2010 June 28th:
Mark:
This morning we woke to bleak dark grey skies. The temperature was below 60°F and it looked cold. I checked the weather and it said cool but no rain with a high of 60°F. I posted the blog from last night and then I woke up Niko so that we could get some breakfast. He seemed a little groggy from being up so late. We headed downstairs for breakfast. I ate a big plateful of scrambled eggs and sausage and some hot cocoa.
I went back to the room since Niko wasn’t done with his breakfast. I got dressed for cold weather and then packed up the rest of the clothes. My bag was a lot easier to stuff into the pannier since it didn’t have my cold weather gear in it. We moved the bikes over to the front door and went to load the entire set of luggage onto one of those carts and rolled that to the front door. Once everything was loaded onto the bike we went back to the room for our jackets and a final look over. When we were putting on our helmets, Niko realized that he didn’t have his glasses, so he went back to the room to find them. With all of this scattered running about, it took us a little longer than normal to get on the road. We left by 9:30am so we did fine.
Traffic was light and we headed south and we were almost to Newport Oregon in a short time. I saw the signs for Yaquina Head Lighthouse and thought that Niko might enjoy seeing this place. He went down to the beach since it was low tide and took the camera for some pictures. There were birds everywhere and some seals and sea lions out on the rocks. When Niko came back up from the beach, we walked around the lighthouse, which wasn’t open yet, and then we left.
Once we were in town, I took Niko around and showed him my old neighborhood and school. We rode around through town and then down around the bay waterfront. We went through town again and then over the bridge to the Marine Science Center. I had always enjoyed that when I was younger. Once we left there we rode for awhile and stopped at Cape Perpetua, just past Heceta Head Lighthouse. There wasn’t much to see, but the view of the ocean was good from that vantage point.
It seemed like we were riding forever but not really getting anywhere. The traffic was slow and we stopped to look at a lot of things. We stopped in Coos Bay Oregon and had some dinner at Taco Bell. We had been riding in misty dark clouds all day and just after we pasted through Bandon Oregon, the sky cleared up and the coast line was completely visible with beautiful blue skies. The only difference was that now it was really windy. The wind didn’t really bother us very much as it was going our way for the most part. We only rode 218 miles today and that was just one tank of gas (3.8g). When we filled up, we went less than a mile and found a place to stay in Gold Beach Oregon.
Once we were registered, we went over to Dairy Queen and had some ice cream. We went back to the motel and unloaded the bikes. I changed clothes and went over to the hot tub and Niko stayed behind to work on his part of the blog. The hot tub made me feel great and I worked on the blog when I got back. Niko had decided to go for a walk on the beach. I would have gone with him, but it seemed a little strange to me without Kathy.
Tomorrow the plan is to ride to the Grants Pass area via Agnes and Galice. Now I have been told that the rode is paved to Agnes but is gravel and dirt to Galice where it turns back to pavement. This is the kind of adventure that we wanted, so we will see how it goes. Thank you all for reading. Good Night.

Niko:
I woke reluctantly this morning as I did not sleep very well last night. I walked down to eat some breakfast and enjoyed a breakfast burrito, a muffin, an apple, and some toasted English muffin. Dad left and I saw the girl I met last night in the sauna, and talked to her over a cup of hot chocolate. Asked for her number, but had no luck. I went back to the room and began packing up.
I ended up running up and down the stairs to our room about four times for things that were still in it. We took off shortly, geared for mildly cold because of the deep grey sky above us. No heat gear today. We rode along a beautiful highway and turned at a road leading to Yaquina Head Lighthouse.
The lighthouse had a huge line, and rather than wait, I took the camera down to the tide pools at the base of the cliff. Found a baby crab the size of my thumb and several starfish. A dead sea-lion lie on the beach and many live ones about a hundred yards away. The massive rock pillars in the bay were covered in Muurs (odd black seagull looking birds).
We mounted back up and continued on down the road. We rode around Newport and saw my dad’s old house and elementary school. He also mentioned that he saw a kid his age get killed by a car on a specific street corner, and pointed it out as we went by the intersection.
After our mucking about around town, we rode over the elegant Newport Bridge, and stopped at the marine science center just on the other side of the bridge. Took quite a few pictures and touched a few tide pool critters while we were there, then got back on the road.
We rode down the road to Cape Perpetua, then visited the center there and ate some beef jerky and other snacks. Our bikes were parked precariously on a slope and I assisted dad with the awkwardly large F800. I just took a deep breath and jumped on without too much fuss.
We continued riding down the coast until we arrived in Coos Bay, and ate at Taco Bell. I was quite hungry and had a burrito supreme and the #3 combo (3 soft taco Supremes with drink). We checked the map because it was getting kind of late, and we wanted to get somewhere early for once!
We hopped back on and kept riding. We stopped in Bandon for a split second until dad re-read the sign he thought said salt water taffy, but actually said “soft serve Ice-cream”
I saw a real taffy place, but we just missed the turn and I wasn’t going to freak out dad by pulling off the road. I would like to find the ever elusive salt-water taffy on our route, because my mother made a tradition of finding a place between Seaside and Depoe Bay to buy taffy. We missed getting it there, but I’d like to find some before we leave the coastline to honor the tradition.
Immediately after Bandon, the clouds cleared completely and ELO’s song “Mr. Blue Sky” began playing in my head. Wind and sun exchanged itself for our cold and cloudy weather, and the change was quite welcome. We stopped for a picture of the nice weather and deep Blue Ocean we saw around the corner.
We stopped for gas in Gold Beach, and upon looking at the time; we decided to pack in for the night. We registered at a motel called Pacific Reef Resort, and then stopped at dairy queen for ice cream. Dad got an over flowing Blizzard, and I had an “extra-Large” vanilla cone.
We rode back and unpacked in minutes, and I began my blog as dad went to the spa. I soon tired of typing, and went for a walk on the beach. I found a few fist sized clear-gold Agates, and drew some things with a 4 foot long, 6 inch diameter piece of driftwood. Soon I found a group that built a nice fire. I talked with them and watched the sun go down as they all departed one by one.
I went back to ask dad to join me, but he worked on the blog instead. I stayed out, tending the fire until it was too dark to see five feet. That’s a problem when you’re six plus feet tall! I used my phone’s screen to navigate back, listening to frogs, the surf, and the foghorn buoy all the way back.
I wanted a shower right away to clean away the smoky scent, and shower I did. I am now finishing up this blog, and would like to say goodnight to our readers and followers. It is 12:30, and I’m getting tired.