This morning we got up to 61 degree weather.  Brrr....  This was the temperature at the beach in Ocean Shores, WA with a predicted high for the day of 65 degrees.  When we came down to breakfast, there were people in shorts getting ready to go beaching!  Needless to say, it was much too cold for us, but the temperature in The Dalles, Oregon was predicted to be 99 degrees, so we were ready to get to warmer climates!
    So it was back on US-101S this morning, and it really is a wonderful road to travel .  The Pacific Ocean is sometimes visible, or what passes for the Pacific Ocean in the Northwest.  It's really mostly mud, marsh, and salt water river incursions.  As you get a little further south into Oregon, it is more the typical rocky coast, or sandy beach.  We passed through several little coastal towns along the way.  They are all a little different, some are logging towns, others are seaports and have canning and seafood industries.  Others are just poor, trailer and ramshackle house kind of towns.  There was a nice bigger town called Raymond, WA that seemed to have an obsession with life size silhouettes of people and animals made out of rusty metal.  They were all over the sides of the streets as we rode through town, and they were having some sort of charity run, so all of the people silhouettes and even some of the animal silhouettes were wearing t-shirts to advertise the race. You have to admire their enthusiasm.
     A little further down the road we spotted a sign for the local state park.  It was called Cape Disappointment State Park .  I'm sure it's a lovely place to visit, but with that kind of advertising, we just didn't have time to take the risk of disappointment, so we passed it by.  We did stop to take a picture of the sign though.  Not too much further down the road, we spotted a great turnout next to the Pacific Ocean.  This one was more traditional, as this was the typical rocky shore, with the water coming right up to the rocks.  As we looked south we saw this huge bridge, and it didn't take us long to figure out this was the mouth of the Columbia River, and the bridge was the Astoria-Megler Bridge.  This bridge crosses the Columbia River with Megler, Washington on one side and Astoria, Oregon on the other.  Hence the clever name - Astoria-Megler Bridge.  This bridge is 4.1 miles long and stands 400 ft high.      
     Of course, we would pick the time to cross when they were doing a little bridge work.  There was only one lane of traffic where they were working at the highest point of the structure.  And like most long bridges over water, the bulk of the  bridge is just above the water, and there is a steep rise form the water level section to the 400 ft high section .  And of course, the flagman has to hold us right near the top, waiting for the single line of what seemed like it but a hundred cars to pass from the other way.  All this time, I am holding up a 900 lb motorcycle, loaded with luggage and 2 riders, using the front brake to keep the motorcycle from rolling back down a very steep incline, all the while being buffeted by a 20 knot wind.  Usually, I would lower the kickstand to help, but the slope was just too steep for it to do any good.  Besides, it only took about 10 or 15 minutes for all hundred cars to pass.
     When it was finally our turn, and we made it safely over the bridge, we did what any normal person would do in our situation, we stopped at the nearest parking lot and took pictures up at the bridge.  The towns in Oregon seemed much nicer than the ones in Washington, and as we continued south, the weather got a little warmer.
    As we were getting ready to leave US-101S to turn east towards Portland on US-26E, we decided to checkout the actual beach in Seaside, Oregon .  Seaside turned out to be a wonderful little beachside tourist town.  It had hotels, restaurants, beach shops, a carousel, and an excellent sandy beach.  There were people everywhere, very crowded for a weekday.  We stopped for a little while to take some pictures, and check out the beach.  It was still a little cold for us, 68 degrees, but it was bright and sunny and it seemed hotter in the sun.
   As we turned east on US-26E, called the Sunset Highway, the scenery changed dramatically.  The shoreline had been replaced with mountains and valleys, and lots of old growth, very dense forest.  The ride was also great fun, with lots of twists and turns, ups and downs along the way.  We stopped a couple of times at scenic overlooks to take pictures before reaching Portland.
    By the time we reached Portland, it was just about 5:00, We entered Portland from the west, and our hotel was on the east side of town, that meant passing through Portland during 5:00 rush hour.  We spent about an hour getting through in bumper to bumper traffic, but it did keep moving .  They had a lot of stop lights at the highway on-ramps, and metered how many cars could enter the freeway at any one time.  It seemed to work pretty well.  As we emerged on the east side of town, I realized that our hotel was still 87 miles away.  The plan for tomorrow was to visit the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, and if we had time over the next couple of days, we might pop into Portland.  Looks like we are actually at the easternmost border of the Scenic Area, I guess I should have paid better attention to the hotel location. 
     Between Portland and The Dalles, there are portions of Historical Route 30 that have some spectacular waterfalls and gorges.  We stopped at a couple of them on the way to the hotel, tomorrow we will backtrack and explore them much better.  By the time we made it to the hotel, it was 7:30, and we had traveled about 300 miles.  We were both tired, and the only restaurant within walking distance was McDonald's.  So it was McD's for us tonight.  We will look for a better restaurant tomorrow.

302.6 miles today
9448.7 miles total

10.807 gallons today
228.742 gallons total