WEDNESDAY - DAY 8. Another bright summer day, but it helps only a little to reduce the gloom of climbing onto an interstate after five interstate-free days. Oh well, a right turn onto the ramp, a twist of the wrist, a burst of that famous Kawasaki power, and we're skipping west on I-84... . even bad rides are good. It took forever to get to the Oregon border, even though the map showed it was only about a half an inch from Boise. We reached the Columbia River at Biggs sometime around noon. I cannot describe the effect that first sight of the river gave us. I grew up hearing about the beautiful Ohio and the mighty Mississip'. After this though, I thought maybe I'd never seen a real river before. We rode across the bridge at Biggs and followed the Columbia on the Washington side (Highway 14) until we saw the "Bridge of the Gods" near Cascade Locks. Then, we crossed back over to Oregon and took scenic US-30 by the parks and falls. We reached Portland after a great afternoon ride along that river. We had a heck of a time finding a seafood dinner in Portland before we hit the sack. Another great 465 miles... . . . we're getting a notion of why it's called the Great Northwest.
The Bridge of the Gods gleamed in the sunlight. I'd
have thought it was unnatural if I had graduated from high school.
It was really a treat for the eyes.
THURSDAY - DAY 9. The clouds came in overnight and the gloomy road west became real dreary when we missed the turn for US-26 out of Portland. We realized too late that we had traveled too far on US-30 to make amends, so we blew our only chance to see the Oregon coast on this trip. The weather was getting worse, even bleak, so we crossed into Washington at Longview rather than chance what we thought must be a high, long bridge, in the wind and rain, at Astoria. We still don't know what we missed at Astoria, but if logs are your thing, there's a fair number at Longview. We followed Highway 4 without seeing much of the river, then turned north on US-101 along the coast. After a short tour on Highway 105, we snaked along US-101 past forests (standing, burning, and burned) and lakes, but we saw very little of the coast. We arrived in Port Angeles in the afternoon and waited a couple of hours for a ferry to Victoria, BC. We enjoy ferries and this was a good one; we met a couple on a Gold Wing from California. The guy had made a really neat aluminum trailer (if you're into that kind of thing) for his Wing.
FRI & SATURDAY - DAYS 10 & 11. We hooked up with our friends from K.C. the night before and shared a condo with them while we visited Vancouver Island. On Friday, Motor & I explored a small part of the island on the bike and on Saturday, we wandered to the West side of the island with our friends, Linda, John, and John. Nothing but friendly people here; what clouds?
Sooner or later, we have to go home. But there's still a lot to see in British Columbia and Montana. Come on, turn the page one more time. Or, go back !
