Friday 24th May - The final leg. Eastbound from Washington, through Idaho to Montana

Tonight I make no apologies for the self-indulgent nature of the blog. I had a mission and it was completed.

I left Seattle in a few spots of rain but the sky was clear. A bridge had collapsed on the I5 last night but although we had used that road going to Orcas we were nowhere near it when it happened. So, I had a good run through the north of Seattle and then turned east  on the I90 heading for Haugan, Montana,  My target was the $10,000 bar where we had visited some years ago with Fred and Becky and where following that visit Fred had put up a silver dollar in my name - number 54,757. Today the bar is called the $50,000 bar so it is still a bit behind!

I had been warned that travelling through the Snoqualmie Pass - 3022ft – of the Cascade Mountains would inevitably involve riding through rain – snow was predicted above 4000ft – but in fact it was dry all through. 

 

 

 

 But boy was it cold – my top box and panniers were almost empty because I was wearing all the clothes I possessed – looked like the Michelin man but was still cold – tumble-weed willie was a distant and fond memory!

All the prayers I had uttered when riding through the blistering heat of the Arizona desert had belatedly been answered and a snow fringed 6°C was the response.

 

 

 

 The rain came later though

 

 and I had a “challenging” ride on through Idaho and into Montana. I had wanted to take some side roads which had some historical significance but they were dirt roads of clay and gravel and in the rain the resultant slip meant that if I had dropped the bike I probably wouldn’t be able to get enough purchase to lift it so I bottled it and took paved roads - I know - wimp!

A lot of history in those roads though …

The Mullan Road was the first wagon road to cross the Rocky Mountains to the Inland of the Pacific Northwest. It was built by US Army Lieut. John Mullan between the spring of 1859 and summer 1860...

that's the anorak bit done.

Bits were dropping off as I came down from the mountains and never have I been so pleased to see a burger bar as when, approaching the Columbia River

                            the Blustery’s Burger Drive-In at Vantage appeared.

A really great place with happy staff and wonderful signage….

 Crossed over the Columbia and when I stopped for a backwards looking photo

 

 

 

 I saw these 15 horses  

 

 They are made of rusted steel and weigh about 1,200 pounds each. They were commissioned in 1989 to honour the days when real wild horses roamed the arid steppes. The area near Vantage was the site of the last grand roundup of wild horses in 1906. The artist is David Govedare.

The road then led through the “big sky” area of east Washington where there was nothing but fields as far as they eye could see and then up into the mountains, streams and lakes of Idaho.

This was an area where numerous attempts had been made to drive a route through to the west and just when I thought I had reached the plains of Montana more mountain passes and snow and ran, and fog hit me

  

Thought we spoke roughly the same language but perhaps a different definition of "Prime"...

Then Montana started but the rain didn’t stop. Still, fortunately a very nice receptionist at the bar’s motel found a great place for the bike

and then I checked in to coffee and a hot shower.

After both the above I went over to the bar and the self-indulgent bit is coming ...

The bar dates back to 1951 when Gerry and Marie Lincoln hammered a silver dollar into the  bar of their small saloon. The idea caught on and by 1953 over 2000 people had placed their coins in the bar top. That bar top is still in use and contains 2115 dollars. 

 All the others, currently  62,319 mounted are embedded in boards displayed around the bar's walls.

A bit of smooth talking with Phyllis the barmaid – I can do it when I have to – who” just loved” my accent

 I found the dollar Fred had put there for me - number 54,757, she looked it up on a computer and then gave me a grid reference akin to locating the Graf Spee in the River Plate and a pair of binoculars – honestly – and there it was.

I then gave her a Silver Dollar Becky had given me and “Fred Staatz, Seattle” will soon be up there with the best, number 64125!

The story surrounding this slug is apparently true ...

 

Here’s the indulgent bit ……  I then worked my way through the local beers, Moose Drool, Copper John Scotch Style Ale, Pigs’ Ass Porte and Big Sky IPA washed down with Cinnamon Whiskey (and those that thinks this is a bit soft should try it|) and drank to absent friends -  Evan, Fred, Jerry, Brian – He seems to take the best!  I am very priviledged to have known them all.

Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd May Orcas Island and Back

Sorry for lack of Blog but communication on Island a bit difficult.

If you are still with me, then thank you.

Intend setting off on final part of trip tomorrow morning - over 5000 miles done, 2991 miles of Trans-Canada to do!

Stick with me, may need you!

Tuesday 21st May Orcas Island

Up early – very early – and faced an apparently typical Seattle rainy day. Undaunted though the truck was loaded, the Interstate north was battled with and we eventually found ourselves heading west to Anacortes and the ferry to Orcas Island one of the San Juan Islands.

We drove through acres and acres of rich, dark, almost black arable farm land

and then by contrast approached a massive oil refinery situated next to the ferry terminal. Queued in the drizzle to get on but boat more than half empty, the season for holiday makers hardly started yet.

Weather dried up as we sailed first to Lopez Island and then on to Orcas but it didn’t brighten up much.

Brighten up I did though when we arrived at the house after a short drive from the ferry.

It is magnificent, can’t say more. Nestling in the trees overlooking the    bay the land has been in the family for years and so permission to build the house was based on what the Americans term “grandfather rights”. Fred died just as he and Becky were moving in, one of those cruel, inexplicable interventions. He was though such a larger than life yet gentle man that his presence in that little bit of paradise is undeniable.

 

Spent an evening “next door” but in effect along a beautiful deer walk along the cliff and through the wood, at Fred’s cousin - several times removed apparently, but still next door – Martha’s and her husband, also Fred. 

 Eagles, humming birds, kingfishers,  deer, starfish all some of the wildlife I experienced on that first day...

 

 and with the promise of seeing sea otters and seals tomorrow ....

                                                                                                     I went to bed.

Monday 20th May - Washington State and Seattle

Got to be disciplined today. Need to be in Seattle by 3pm so it is another straight plug up Interstate 5, not what the trip was all about but necessary to link with the final leg of the trip – The 3000 miles of the Trans-Canada Highway.

Nearly managed it, only unplanned detour was down into Portland as I caught sight of the city and the river from the heights as I approached it. I of course couldn’t stop on the Interstate and where I did pull off I could only catch partial views of the city as houses had been built to take every advantage of those views and in so doing blocked them for anyone not lucky enough to live there. So after riding around among those houses and attracting too much attention I pulled back onto I5 to ride “across” the city.

 

It was a tremendous – I’m using amazing too much. I hadn’t thought of Portland as anything but a big port city but I was obviously so wrong. The views of the Columbia River with all the houseboats and the skyline were unbelievable,  really beyond my feeble attempts at description – the bridges, new glass/steel buildings and interstate links just mind blowing, at one point the interstate bridge I was on seemed to be the highest point in the city. On a bike – more or less in the open - that was awesome – another good word. One last bridge and I crossed another State Line – I was now in Washington State.

Another slight detour – planned though this time – was to Bruce and Nancy’s, friends of Lee and Gary who had kindly offered me a stop-off point in Olympia, just 60 miles south of Seattle before I girded those loins again for the anticipated playtime with Seattle traffic. I thank them for that – and the coffee and sandwich they gave me.

The long interstate stretches today once again gave me time to look at all the signs displayed for the   education, titillation or seduction of travellers.

I passed through Linn County, The Grass Seed Capital of the World, Wow!  A little later a sign advertising recycling said “I spy something green!” Well, in the World’s Grass Seed Capital you would wouldn’t you – even my youngest granddaughter would guess that one.

Mind you, there was one for an artificial lawn company – tag-line “We just keep Rolling a Lawn!” geddit!  I’m surprised that company hasn’t been driven out of business, at least out of town by the Executive Directors of the Linn Grass Seed Growers Association.

If you die tonight – Heaven or Hell?  Choice, fact, what? It didn’t tell you or how you could influence it either way!

“Have an MRI Scan for just $545” – now I can see your subconscious saying to you as you drive past a Starbucks sign “you know I could do with a coffee” or with another perhaps “Will go there I was thinking the oil needs changing” – (Legal Note: not suggesting that Starbucks coffee and engine oil are at all similar) but does it really work with MRI Scans – I guess I’m lucky enough not to know.

On a more serious note I was intrigued – and saddened a little - by the number of bridges, interchanges, junctions,  etc. that were designated  as a “Memorial” to individual Police Officers, Sheriffs, Deputies, Highway Patrol Officers and State Troopers. It’s a bit of teasing point with Gary’s daughter that police officers in the UK aren’t routinely armed – “Stop or I’ll ….. shout stop again!” is something she often throws at me. But in the UK the death on duty of an officer is so rare it is a cause for national mourning – look at the 2 female officers in Manchester recently – and many of the officers names we can remember – WPC Yvonne Fletcher for example.

However, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, on average, one law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty somewhere in the United States every 57 hours. It does make you pause for thought – that’s 1 family destroyed every 57 hours. You would think that as those killed were not harmless children cowering in a school room but trained, well armed, presumable alert, professionals this would cause the NRA a little discomfort with it’s “we would be safer if everyone carried a gun” argument wouldn’t you.

Rode past Garlic World – bet you don’t need a bumper sticker to let people know you have been there.

Traffic into Seattle was heavy but not too daunting and by now I am comfortable with both filtering through – here they call it splitting - the traffic and using the “High Occupancy” lane – for vehicles with more than one occupant AND motorcycles. As with other large cities I have visited on the trip the thrill as I got that first peek was as electrifying as the first time I said “I’m here – on my bike!” The Seattle skyline is instantly recognisable with the Space Needle Tower and the backdrop of the  Puget Sound and Lake Washington.

Up through the leafy lanes around the University and I arrived at Becky’s wonderful early 1900s home.

After a very warm welcome and a catch up the plan was put in place to go tomorrow and spend a few days up at the house Becky and her late husband Fred had spent the last few years completing on Orcas Island .

Negotiation with Becky’s good friend and neighbour Martha meant I could tuck my bike up for a welcome rest in the cool of Martha’s garage while we were away – we were going in Becky’s truck - so any anxieties on that score were cleared.

Laundry and a beer call, not necessarily in that order…..

Sunday 19th May - On to Oregon

 The experience of yesterday caused me to have some thoughts as to plans.  I could continue to go along Highway 1 by the coast and no doubt see more spectacular scenery but I had a long way to go so alternatively I could cut straight across to Interstate 5 and zap up that. In the end I took the middle route, literally, Highway 101 diagonally North West up through the mountains and across to the coast at Eureka. 

Turned out to be an excellent decision – haven’t really read much about the 101 but it was probably one of the best bike roads I’ve been on – and for such a great a distance - the sat nav directions that said “turn right in 138 miles”!  A mainly two but sometimes four lane road with long sweeping cambered turns and clear edges that allowed you to see for miles. Hardly any traffic -   like having the Nurburgring to yourself – non- petrol heads look it up.

Immediately I left Willits I saw deer down in the dapple shaded valley bottoms and numerous wild turkeys and their more able but equally aesthetically challenged cousins, turkey vultures.

It was a lovely cool morning - more like early English summer time – remember that – and when I wasn’t up in the hills on those curves I was haring along perfectly flat, straight sections on the broad based valley bottoms with mixed land use of what looked like dairy farms and vegetable crops but  mixed with cherry orchards and strawberry fields.  If it is sounding just a bit idyllic – well, it was.

Then the Redwoods came. They are magnificent – at one point The Valley of Giants parallels the 101 for 32 miles – part of the 53,000 acres of the Humboldt Redwoods State Park – and so another detour called for.

Not part of the park and just fun was this – had to do it didn’t I.

 

So much for new plans - by the time I had reached the coast at at 2.30 I had only done 155 miles – and wanted to get some 450 in today!

 

 

 

 

That meant travelling further up the coast wasn’t on – I just wouldn’t do it. So the Oregon coastline will have to be for another day. I cut back east along a road heading for Grants Pass and I’ll have to bore you again by saying that this was another 60 miles of heaven – I know I go on but riding through those trees with a cool breeze but bright sunshine filtering  through the foliage was just perfect.

 

Went past the Smoke Jumpers’ base but too late to go to the museum there. Talk about putting your life on the line – these guys, and I guess guyesses  - jump out of planes to fight fires in remote areas before they get too big a hold – now, already that’s two things that nature is telling you not to do – can’t imagine how they manage that but a lot of people in the area are glad they do.  (Another recommendation – The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans of the Horse Whisperer fame! )

Don't know what this was all about...

 

Know the bottom one is a clumsy tribute to James Earle Fraser's End of The Trail Statue 

 

On through the woods I passed over into Oregon

 



 

Through the wide flat bottomed valleys again...

Then I saw this "Architectural Feature" I'm hoping to copy at home....

That brown line is about 200 yards long and in detail is.....




 

 

Get the picture, know just the field, Watch out for "Rusty Tractor" .......

 

I hit the Interstate and then had an uneventful slog for miles til I got to Eugene – what kind of name is that for a town?