Up at 5a with Beau at the Motel 6 here in Seaside, neither Suz or I slept well due to pre event anxiety, looking forward to the daily ride after spending a lot of time on the road in motels and campgrounds with no regular routine. We go up the street Herbs for breakfast with Shelly and Bob. Great and affordable eggs and pancake place. We find that Shelly has ridden across the USA back in '76, but seems to have a bit of a negative take on the ride. Maybe she did not like it back then, but she does not say that, just nothing good about the experience. Suz is a little anxious, a bit of a stew about getting lost, no home , no routine and my not getting run over on the side of the road. I know that after the first week this will subside as things iron out into even a loose routine as we go. We decide to do a food kitty and all donate to the fund. Suz will shop for dinners and snacks and of course some beer for all, tonight we will do a roast chicken and deli salad.
We meet at the end of the Louis and Clark Trail monument on the beach for our pre ride pictures and a 9:30a start. We work our way across the boardwalk and up through town to a country road that runs to Astoria about 20 miles to the North then we will follow the Columbia river Gorge up past Portland on route 30. The first hill was a challenge at at least for me and we tooled up at about 8mph and then down at 25 with the brakes on due to rain and a wet road. Want to get the feel of the loaded bike on the up and down hills before we do any downhill speeding. See lots of farms and mule deer on the hill sides much as it would be in upstate New York or Ohio. We meet Suz at the Safeway grocery for a soup and sandwich lunch in Astoria and shop for dinner. Nice grocery with a coffee shop, deli and Internet kiosk. Suz drives ahead to reserve a spot at a County camp ground, then leaves to shop and when we return we find our soft shell cooler stolen. We left it and Beau's bed on the picnic table to "reserve" it for our arrival. Oh well, someone will have bad Karma for their bad deed, we loose some vitamins, tea, oatmeal and such . The campground is secluded and right next to a Columbia river tributary. Some young guys are fishing and pull out a huge Chinook Salmon and two smaller ones just about dusk. Will have to come back here someday, had to be a 30 pound fish. Will post a picture one of these days of this fish. It is still raining on and off, we rode 42 miles the first day . We will keep the mileage low the first week or two until all riders get their touring legs for the hills. Only down side of this route after Astoria is the car and truck noise along the road. Nice shoulder so it is not dangerous, but just noisy with a lot of traffic blasting by. We turn in early when it starts to rain, updating our journals and reading. Will have to see what time the group gets together tomorrow, will we be a early or late starting group? Last thing I remember is the rain on the van top as I drift off to sleep surrounded by the pines in this country campground.
Jim, Suz and Bikely Beau
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