Ready to go

Jim O. and I arrived in Portland on Wednesday after driving nearly 1300 miles over two days. Tracy arrived by air that afternoon and Jim H. and Ron got in today. Our hotel was under the flight paths into the airport and we watched their Frontier flight go directly over our heads. We waited for their call after Jim's bike was assembled and we picked them up five minutes later. We stopped for lunch on the way to Seaside and had a mini-orientation.

We unloaded the car on arrival and Doc, Ron, and I went for a 32 mile ride. We took a hilly back road up to Astoria and then headed down 101 back to Seaside. Before we got to 101, a large bull elk crossed the road some 40 meters in front of us. It was awesome! It had to jump a guardrail on the side of the road and did so with grace.

Hwy 101 was packed with traffic in each direction. The others were worried if this volume would continue down the coast. I had to tell them that I saw the same volume on my scouting trip in June and it diminished after Seaside. Apparently many of these cars head back to Portland after leaving Seaside. Hopefully, that will be the case when we leave tomorrow on our coastal adventure. We will likely not have any sunshine but should avoid rain. Fine by me and the others. In fact, we are all looking forward to cooler temperatures after the hot summer.