Sunday, April 22, 2007
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Ride to The Coast
So this morning I met up with my friend Michael (aka router.exe) in Port Orchard and we spent the day bombing out to the coast and back. Poor fucker missed his ferry so we had to push things back about an hour. Not a big deal though. You can see an approximate route map here.
First we headed out to Belfair to top off the fuel tanks and make a quick pit stop at the local Starbucks. From there we headed out along the water through Union and down to US 101 and veered off on hwy 102. Little did we know that there is a Washington State Patrol Academy AND a jail out on hwy 102. We figured it would be a bad idea to blast past the jail at 80mph so we took it a little easy. I think I missed a turn and went straight at one point when I should have turned left, but it all worked out and we made it to Aberdeen soon enough. We stopped at a gas station to fill up and talked to some local stoner who gave us directions to a place called The Lighthouse that was supposed to have real good burgers. Unfortunately Captain Douchebag gives crappy directions, so we ended up eating at a local Dairy Queen. I actually like DQ, so it was cool with me. The local high school girl working there tried flirting with me to get me to give her a ride on my bike. Maybe in a few years and a few less cheeseburgers sweetheart.
From there we had one of our best runs out Hwy 105 to the coastline and then South to Raymond. We stopped to take a few pics by the water and a few actually turned out rather nicely. From Raymond we headed East down Hwy 6 into Chehalis. This was a real nice run as it was wide open and we were able to really open it up at a few places. Straighter than either of us would have preferred, but it was empty, so it's ok. It was empty enough that I was able to spot a white car off in the distance. Is that a...... yep, thats a cop. Good thing I spotted it or we would have run up on him faster than he would have liked I'm sure. Made it to Chehalis without incident and stopped for gas again.
We took out the map and decided on taking Hwy 507 to Tacoma rather than I-5. As a note to anyone who reads this: Hwy 507 is NOT a shortcut from Chehalis to Tacoma. That was the longest 40 miles I've done in a long time. 40 miles of douchebags driving 10mph UNDER the speed limit, and too much traffic to really pass. I do have to admit, we were able to make 3 Harley riders eat some pasta dust, so that was quite satisfying. Once we hit Tacoma traffic got real bad, so I bailed and jumped on the freeway home.
All in all a real good ride, I think I did about 300 miles total today. Came home and rested in the hot tub for a bit then took a nap.
Oh yeah, what you've all been waiting for, THE PICS!
In Port Orchard:
The obligitory shot outside Starbucks.
At the DQ. Thats the drive through lane behind my bike.
My bike at the coast:
Mike's bike:
620 on the left, 695 on the right:
Both bikes:
BUG GUTS! This is nothing compared to what it looked like when we stopped in Chehalis.
First we headed out to Belfair to top off the fuel tanks and make a quick pit stop at the local Starbucks. From there we headed out along the water through Union and down to US 101 and veered off on hwy 102. Little did we know that there is a Washington State Patrol Academy AND a jail out on hwy 102. We figured it would be a bad idea to blast past the jail at 80mph so we took it a little easy. I think I missed a turn and went straight at one point when I should have turned left, but it all worked out and we made it to Aberdeen soon enough. We stopped at a gas station to fill up and talked to some local stoner who gave us directions to a place called The Lighthouse that was supposed to have real good burgers. Unfortunately Captain Douchebag gives crappy directions, so we ended up eating at a local Dairy Queen. I actually like DQ, so it was cool with me. The local high school girl working there tried flirting with me to get me to give her a ride on my bike. Maybe in a few years and a few less cheeseburgers sweetheart.
From there we had one of our best runs out Hwy 105 to the coastline and then South to Raymond. We stopped to take a few pics by the water and a few actually turned out rather nicely. From Raymond we headed East down Hwy 6 into Chehalis. This was a real nice run as it was wide open and we were able to really open it up at a few places. Straighter than either of us would have preferred, but it was empty, so it's ok. It was empty enough that I was able to spot a white car off in the distance. Is that a...... yep, thats a cop. Good thing I spotted it or we would have run up on him faster than he would have liked I'm sure. Made it to Chehalis without incident and stopped for gas again.
We took out the map and decided on taking Hwy 507 to Tacoma rather than I-5. As a note to anyone who reads this: Hwy 507 is NOT a shortcut from Chehalis to Tacoma. That was the longest 40 miles I've done in a long time. 40 miles of douchebags driving 10mph UNDER the speed limit, and too much traffic to really pass. I do have to admit, we were able to make 3 Harley riders eat some pasta dust, so that was quite satisfying. Once we hit Tacoma traffic got real bad, so I bailed and jumped on the freeway home.
All in all a real good ride, I think I did about 300 miles total today. Came home and rested in the hot tub for a bit then took a nap.
Oh yeah, what you've all been waiting for, THE PICS!
In Port Orchard:
The obligitory shot outside Starbucks.
At the DQ. Thats the drive through lane behind my bike.
My bike at the coast:
Mike's bike:
620 on the left, 695 on the right:
Both bikes:
BUG GUTS! This is nothing compared to what it looked like when we stopped in Chehalis.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Route Planning
I spent some time today going over a possible route for my trip down to California. You can check it out on Google Maps. It's about 1,050 miles which works out to roughly 350 miles per day, definitely doable. Probably stop in Coos Bay, OR on the first day then cruise down the California coast and into the Redwoods for day 2, then cut across the state and up to Don Pedro for day 3. That would put me at my destination a full day ahead of schedule which would allow me a whole day to cruise through Yosemite National Park on this route. Thats another 280 miles, not a bad day. Now I just need to figure out how the hell I'm going to get home.
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