Tillamook Aug 7

We spent the night at some mom and pop hotel. The next morning we got breakfast and headed out. As we were leaving a Hispanic Harley rider asked if he could ride with us. (There goes another one of my stereo types of them all being fat white rednecks. I am speaking of Harley riders not hispanics.) Les seemed less than excited about him riding with us, but the guy was going the same way. We hit the road at the same pace as the day before. The Harley's long stroke design didn’t give him the snap up to passing speed the way the rest of the group could.

After about two hours of running down the coast a police officer caught up with us. I couldn’t believe that we were all pulled over and the cop let us all go except for Les. When I looked back the Cop was really chewing on Les pretty good. He was waving his hands around so much that he almost knocked his own hat off. We pulled off at the next gas station up the line and waited. Les found us after about 25 minutes. He wasn’t interested in talking about it so we just gassed up and headed out. I guess a long with really being able to ride he could really get tickets. So it goes. So our speed after that was a little bit more low key. I had no problem with keeping up the rest of the time.

We stopped at several scenic pull offs that day. The coastline was very pretty. The morning fog eventually burned off revealing a nice view of the Pacific. The second stop was at a coastal bridge the spanned a large canyon. We parked our bikes and walked to the center of the bridge for the best vista. After clicking our shots and talking we looked up to see the police officer coming down the road. He passed us without incident even though there was large sign indicating that no one on foot was allowed on the bridge. I pointed this out to Les and he replied “That's just for the jumpers”. What! Les explained that the bridge was a very popular place to commit suicide from. I laughed and said, ”I guess five guys with motorcycle helmets on snapping picture don’t really fit the profile of a jumper.” Les laugh also, “ Yeah guess not.”

The road was really a great biking road. The view, surface and turns were top notch. As we entered the top of California, the straight a ways started getting longer and I spotted several huge young red woods. About that time we all pulled over. This was the end of line for all of us riding together. Les and the two sons were continuing on down Hwy 101 towards Sacramento. Brian and I were going to head east into the mountains. The road led us up into Grants Pass. I know I sound like a broken record but this was also very scenic and a blast to ride on. We stopped and check out the Redwoods up close. I knew they were not the big ones, but they were still damn impressive. I started laughing and walked over and touch one of the trees. Brian was smiling and watching me. I realized I was acting like I was meeting someone famous. Then we watch a couple in their 70s acting the same way. I guess the scale of them makes you feel like a little kid inside. It's really funny and hard to explain just how it feels.

We jumped back on our bikes and headed up Grants Pass. Brian now being the leader was hitting the turns hard and passing everything in sight. I got stuck behind a large truck and watched as Brian ripped up the twisting canyon road ahead of me. I decided to not kill myself on this vacation so I waited for a safer spot to pass. Brian was still ways ahead of me. After passing several cars and hitting the edge of the canyon rim I saw him about 3 or 4 miles ahead. I decided to close the gap. Just about this time I noticed a dark car in my rear view mirror. I think you can figure out where this is headed. It was a cop. It was my turn. I got the perfect souvenir 87 in a 55. He asked me why I was speeding and I didn’t figure he would believe that my water broke so I mentioned that I was just trying to catch up to my buddy. After scratching out my 300 dollar ticket. He said, “Well tell him to slow down too.” I laughed and figured that it was going to be the only smartass cop I would meet in the next 2000 miles so I better make the best of it.

Just as I was getting ready to put my helmet back on the cop started asking me about my trip. He said "So you have just been riding around all summer?" I said "Yeah, pretty much." He replied "Sounds cool" I smiled and replied "Well it has been till now." The cop smile but had no retort. I headed on up the line to Klamath Falls at 55. It was getting dark so I used my GPS to find a K.O.A. campground. Brian had continued on with his trip and so was I.