Today is the day we finally left the wind tunnel called The Dalles. The Columbia Gorge was "gorgeous", but The Dalles was just too industrial, and because of the gorge, it was always windy threre. That might be great for windsurfing, but not so good for motorcycles. Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the colder today, so in addition to the wind, we now had 60 degree temperatures. Brrr...
     We had originally planned on making a visit to the Western Antique Airplane & Automobile Museum while we were staying in The Dalles, but while I was getting the motorcycle serviced, I noticed a flyer on the wall in the shop for a car show & swap meet event at WAAAM for today . They lowered the ticket prices to $10, and you got to see the entire museum, plus whatever cars people brought to the event. Such a deal! So we moved our next stop closer to Newport, OR instead of Florence, OR as originally planned to give us some time at the show.
      The museum was awesome! Anyone passing this way should not miss it. It's much bigger than I expected. It's set up at an airport, and they have 4 or 5 aircraft hangers full of exhibits. Their specialty is peacetime aircraft of from about 1915 to about 1930 and they are really beautiful planes. They co-mingle the aircraft with automobiles and motorcycles of the same time period in the displays. These are all single engine, colorful, and geared more toward speed and show rather than military. Since the planes are bigger than cars and motorcycles, the planes are laid out, and the cars and motorcycles are placed between them. They also have all kinds of "stuff" from that era, radios, appliances, even fishing lures.
     They have a large staff of volunteers that help out, mostly old guys who were more than willing to talk about cars and planes, A couple that we talked to really knew their stuff about the exhibits . They also had a thing about Model T Fords. They had most every kind of Model T, cars, pickups, heavy trucks, and a few Model T Speedsters. You could actually take a class where they would teach you how to drive a Model T. I wish we had the time, as I would have liked to try that one. A lot of the exhibits also showed the story behind the vehicle. There was one Model T Speedster, originally a truck, that was built by a 65 year old woman all by herself, except for paint and upholstery. They showed a picture of her driving the car with her twin sister as passenger when they were 75 years old. She was only 4'10" tall!
     After viewing the museum, we went outside to see what kind of crowd had gathered and the cars were beginning to arrive. There was a huge steam tractor driving around the field tooting the whistle. There was this older woman, must have been in her 70's who was riding a motorized wind surfboard and a motorized huge wheeled bicycle around the yard also. There were quite a few cars beginning to show up, some were very well done . A few restorations, but mostly hot rods. There were even a few vintage cars towing vintage camping trailers. I wish we could have stayed longer, as by noon as we were leaving, the cars were beginning to really stream in, and all the way down OR-35 we saw many cars headed to the event.
     According to one of the volunteers, they have a few car events every year, but the big event in the fall is the fly-in where people from all over fly in their vintage planes for a show. I'll bet that's fun to see. So sadly, we left WAAAM and headed south on OR-281S to OR-35S past Mt Hood. As we arrived at WAAAM, we saw Mt Hood rising into the sky with just a few clouds near the top. We planned on taking pictures as we traveled south on OR-35S to west on US-26W, but the weather did not cooperate. By the time we left the show, Mt Hood was completely covered in the clouds so we were not able to take any pictures.
     The ride down OR-35S and US-26W was great going over the mountain and past town like Rhododendron and Zigzag . But by the time we started approaching Portland, it got less fun. In the end, it was just strip malls and strip clubs as we passed through some of the seedier parts of Portland until we emerged on the western side. A few miles west, we turned onto OR-6W an had a wonderful ride all the way to the west coast where we rejoined US-101S at Tillamook. By the time we got to Tillamook though, the weather was even colder with the temperature down to 58 degrees and of course it started to drizzle. Luckily we already were wearing our rainsuits since we were so cold, so it was no big deal.
     At Tillamook, we wanted to take the WA-131 scenic route along the shore, but the fog and rain had gotten so bad, we wouldn't have been able to see anything so we just stuck with US-101S, still a beautiful road. As we headed further south, we encountered more ad more beach towns. The ocean is beautiful, and the shoreline is so different from town to town. The towns are different too. Some more touristy, some more run down, some more upscale . You never know what you'll encounter on "The 101".
     After a couple of additional stops at McDonald's for hot coffee this time, we managed to arrive in Newport, OR. It seems like an interesting town, we will explore a little more in the morning. But by the time we arrived, it was 6:00, and we were cold, wet, and hungry. We checked into the hotel,and with the aid of Around Me and TripAdvisor, settled on a place within walking distance called Georgie's Beachside Grille. The food there was awesome! Jody had the Wild Columbia River Salmon with a Blackberry BBQ sauce, and I had the Diablo Seafood Pasta which had salmon, Crabmeat, Shrimp, and Scallops in a spicy creme sauce. Both were spectacular, and it's about time, we needed a good seafood dinner for a Saturday night!
     Tomorrow we will do a little exploring around the beach, before continuing our journey south on US-101S. We will then turn inland to Roseburg, so we will be setup to visit Crater Lake National Park on Monday. We have been having trouble with the microphone on Jody's helmet, I think there may be a pinched wire. So tomorrow I will try to get that fixed, before Crater Lake, so we can continue to have conversations as we ride. As we are now, only I can speak, and Jody can only listen. (I won't even bother to make a joke here - too easy), hopefully I can use my electrical engineering skills to remedy that situation tomorrow. Newport is supposed to be cold again tomorrow, but it should be warmer in Roseburg by the time we arrive.
    
271.9 miles today
9893.7 miles total

10.028 gallons today
238.770 gallons total