Okay, so I missed Thursdays report. Lets just say that it started out soooo beautiful with the sun rising in the Rainforest on the short trails by the visitor’s center. Let me put it this way, the first trail I went down I drained the batteries on the digital camera and then shortly thereafter I ran out of film in my Lomo. I was probably only halfway along the very short trail, less than 3/4 miles at best, so I went through thinking I was okay with what I had. Getting back to my motorbike I put in a roll and figured what the heck, I'll take the very short trail, which ended up not being the very short trail but then when you are in a hurry and you don't read the signs you will soon find yourself on the wrong trail. Of course on that trail I quickly ran out of film again. You would have thought I’d have carried a spare roll, or two, after the first but is was supposed to be a trail about two blocks long.
Anyway, on the first trail, I hadn't gone 50 yards and I stopped to take a picture and after taking at least one I realized in the picture there where two otters playing in the brook, right up close too, within 10 yards. They were polite enough to stand still for the first and one or two after, but dare I say, the cute little pair continued playing as I moved on. This was my first wildlife sighting of the day. Which is pretty good after the bull elk the night before.
After that it didn't take too long for my day to go straight down the tubes. It culminated in me saying some rather unlike me sentences to the cashier at Safeway in Tillamook because he wouldn't give me the sale prices because I didn't have a Safeway card. Sure he was in his 60's and calling me sir, but I should have just left it all there but I'm too damn polite and of course the whole episode kept me up last night, that and the beer, not the end to my day that I needed. Management of Safeway will soon be getting a letter from me about my experience. “It’s store policy” whatever. "If you would like you can fill out the form to get a Safeway card." Perhaps when he was still in school when Wisconsin wasn't a state yet so perhaps he doesn't know how far away it is and why his lack of helping me created a very poor experience that will probably create a lifelong memory and story about Safeway to whomever I can get to stand still long enough to tell it to. When in my own dumpy Piggly Wiggly in Plymouth they will give the sale prices if I forget my card if I ask. Why I never!
So today…yeah, today. The coastline from mid Washington to California has been socked in with an intermittent heavy cold fog. The temperature difference between in and out of it is probably 10-15 degrees. So yeah I was cold most of today and it cut my trip down the coast to the edge of California short. I even had to force myself to go further as it was since seeing the Oregon coast was most of the reason why I came. Lets just say that between the fog and the coastal development it wasn't worth the oatmeal in my stomach. Though at my destinations end I did stop in the touristy part of Bandon and ate some decent hot seafood at a little shack next to the boat launch. The salmon weren't really biting and the fishermen were complaining. So I looked at the map, weighed my options and headed up into the mountains, and now I am within a couple hours of Crater Lake National Park which I am forcing myself to go since it is so close but as you probably can tell I am a little homesick for a regular bed, Henry, friendly neighbors, unlike the noisy trailer trash that just pulled in and of course put their trailer next to me. Who goes camping with electric everything and a loud generator to run it all? And with the yurt trash up the hill from me...in every intoxicated there is always a woman with a loud obnoxious laugh that carries. I guess a solitary life requires a necessary evil element to make me feel better about packing up in the morning, with my mood I am sure some revving of the motor will be in order. It does need to warm up a bit in the cool morning air.
So today was a mix of traffic in the north and a few stops to take pictures of the fog and muscle soreness from being cold and stressed. Oddly, I find myself wanting for the open road again, regardless of the straightness.
Oregon also has a tidy little law that says you can't pump your own gas. All fine and dandy if you are in a car but on a motorbike…I have to wait for them to start the pump and hand me the nozzle. It’s a hefty fine for me to take it from the pump. Probably so I don't drive off with the hose still in my tank. We all know how often that happens in our own states. Why that time I was filling my Coleman camp stove and walked off with the hose still in the funnel….
Then there was the Oregon state park yesterday that advertised in all my literature $8 sites for tenting that turned into "all sites $20". As if I needed to attach water and electricity to my tent. And that is really where my day went to shit. Yeah, I should have paid the $20, then the extra $2 for a shower and I think technically there was an entrance fee too. I guess not many people camp anymore without a refrigerator, electric grill, and generator to make the 10’x30’ patch of hard ground just feel a little bit more like home. Why when I was young I had to carry five-gallon jugs of water….
Oh crikey, then there was moving on to Tillamook with a listed camping site for free in the mountains. I of course rode up into the hills on fumes only to get to a loose gravel road, which very quickly had my life flashing before my eyes and a whole lot of dollar signs interspersed with pictures of my childhood swinging sweetly on a swing. I was close to actually crying I think, which would probably have been therapeutic. Not me while on the swing, but on my motorbike. Then I heard the sounds of what they call OHVs and I call 4-wheelers and I didn't want to deal with anyone so I obviously was successful getting out of there without dropping it in the gravel, back into the cold fog of Tillamook, another chaperoned fill-up at the Shell station, and after a stop at another overpriced campground, though it did have wi-fi, I ended up at a motel that was much nicer than the one in Washington, and cheaper, good coffee this morning and Spanish speaking maids talking about me shirtless strapping everything on this morning, I’m sure. The trip to Safeway I already talked about but you get the idea of the state I was in before I had even got there.
I think all in all its not the people that frustrate me the most as much as trying to control my thought process when I begin to shut down and need to make intelligent decisions after so many things have not gone as expected. But yes being irritable doesn’t make overweight pajama-clad shoppers in Safeway look anymore appealing than standing on their front porch in skivvies drinking beer. People! Keep the bedroom wear in the bedroom. Even the skimpy stuff, especially when you go to the customer unfriendly Safeway in Tillamook, Oregon.
But yeah, I am finding it difficult to plan my trip back since it was a distinct psychological turn at Bandon knowing that it was all straight back. No matter where you go and how far away, going home is never fast enough and all too soon at the same time. I've got things I need to get done, a doggy to get in Vermont which will be a trip in itself and I’m tired, every muscle is sore, my jaw, I think, is permanently clenched, I could use more fiber, and I need to figure out in which bag I packed my serenity.
Anyway, my tire is looking worse for wear but I realized today that I've put on 3,000 miles since I've left. I think I had planned for my whole trip to be 4,000 miles. So that in it self creates a dilemma, how to get a tire ordered and to a place where it can be put on. Course knowing me I'll see how long we can go on it as it is but either here or there or anywhere it’s inevitable. I suppose I could have it shipped to mile marker 543 in Idaho and find a place to mount it. Motorcycle tires usually aren't something a shop keeps on hand. Course the bike could use a tune-up too, but then that would require about two or three hours of cleaning the crud off that is still stuck to the pipes from that stretch of road construction outside of Malta, Montana. Not that I'm wishing for rain or anything because then that tire would come into play as being something that needs to be done.
So with that I shut down the computer, figure out a route home, decide whether we go to Crater Lake or not, and if I actually go into Yellowstone, or just pile on the miles and ride home. I should have followed the thought of turning around in Burlington, Washington and gone back through the Cascades and Glacier. But Joel continues to try to help keep my mind open to new possibilities, showers, clean under garments, cheaper gas, and dream of campmates that get exposed to their own carbon monoxide thus making a quiet trip across the river Styx.
Wish me luck. Either way I'm sure you'll read about it.

Route (day 13): Highway 101 south to Highway 4, to Highway 401, to Highway 101, south to Tillamook.
Route (day 14): Highway 101 south to Highway 42S, east to Highway 42, east to North I-5, to East Highway 138.