i'm currently in a small crappy motel room in coos bay, oregon, on day two of a whirlwind motorcycle trip. i'm aiming to be in marin county by early afternoon on friday, for a long weekend gathering organized by my friend carla.
it has thus far been an exceedingly wet trip. i got a good soaking near olympia, and then again from longview almost all the way in to portland (i stopped there to visit keri and adam). when i got there, i immediately took a hot shower and had adam fix me a cup of tea to warm up. i had to wring water out of my gloves. lots of water.
this morning i got a late start, after helping keri out with a little
tech problem she was having at work. and, joy of joy, it started
raining again almost as soon as i got on my bike -- more of the hard
rain.
disclaimer: if you don't want to read about scary things on my moto trip, skip the rest of this paragraph. i ended up on I-205 for a few miles, and had the completely terrifying experience of being hit in the face by a sheet of water thrown up by the car in the next lane, for what seemed hours but was probably only ten seconds or so. i immediately released the throttle but didn't brake (i couldn't see anything, so wasn't aware whether there was someone close behind me), and as soon as that car was past i drifted as far right in my lane as possible, nearly onto the shoulder, as there were several more cars zooming past me.
by the time i got off the freeway, i was drenched. wet golden retriever.
next time i stopped, i decided to try another layer -- i put on my cheap raingear underneath my riding armor. of course, this worked like a charm. the rain stopped almost immediately! i kept the raingear on, however, until i hit the coast. it was totally blue-sky sunny as i pulled in to lincoln city, where i stopped for chai and chocolate and shed the raingear before continuing south.
it's been a really long time since i've been on the southern oregon coast. i'm not entirely sure i've been on the whole stretch until now, honestly -- i thought i had, but don't remember travelling the stretch from florence to coos bay before. there were several cool bridges along the way, which i feel i would have remembered. i like bridges, see. but they freak me out a bit. i'm finally learning to like crossing big tall bridges on my bike. i think...
even with all the rain thus far, i'm really pleased i decided to ride instead of flying to SF. i like the way that everything falls aside for a while when i'm riding. and, while it would be great to have company, i've come to realize that i enjoy these solo motorcycle trips. wonder where my next will take me?
it is lovely to be on 101 on a motorcycle -- there's an enjoyable inconstancy to the weave of the road across the landscape that is incredibly appealing on a motorcycle. in other words, lots of fun twisties! climbing up and down the hills jutting out into the ocean is fun. definitely moreso with proper caffeine levels.
tired now, must sleep. more later, probably. hopefully with photographs.