OK, why I can't I just get good riding weather? Today was downright cold. Temperatures were below 40F when I started out and never got warmer than 60F regardless of where I went. To make matters worse, I hit some snow (snow!) coming over the Santiam Pass in Oregon. It then rained off and on for the next hour, but I am getting ahead of myself.
Started out the day saying goodbye to Bill and Gloria and playing fetch with their son's dog. The son is off to India and China to finish off his studies, remember he is the one they went to San Luis Obispo to see graduate. I put as many layers on as I could find and started off for Crater Lake
I met a couple who live in Finland and were touring the country on his Dad's old Honda Shadow 1100. They looked like they were having fun but were cold as well. Crater Lake is still one of my favorite spots on the planet, check out the pictures (they don't do the place justice but prove I was there). Did I mention it was cold up there?
I figured it would warm up when I got down to the high desert for the ride into Bend and it did to a whopping 58F with a serious crosswind so I kept on riding right into Sisters. Since Karen's family own a vacation place outside of Sisters in Black Butte Ranch (BBR) I was familiar with the town. It really hasn't changed much since the last time I had been there, just more so. However, there is a new pizza place in town towards the western end with very thin crust. It was pretty good and offers an alternative to PapaAndrea's. I had to truck right on by BBR as they don't allow motorcycles, otherwise I would have been sorely tempted to sleep there.
The other reason I didn't stop was that I was planning to meet Don in Detroit at The Cedars Restaurant for a ride down his favorite road from Detroit to Estacada. The road is Rte. 234 and deserves to be on a ten best list as it was 65 miles of excellent pavement with twisties and long sweepers along the Clackamas River. We saw exactly two other cars the whole time. Another new favorite road for Brian, Don, and me.
My new MP3 player does a really good job with Audiobooks and since I can't get XM anymore I decided to download a book and give it a try. I tried Nostromo by Joseph Conrad (I was actually looking for Secret Sharer as recommended by Boomer but couldn't find it on Librivox) and am having a hard time with it. I think the problems are two fold: 1) the readers are spotty and do not keep the cadence of the book very well and 2) the book is a little bit of action folded around a lot of description. The nominal plot of the book is revolves around a shrewd operator that manages to steal all of the output of a silver mine in a mythical South American country against the background of ongoing revolution. What I can glean is that Conrad would have felt right at home in a Tea Party meeting as he blasts government in all its forms pretty hard throughout the book.
As an aside, I do have a copy of Hitchhiker's Guide that was thoughtfully given to me by Krista but it is stuck on the phone without batteries in a special format I use on that device to save space. I hope the MP3 player will play that format once I can get access to the data.
Rte 234 goes right through Mt. Hood National Forest and there were campgrounds every five miles. The WPA was surely busy in this neck of the woods, especially as Timberline Lodge is also on Mt. Hood. Anyway, I couldn't stay in a campground as too many of my electronic devices need to be charged. Instead, I am staying at Marc and Michele Papageorge's guest house which is also right on the Clackamas River. It is like camping in luxury: beds, bathrooms, and electricity. There is no TV or internet connection so I will have to go The Grinds (local coffee shop) tomorrow morning to do all my posting. Thanks Marc and Michele!
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Well I married me a wife, she's been trouble all my life
Run me out in the cold rain and snow
Rain and snow, run me out in the cold rain and snow
-Traditional?
Fred -- You look cold! Reminds me of our first ride this spring.....up to Rangeley on one of our other favorite roads.
ReplyDeleteHave I said thank you for taking the time to blog? It's great, highly enjoyable, love it.
Thank you.