's 28th wedding anniversay. HAPPY ANNIVERSAY! WE LOVE YOU!!!!

Life on the road is good. Wish you were all here....Jenson