Oregon Coast (5/22/2005)

In the beginning of this week we were in Eureka, California, although most of the week we were driving and staying along the Oregon coast on highway 101. During the early part of the week we could see the effects of the heavy rain in the green hills with drifts of purple, white, yellow and orange flowers. Then we got to the coast with it’s awesome views. If you have never spent time driving the Oregon Coast, you should at least think about doing it. We were driving along and were suddenly transported to the windward side of one of the Hawaiian Islands with a lagoon and an outer reef followed by a long beach with great waves. (Of course it was a bit colder than Hawaii). It seems that every few minutes you come upon another different view of the coast with its rocks and beaches.
In 1981 Rich spent 8 weeks bicycling from Alaska to Los Angeles and a few years later he took 6 weeks to ride from Astoria, Oregon to Los Angeles. Both times he rode on 101 in this area. On his first trip he generally rode alone although he sometimes met people along the way and they camped at the same spots for several days. On the second trip he traveled for a period of time with a group of riders doing the Tour De Oregon. The tour stayed in high schools and he stayed with them. On this trip with me he has been remembering those rides saying ‘this is where I….’ for example he remembered one spot where he was unable to find a camping spot so had stayed at a hostel. He remembered just before we came to the hostel. Additionally, we have been staying in some of the same Oregon State Parks this trip (Harris Beach & Humbug Mountain). Rich is looking forward to being able to get back into serious biking when we move into the new house in Tucson.
Saturday we took a jet boat ride on Rogue River. Several years ago we took an upper Rogue River Jet boat ride out of Grants Pass and had a blast. This time we took a lower Rogue River Jet Boat and had a blast. We saw Sea Lions, Cormorants, Osprey, Heron, a Black Tail Deer, An Eagle nesting pair, a Black Bear, Wild Turkeys, Harbor Seals, Fishermen (lots and lots of fishermen as the salmon were running), and spring run Chinook Salmon. The trip was 64 miles round trip and took about 6 hours.
We are now staying in Humbug Mountain State Park. We do not have cell phone service, thus no internet service so this Blog will be posted a little late.
Have you been watching the Amazing Race and/or Survivor? We have. We even planned part of our trip so we would have local TV and could see the final episodes. In the amazing race I especially liked the scene where Joyce had her hair cut. She was crying and her husband kept saying she did not have to do it. I also liked seeing Rob carry Amber when she was too tired to run. It was nice to see couples come together instead of fall apart. I thought Survivor was interesting in that the dynamics of the one team winning so many immunity challenges really changed the outcome. Stephanie lost because when she got to the new team she was a really easy target, and Tom was able to win in part because by the time his team began voting off people they were doing individual immunity and he won most of them. Many times the strong members are voted off before they can win their own immunity.