Wednesday, April 15, 2009

VROC - FOOLs Rush in to Coos Bay 08 11 07

Pics are from top to bottom, text for a pic is under the pic, click on a pic for a larger pic.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, I started out on the "great adventure" Friday 8/10/07. Went around SF over the San Rafael bridge, where 2 lanes went down to on and met with another road that merged with 101, and it was pretty much a mess 'til after north of Santa Rosa, I'm talking slo and go, even some walking, !#)%#)#$)%#!$)%*#%).

Happy Wanderer can tell you how much he likes this area...GBG Stopped in old town Petaluma for lunch, quaint place, lost my skull cap.. I lost lotsa things on this trip!!

101 never got much better, at Willits where 20 peals off to the coast, I walked Ruby for about 4 miles... sigh. But I'll bet Happy had a better ride!!! Tells us... GBSEG


So I got to my hotel inGarberville, Ca... A really quaint place!!! Small but... well quaint. Decent hotel... I liked the Sherwood Forrest title!! At night they had music playing on the streets, almost like the ol' 60s hippy area.. did remind me...


This is where I had breakfast, short counter with individual chairs, good food!!!


Main street, think it was THE street...


As I left, I took the route of Avenue of Giants road, and it was gorgeous!!! No traffic and I was able to ride slow with my helmet up and enjoy the view and smell of forrest!! On this trip, I'd say I must of seen about a billion trees, Or must have enough fresh air for all the states!!! GBG


I found that it pays to take a sandwich on your scoot, and you can stop anywhere, so I picked this rough it spot!! Absolutely gorgeous!!!

So there was this tree.... And my alter ego was watching me... Thanks to a delayed pic...



Hey, you're on the coast, you gotta take a pic of the coast... gee only 1????


Bandon, this is a pic out of my buddy Dave's place. Had to stop and do a look see and "let" him buy me a couple beers!!! Had to let him hear my 139 and 125 db horns! He's a race car driver and has a gorgeous 66 T bird among other play toys.....


Dave gave me the tourist view, out to the bay, OK, you can't do one beach pic...


Ok, how you have to click on this pic.... right in the middle of that rock, look at that tiny hole.... Dave said when the surf gets "good", that thing shoots one great shot of water!!!


Linda, Mario, Karen and Happy Wanderer hands, GBG.

So we get to Coos Bay, and the next day is Breakfast!!!!!! BTW, I told Dave where we were going for breakfast and he said to get the meat lovers skillet... it was fantastic!!! And it had great cottage fried potatoes under it all, and cheese!!! It was so good I went back Tues AM on the way out for one more!!!

Kozy Kitchen!! Great place... I got there and I saw this wave from the counter.. There was Happy Wanderer Paul Shoop... He got there first and came from a camp ground in the trees about 40 miles away, good for him!!


So left CW, is Karen, Paul (Happy Wanderer) Shoop, Cranky!!! and wife Donna, Pat, Sherm, and Pat's brother, I hate getting old, I'll call him Fred, sigh, hell I might be right..


So our first ride was the Umpqua light house... Donna on the left by Ruby.


'k twist your neck... duh, the lighthouse..


The view out to the beach, you can't just take one...


The story of the light house. Click on it....



Here you can see the V shape of the oyster farm. Mario by sign, "Fred", Karen, Pat, Donna, Sherm, and Happy Wanderer. Happy fell in love with the coast of Or!!!




We came by SCP shop to see Guy's VN2K he's building, heckof a place! I wanted him to do some work, but I have a cardinal rule, you don't do repairs on the road... no, no...


So by the beach, we're looking down at....


These little fellers...


The bikes.... have to take a pic of the bikes..


So we get to Ol' town Florence... I think we crowded that parking space quite well..


Down town...


Up town and Sherm said the IC words.... Ice Cream!!!!!!!!!! We sniffed the barn door!!


Here we sit after GREAT ice cream, sorry for the pic. The ice cream was fantastic, soft and great!


Headed back to the bikes... dualing pics, I know, I lost... GBG


Now you will notice there are one heckofa lot more bikes!! I don't know which bike was messing with which bike but the crowd got a LOT bigger.... I KNOW Ruby did NOT participate!!! She still has virgin pipes... GBG ('course that's not true..)


Another beach shot, you can see the V of the oyster farm.


Sherm had a buddy that turned 93 and we went to the sports club to wish him a happy birthday from the "hells angels" GBG



The Man of the hour!!!!! He was in France in WW2!!!! Demolition and explosives...


So on we went and we went by 2008 RIDE TO OREGON!!! CAPT JOHNS!!! Sherm went in and said "we're here"!!! Gave the guy a start... 1 year early....


'k, water and boats...


Next stop old town Bandon....


the husstle street...


Pretty dangles..


The wind must drive these folks knuts!! BTW, Dave said about twice a year, they get BIG winds there, 'k I'm talking 100 mph. They have special regs for roof support...


Love the name of these two stores..


Out of town we went and around the Umpqua river.



A rest stop... How can you not drink a iced glass of A+W frosted root beer and have an frosty cone? Don't ask me... GBG



I forget the route... not new.... but the water was great! You can see some folks down there playing in the water. Sherm said when Karen and hubby go up there on a ride, she jumps in clothes and all and float a bit to cool off! The water was crystal clear!


More river and folks playing..


The story of the man that helped to make it happen..


Got to see some elk on the way back!!

Gorgeous trip! Thanks to Don and Sherm for making it happen! After I left, I went to Bend, La Grande, Gladstone, Klamath Falls, Susanville, Chico......... and I'll do that in another blog.

I took the back raods, drove slow, and had the time of my life!! Thank you all for letting me have the best time of my life! Shiny side up!!!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

VROC - FOOLs Rush in on to Bend

Pics are from top to bottom, text for a pic is under the pic, click on a pic for a larger pic!

So headed out of Coos Bay north on 101 to 38, hung a right and started to see some smoke a few miles in. About 1/2 mile off the road, a small fire, nothing leading to it so not sure how it got started.



This 'copter was dragging a water bucket, look at the red dot under the wires after clicking on the pic.



Wasn't big, too bad I didn't have a good point to stop back a ways, I had a great view of the fire but we were by a creek and no place to pull over. There was hardware just flying up the road to fight it...


This is the little stream by the road, very clear water...


I've learned to take a sandwich for lunch, that way I can stop where it seems to be a good idea. Went by this little park and pulled in, the water was gorgeous, crystal clear, and as you can see folks enjoyed it.


I was going to take a little "scenic" road and missed a small sign at the beginning of the turnoff... wondered why no body was around... I stopped in the middle of the road for this shot, a great little road.

Then I got to the sign by a wide spot in the road... ALL TRUCKS TURN AROUND!!!
So I thought, hey! This is going to be a goodie!!! The next sign I saw was ROAD CLOSED 4.5 MILES AT SNOW GATE! #*$)%!#$%&#$&#$%&#!%*

But it was beautiful... and I was all by myself!!! sigh


I took this one to id the park, the next one shows the sadness..


It was all burned, sigh


So I got to 3 sisters and took a few pics.. looked like a town made for a tourist trap!! GBG


It looked like it had all just been built, clean, modern, spiffy! And On to Le Grand next...