Newport News

What a summer this has been. So many changes in a single season.

I put over 750 miles on my bike over Labor Day weekend - double the amount of miles I had put on there since JUNE when I bought the bike My boyfriend says I'm a natural long-distance rider, and he thinks I could out ride him. We were originally going to leave that Friday night, but things ran late, it was raining, I wasn't feeling confident on the bike (in the rain, on grooved pavement, at night, after being up 16 hours already). Lot of good reasons for getting a good night's sleep, and heading off in the morning.

About 10am, we finally got on our way - from Seattle first to Aberdeen, and then straight down 101 to Newport, Oregon. The subsequent trip on paper was supposed to take about 8 hours......but we added in some unexpected detours, long stops to warm my hands, dinner here, tank of gas there, the occasional chat with the local police department, and nineteen hours later we arrived at our hotel. Yes - that's 5am. The next day I was fine - no soreness at all. (One secret I learned - take some Ibuprofen before we ride, and it helps to keep the muscles relaxed while riding).

My boyfriend had installed headsets in our helmets so we could talk to each other, and listen to our Ipods while we rode. Made for a very pleasant ride - at least as long as the batteries held out. Crossing into Oregon, we rode over the longest bridge I've seen in a long time - maybe 7 miles long? It was awesome.

Driving down a fifty mile stretch of backwoods country highway at night without passing an open restaurant or gas station was a little unnerving....especially since I get about 100 miles to a tank of gas. Now, mind you - I'm only putting in 1.5 to 2 gallons at a time, so that's quite a bargain. But still - when the towns I've heard of are locked up tight, I'm not holding my breath for the NEXT wide spot in the road.

Around four in the morning, we finally got pointed in the direction of a gas station by a sheriff who saw us pulled over. We got gas, and hot chocolate, and pulled out of the station to continue down to Newport, when the flashing lights went off behind us. Did you turn left, right and left just a minute ago? What? No - we came straight out of the gas station and turned left. Apparently we angled across a one-way street, and it was enough of an excuse for the local gendarmes to check us out.

Fortunately we both have motorcycle endorsements and insurance, which are required in the state of Oregon, and after confirming (four or five times) that we had NOT been drinking, we were on our merry way again.

Our hotel was a stone's throw from the ocean, and we spent Sunday afternoon wandering around the little seaside village, visiting lighthouses, and other landmarks in the area. I got up about 9:30am long enough to grab some breakfast, and head back to bed. That evening, we stopped in a lovely little restaurant for dinner - very romantic, and the owner actually stayed open an extra hour to accommodate us. In fact, she was encouraging us to stay right up until the end. She said she lived about 40 miles south of that town, and enjoyed being in the area.

The fog rolled in Monday morning, but cleared as we headed away from the coast. We finally left around 2pm, again expecting about a six hour ride home (up I-5 - so mostly freeway). It was then we took one of the most delightful wrong turns of our trip......the directions SAID turn right at 34, which we did....but they meant the other 34. We passed through one little stretch of road perhaps two miles long that had at least ten hairpin turns. And then we just *had* to turn around and go back through it. What a shame ;)

There were a few things that were a little unnerving. As we hit Centralia, the rain storms started to pour. We have waterproof gear, but I haven't ridden in the rain much, certainly not on the freeway, at night, passing semi's, through construction, and having been up all day. Funny...aren't these the exact conditions I didn't want to ride in two days ago?

At one point, my helmet fogged up, and I was having trouble raising my visor to clear it. I'm in the middle of a construction zone, the police have a lane blocked off with flares, and RIGHT as I'm pulling off to the shoulder, the headset dies - so I'm unable to tell my beau what's going on. It took us about 30 minutes of backtracking and waiting to catch up with each other again - we finally got home about 2:30am.....and I had to be at work by 8:30am.

I was one tired puppy, but it was worth it. Oh - and then I stopped by my bank to pull out some cash, and discovered that my "unusual activity" over the weekend had flagged my account as potential fraud so they shut my debit card off. After a rather lengthy discussion with the fraud department, who advised me that I should have told them I'd be traveling, they reactivated it.

I calmly explained to them that in the last year I had been to Tampa, Miami, Biloxi, Pensacola, Dallas, Houston, Omaha, and southern California, and they hadn't ONCE been concerned. But I take a motorcycle trip to OREGON and suddenly I'm red-flagged? Is it really that unusual for someone in Seattle to go to Oregon??? If someone really wants fifty bucks worth of gas, two dollars at a time, they can HAVE it. I would MUCH prefer that they question the FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR cash withdrawals at the CASINO than the $50 worth of gas I bought over Labor Day.

*shakinghead* Bureaucrats.

All in all though - it was a great trip.

--BT