Today set out to be just a travel day, heading west to Coos Bay, just below Florence where we left off on our trip down the Oregon Coast on US-101S. But yesterday, during the whitewater rafting trip, Nancy and Alyssa, the other two women in the raft with us said they were going to the Oregon Vortex, otherwise known as the House of Mystery, just a few miles down the road in Gold Hill. Since we had some extra time today, we thought that would be a good idea.
     The Oregon Vortex is one of those optical illusion places like Spook Hill in Lake Wales, FL or Magnetic Hill in New Brunswick, except this one is done in a crooked building and on the side of a hill . Evidently, tourists have been coming to the Oregon Vortex since the 30's. The illusions of the Oregon Vortex are all about height. The crooked house, which is REALLY crooked, by the way, looks completely different looking from entrance to exit than from exit to entrance. There are also a couple of other illusions where two people stand at either end of a level board, that they prove is level with a carpenters level, and they shoe the difference in height. When the two people swap ends on the board, one person appears to get taller, and the other shorter.
     The demonstrator gives a whole story of magnetic fields, and polar vortices, and all that mumbo-jumbo, but even as an engineer, knowing it is just an optical illusion, doesn't reduce the entertainment value. It really does appear to change height as claimed, and even shows up in photographs. It does make you think about how the human brain, and eyes really work. As we were watching the first demonstration, who was the test subject? None other than Alyssa from the raft yesterday, with Nancy, her grandmother taking pictures . What a coincidence! So we took a bunch of pictures, and even participated in one of the demonstrations ourselves. But when you both participate at the same time there is no one to take a picture and provide the photographic evidence. Duh.
     When we finished up with the Vortex, it was getting close to noon, so it was time to get on the road to Coos Bay. The original plan was to head up some of the mountain roads shown in MapQuest, until we looked a little closer, and some of these roads did not have highway numbers, they were designated as BLM roads with some sort of digits after the BLM name. It turns out that BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management, and even though these roads appear on the map, they are mostly unpaved, dirt or gravel roads, and not particularly good for a touring motorcycle.
     So we had to replan the route, which caused us to ride some 56 miles on the Interstate I-5N. Not our favorite route, but it went by quickly as there were a few mountain passes of a couple of thousand feet that slowed down most of the 18-wheelers which made the road much more enjoyable . It was no time before we made the turn west onto OR-42W which was just a typical scenic mountain road, and it turned out our hotel was located on OR-42W.
     One of the things we did notice along the way was the Roseburg Sawmill. There were a lot of lumber in stacks with wrapping that said Roseburg Forest Products on the side. The plant itself had to be at least a half mile long, and you could see the entire process, from raw logs at one end, through de-barking, on into the mill. There was even a covered railroad siding at the end where the railroad cars were being loaded with the finished stacks of lumber. It was really impressive!
     When we arrived at Coos Bay, it was really amazing how quickly the temperature dropped during the last 20 miles to the coast. It had been in the mid 80's all afternoon, and as we approached the coast, the temperature dropped to the upper 60's. Coos Bay is a typical little bayside town. There was a small harbor and boardwalk in the downtown area and a Visitors Center to show all the attractions in the area . We talked to the lady at the Visitors Center and she gave us some ideas of where to go in the morning.
     The other great thing about Coos Bay is that they have actual restaurants! There were a number to pick from within walking distance, so we chose the TripAdvisor #1 recommended Little Italy restaurant. Hmmm... Italian restaurant, who would have guessed we would pick that?   Jody had Eggplant Parmesan and I had a pasta dish with linguini, sausage, chicken, meatballs, in a meat sauce. It was excellent!
     Tomorrow we're back on US-101S, heading down the Oregon Coast. When we finish up tomorrow night, we will cross over into Crescent City, California and into the start of redwood country. It should be great fun!

187.4 miles today
10534.7 miles total

5.098 gallons today
254.359 gallons total