When I woke it was still raining, but by 9:00 am it stopped, so I got underway in a south westerly direction attempting to reach the Pacific coast where the weather forecast appeared to look better.
After I started it began to rain within a couple of blocks, as I entered Oregon, but I carried on and wound my way down one of the most enjoyable roads ever . It twisted and turned continuously for hours. It was very tiring, but challenging, especially with the water on the road. But almost as a sign or good omen, when I reached the Pacific coast the sun popped through the clouds and within an hour it came out full blast for the rest of the day.
Highway 101 is a very overwhelming road as it hugs the shoreline most of the time and the views are somewhat powerful.
There are thousands of houses perched on the shore or hills looking over the ocean and in some cases it seems that it is not possible for the regular citizen to reach the shoreline. Fortunately there are a lot of roadside viewpoints and parks that do allow uninterrupted access to the shore.
The first part of the shore road was high up in rock like hills, but eventually the road descended to almost sea level and was very sandy. It was interesting to see this abrupt change.
There are several bridges on this section of highway that are very interesting as they are very high and have support structures that have the profile of the Empire State Building .
I found that apparently there is a St Stephens, since there is a church named after him. I never knew that.
My infamous chain continues to trouble me as it makes unexpected noises and causes some surging. When my bike doesn't perform as I expect I do not relax as I should and get distracted.
So as I travelled south on Highway 101 I asked for the location of motorcycle shops and had no luck finding the chain I needed. In Florence a fantastic young lady at the Yamaha dealership called five different places on the Highway I was about to travel and had no luck, including the Suzuki dealer in Coos Bay. So my plan was to ride south to the dealer in Coos Bay and find out from them where a dealer is in San Diego and get a chain ordered and make an appointment for Monday to have it put on.
BUT, when I arrived at the Suzuki dealer, I was waiting for the parts fellow to finish with a customer before asking him for some help. As I waited, the cashier came from the front of the store and placed a package on the counter and told the parts guy that the customer had returned the product. It caught my eye, and unbelievably, it was the exact chain I need. How do these things happen??? Since it was 5:30 pm it was too late to replace it so I made an appointment for first thing tomorrow morning.
Then off to find a campground which was harder than I thought as this area is full of RV places that are like large parking lots with posts holding electricity and water connections.
All in all, it was a very good day with a terrific ending.
Distance Travelled 314 Miles 502 Km