Dyna Rebuild 2

This past week I have completed the tear down of the bike to the point of just the engine and transmission. The front end and rear wheel was removed after taking it down to the shop for some pipe work...

I am doing some changes to the rear swing arm which are mostly just visual more than functional, but they lend to how the eye meets the bikes design and blends the swing arm into the frame. With a Dyna Model, this is difficult. I hope it works with the under-swingarm rear brake system I have chosen from Wilwood.

I purchased a new pipe for the bike but I wasnt happy with it's fitment. The design is almost exactly what I wanted so I brought in a local exhaust shop guy that has done a few exhausts on some bikes. The Hooker Fourbidden header is a great looking design but it is made for a SOFTAIL... as usual.

He was interested in working on the project and I gave it to him to go forward. The bike came back with a totally custom exhaust system with heat shields and baffle. I think that I may do a black ceramic coating on the basic pipe and then have the shields chromed instead of chroming the entire pipe. This will match the black and chrome motor design to a "T". Thank You goes out to Specialized Exhaust in Elk Grove, CA.

Next I received some of the parts from the suppliers that I chose to deal with. I didnt received some from others... more on internet parts later. I got the new 18" 60 spoke rear wheel and the new 150 tire and had that mounted. I got the new front end and put that together and got it onto the bike and got a look at the new stretch and rake.

Next will be the braking system and the drive system to make sure everything fits before the final tear down.

Wilwood has always been connected with auto racing brake products and I have used their products on my race cars with great satisfaction in the past. I was extremely grateful to find out that they now offer motorcycle brake components. In fact I connected up with a good ole friend from my racing past to connect up with Wilwood again at Davis Motorsports. Rich Davis Sr. has been in the industry since it started many many decades ago. He got me all setup with new Wilwood products for the Dyna.

Next will be the fitment of the tins... the new gas tank, the new rear fender and front fender. I will have to find a way to blend the tank into the new solo seat and then into the fender. It shouldnt be too difficult.

Stay Tuned

DYNA WIDE GLIDE MAKEOVER

Well it has been a long time coming in the decision making process for me to take on a new project. I have wanted to build a ground up bike for about the past 7-8 years, but the 'design' has never really come to me. I have recently really been enthralled with the idea of doing a pro-street makeover on a Dyna series bike. The Dyna models have kinda taken a back seat to the Softail models over the past decade because... well I dont know why actually. The Softail model is certainly not 'soft' for those long road trips but they look good. Thats probably why you see so many of them on trailers going to bike runs. Silly Biker, Trailers are for Boats!!!

Anyway, I scoped out the use of a brand new Softail rolling chassis from a few different places and the costs involved with doing it that way. It came out just a bit more than I wanted to spend right now. So I have decided to take my perfectly good 1998 Dyna Wide Glide (FXDWG) and strip her down and give her a whole new look. She is after all more than 10 years old and still running strong. I love this bike! Here are some "Before-the-Makeover" pictures of Dyna just taken recently for a record of where we started.

THE IDEA: Take a Wide Glide and stretch the neck about 6 degrees and rake out the front about 4" over stock to give it that low slung pro-street look. Install a bigger rear tire and wheel set which involves totally re-doing the final drive. Update the wheels to 60 spoke all chrome hubs, spokes, rims. New tins with a stretched flat top gas tank and wide rear fender and of course new custom paint... Im hoping to do the fender over the struts for that hidden euro frenched in look. Hiding all the blinkers too. (I hate Blinkers) Im doing a bit of work to the rear swingarm, new billet brakes front and rear, billet forward controls, billet open primary belt drive, Carlini Bars (already on the bike), new headlight and LED turn and brake lights just to top it all off. The engine is going to get a freshen up by pumping it out to 96 inches with an S&S kit, S&S carb, and a radically custom designed ground pounding exhaust pipe. It has to be custom made because no one makes parts for the Dynas!... More Softail parts buyers out there I guess.

Finally a totally new dimension in electronics for a bike, with Navigation and a GPS speedo, tach and trip meters all together in a bar mount billet setup. Custom again of course...

So the stage is set, the bike is apart and in a few different boxes all over my garage at the moment and new parts are arriving daily. I will keep up with some updates here and there so you can see whats going on.

Getting Dyna undressed...

More to come....

Update to Blog

Finally finished the SOCAL 2008 California Ride post, please have a look. Sorry it took so long.

We also did another ride in Northern California which included backroads of the Northern High Sierra, up into Mt. Lassen State Park, Lake Shasta and up into Crater Lake once again. We also made our way across Southern Oregon to the coast too and then home through California wine country. I will add that post and more pictures very soon.

Happy New Year

2008 SoCal Ride - Cruisers n' Curves

For 2008 the group ride became the Central and Southern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, Southern California desert and then out to the coast at Santa Barbara. Finished up by heading North again all the way up the coast to Santa Cruz before turning inland back to Sacramento.

Day 1 We rode to Lake Tahoe (The entire loop), then out through Luther pass to Markleeville then over Monitor Pass to 395 and into Nevada to Topaz Lake for the night. Topaz Lake Casino and Lodge - Great Food and Winnings!


Day 2 we headed south on 395 through Bridgeport and Lee Vining to Hwy 120 (Tioga Pass). This is the East entrance to Yosemite National Park and we started our trek over the pass and it was inspiring to say the least. The weather was perfect, the roads somewhat clear of cages and motorhomes. Sites were everywhere and anywhere you looked in all directions. We ended up coming down into Yosemite Valley and had a late lunch at the Awhanee Hotel Dining Room, Great food! and we headed off again down the road with our sites set on Kings Canyon National Park. This is where we would stay the night in our "rustic cabins"... and yes they were Rustic!


Day 3 We Split up with our friends from Oregon this morning and they headed to Las Vegas and we were on a site seeing venture into Kings Canyon.


We followed Hwy 193 all the way to the very end and it was well worth the 37 mile trip out and back again. The canyon is awesome and more than words can explain. It has to be experienced... on a bike. We paused to stop for some food and photos along the way, saw a baby brown bear coming right down to the roadside. Didnt stay long as we knew there had to be a mother bear around too.


Once back onto the highway heading south we headed into Sequoia National Park and rode through all the big tress... and I mean BIG TREES... they are everywhere!... So many more than even the Avenue of the Giants. These are huge groves of giant sequoias and they are truly magnificent. The road down the the mountain is switchbacks one after another and they are almost perfect enough that you can setup and ride them all the same way. We found a little hamburger joint along the way and had burgers and fries that were like no other! Excellent food. We made our way down the mountain and into the little bedroom town of Porterville for the night. This was a necessary stop as it was approaching 110+ degrees and we needed a pool to sit in and relax... we found one.

Day 4 Springville via Hwy 190, this is another great backroad... out to Kernville and then Lake Isabella, rode around the lake to east and then back south down to Bodfish and Caliente along the winding Bodfish-Caliente Rd. Great road by the way. We ended up coming out on Hwy 58 near Keene and then going towards Tehachapi. We thought we were going to stay in Mojave but there's no town there to speak of so we went into Lancaster... yea well we cant always stay in paradise!

Day 5 We found a really nice road out of Lancaster called Godde Hill Rd leaving from the south valley and ending at Elizabeth Lake Rd. Then we followed that until we came to Lake Hughes Rd. This would take us through some really nice twistys and through some scenic canyons and outlook areas finally ending up at Castaic Lake near Hwy 5. We took a short jaunt south on Hwy 5 until we came to the Hwy 126 turnoff and headed west towards the coast. The climate change was dramatic from when we left early this morning at Lancaster around 8am and 75 degrees already to about 11 am and now it was down to about 60 degrees. But not for long, once we reached Santa Paula we headed north on Hwy 150 towards Ojai. This is an awesome road and drops you right into downtown Ojai. There we stopped for lunch at a sweet little patio restaurant and I had a Reuben sandwich that was incredible. I think it was the Golden Moon Restaurant. It had a huge tree covering the patio, very nice place. It was getting warm again too.

Back on the road we headed west again for a short ride to the coastline at Santa Barbara (or so I thought). We ended up getting onto Hwy 33 heading northward into another mountain range and although it was very, VERY nice roads and spectacular views, I think we were all ready to find a cooler place to just stop and relax for abit. This little route change ended up being about 150 miles and brought us out to the coast near Santa Maria about 65 miles further north than where we wanted to come out. Hwy 33 took us to Cuyama and New Cuyama and about 30 miles of road paving work. And Oh was it nasty... and it was easily 110 degrees out there in the vast open area. We sat at a couple of road blocks for about 1/2 hour each waiting on the "follow me" car and then we had to ride on a gravel roadbed for about 10 to 15 miles at a couple different points. This wasn't fun at all and made us all the more ready to just park and drink heavily!!!.


When we finally got to some good roadway again it was very nice... long curving smooth roadway that let you just ride the throttle on as far as you wanted to pull it. and we did. We finally got into Santa Maria and found rooms at the historic Santa Maria Hotel. This place was real nice and we were treated very well. We had dinner in the restaurant that night and the service was not good, but it wasn't the staff's fault, I would blame this on mismanagement mostly. Too many tour bus people and not enough pre-preparation for all the people to feed at one time. Too bad. The bartenders in both bars were great! Nothing wrong here!

Day 6 This was going to be a day of back tracking and then running back north like a scalded cat to get back on track again. We headed south with our next stop being Solvang. We stopped in Los Alamos for breakfast and it was a cozy little place and just plain good ole home cookin food. It was ran by a guy with the name of Quackenbush, which is a name that goes way back in my own families history. He came out and talked with us all for a bit, we ate our food, and hit the road again. Solvang next!

Our day in Solvang included the girls shopping for this and that in way too many places to look through unless you have about a week to spend there. We also wanted to check out the motorcycle museum at the end of town. It was closed of course. There was a number listed to call on the door, so we called and they came down and happily opened the place up for us to tour at our leisure. What great people. We got to see like 100 + bikes and they are all in just unbelievable condition. What great history with some great bikes. That will fill another blog entry someday.


Back on the bikes we got onto Hwy 101 North and went slabbin for about 100 miles to San Luis Obispo with a stop in Pismo Beach for lunch. We turned off towards Hwy 1 and Morro Bay and made a short stop there to walk out onto the Pier and look out at "The Rock". The pelicans were dive bombing the waters around the Pier too, what a trip!... must have been a huge school of fish swimming around there. We loaded up one more time and headed north into Cambria where we decided this would be a good place to stop and make ready for the next day. Cambria is a great little town off the beaten path just south of San Simeon. This place has everything, great food , places to stay and the people are just awesome. We met a goldsmith there and looked in his shop for a ring for me to replaced my lost wedding band. He had some beautiful stuff and he had a ring that knocked my socks off. He had to re size it for me and since we were on the road he did it and delivered it to our table at the local restaurant we were having some dinner at. We awarded him with a few beers. Thank you so much!

Cambria also knows how to have a good time!... Mozzi's Bar was just reopening after having been closed for 2 years and these folks were letting it all out this night. We were fortunate enough to be there to enjoy all the fun with them.


Day 7 Cambria was a great town for visits and finding some great new friends, we went to breakfast at the local pancake house and ran into our goldsmith buddy, he wanted to make sure I had no regrets from my purchase the night before and also to check out our rides. We had a good bite to eat and hit the road again heading for Hearst Castle at San Simeon. This was a pretty short ride from Cambria and we had some time to burn so we made a couple stops along the coastline there to take in the beauty of Simeon Bay. We met another rider there that was on his way back east someplace on a Honda rice rocket that he had just bought out here. Didnt look too comfortable but to each their own!

We road up to the castle entrance and loaded up on the tour buses to take our tour. What an awesome place and awesome times to have lived in California during the Hearst years. This is really a "dont miss tour" if you're riding or traveling in the area. They have many tours all day long and you can pretty much just walk up and get on one without prior reservations. Weekends tend to be more crowded.

From San Simeon we headed north again on the Coast Highway 1 and into the Big Sur area which had just experienced the devasting fires about 3 weeks before our trip started. It was very sad to see the devastation and destruction that had occurred to a once very beautiful region of our planet. All the mountainsides were burned clean of all landscape and greenery for as far to the east as you could see, every mountain range behind another. It was just scorched earth that was left behind everywhere you looked. We saw lots of signs thanking the firemen and the crews that had come to help out. We saw a few crews still standing by some areas and gave a honk to them as we passed by. Thank You GUYS AND GALS FOR YOUR WORK!

Someplace along Rocky Point we rode into a rest stop and had some coffee and a sandwich. It was right on the shoreline and you could walk out onto the point and look out over the cliff edges to the churning Pacific Ocean below. What a great place on this beautiful coast to be and the weather was simply perfect this day.

After lunch we rode on down into Monterey and blew right on through town on the higway and around the bay towards Marina and Seaside. From there we headed into the traffic ridden oblivion of the outskirts of Santa Cruz or "Aptos" as we locals call it... We stopped at some friends for some downtime and some catching up on our weeks ride and all the things new and old that we had seen. Had a few cold ones and some WHORES-D'OVERS... and then we hit the road again to end up in Boulder Creek for the night. Had a great meal at the local grub-steak place in town and some vintners delights and then it was time for the sack. The next day would be traversing the south bay area freeways and into the central valleys heading for home.... sweet... home.

Day 8 Went to breakfast with John and Vicky and it was such a great morning in the mountains I didnt ever want to leave again. Tink and I set out from Glen Canyon Road to Highway 17 and headed down the mountain. This would be her first time on this highway on her own on a bike in her whole life. But she did a great job, held it just fine through the curves and kept up with me as well as anyone could. This road is one of my favorites, I grew up on this highway on bikes and in cars going to SC to surf. It was actually one of the highways my driving instructor took me up when I first learned to drive. I could probably drive it blindfolded without too much damage (to a car)...

We made it into Los Gatos and rode right on thru to 880 and then cut across to Niles Canyon Blvd in Fremont where it would take us to Hwy 84 towards Sunol. We made our way through Livermore and then up and over Vasco Road through Brentwood and Oakley to the Antioch Bridge. We headed north on Highway 160 or "River Road" and rode all along the California Delta Canals through some more great little towns. I would've stopped at each and every one, but this is our backyard and we see it all the time. Plus we were ready to just get home.

We made it home after many.... miles, I think it was about 1700 or so over the past 8 days discovering more of the beautiful state in which we live.

Epilogue; I have lived in California all of my life with the exception of about 10 years and there is so much to see here and so many roads to travel. There are also so many people, most of them very nice and welcoming when you're a traveller upon the road and have a story to tell. I have found and hope to find more time... time to tell these stories to many more people along my route in life.

I have so much more to see.

This is a version of the trip we made. The trip always starts as 'planned', but will always change along the way.

5 Year Anniversary Ride

My wife and I hooked up with a few lone riders and made a ride out to Placerville for breakfast and then we went on to points along Hwy 49; Plymouth, Sutter Creek, out Fiddletown road to Hwy 88 junction and then back into Jackson with a short stop in Pioneer for some coffee to warm us up a bit, it was a bit cool. Reminding of our Honeymoon ride but without the rain!... thank you God!

We continued on our jaunt to 49 again and headed south looking for some lower elevations and some warmer weather (hopefully). We ended up in Sonora and found our way to the Gunn House Hotel. We had stayed there once before on our way down to the Laughlin River Run. It was the year of the "Great Casino Shootout" between the Hells Angels and some other group of banditos... Anyway... we found our way to the nearest watering hole there in Sonora after getting the bikes put away at the Hotel and grabbed us up a couple of chairs at Alfredo's Mexican Restaurant and started to celebrating the first five years of marriage together. (We've known each other for more than 30 years now but.... that's a much longer story)

Anyhoo... Had a lot of good drinks and starter foods there at Alex's, then we headed down to The DiamondBack Steakhouse and had us some fine dining. It was real good, had some good local Amador County Wine and then headed back to the room for some..... "TV time".... mmmm hmmmm yea right!

The next day was bright and sunny and COLDER!!!!! I think it was 44 degrees when we left Sonora at about 10 am. We stopped by Jamestown Harley Davidson for a peek at what they had in the window... nuttin special! So we headed off down HWY 108 towards the west and came to Oakdale via Hwy 120 and went around Woodward Reservoir on 26 mile Road to HWY 4 in a round-about way and then continued to head west again. We got to Farmington and met up with Jack Tone Road and followed that all the way into Galt. It's a straight shot without going onto Hwy 99 through the orchards and farmland around the south valley. It's nice if you're not in a hurry and we were not.

Stopped in for some lunch at the local TB and then made our way to the homestead again. All in all it was about 285 miles roundtrip and just a nice easy ride around the Sierras.

Happy 5th Darlin' !!!

Sorry I didnt take any pictures this time around... but if you got to look at something take a look at this!

2008 Trip Planning Again

Well it's in the works again to take another trip around the California area again. This is a BIG STATE! This time; SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SIERRAS and THE COAST

It was suppose to be Colorado this year but that will have to wait until next year. Some friends are riding down from Oregon on their way to Las Vegas so we have decided to hook up with them and do a Sierra Moutain pass ride, (Yes all 5 of them) to show them the sites. We'll ride into and around Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National parks and then when we spilt up from there, we will head Southwest into more of Southern California and then out to the coast... They will head East to Sin-City!

We want to get into the Mojave/Tehachapi areas and further southeast a bit where there are ample goat-trail roads to find and follow for miles and miles. Finding our way into more little towns along the way, New places, New faces all waiting for our arrival. It's all about the adventure... the ride... the people... and the route to which you find your way there.

DEL is a Calendar girl!

So my wife's bike gets some glory!... "DEL" (Deluxe) as she is affectionately known as, got a glamour shot in the 2008 Pashnit Calendar. This is the awesome shot that was taken by Tim "The Pashnit Guy" during our High Sierra Tour Ride in 2007 going over Monitor Pass.




Tim provides some great tours through all of California and is the best host for a ride anywhere. See all of his pics and read about all of his tours at Pashnit Tours.

High Sierra Tour

Life Above 5000 Feet

My wife and I just finished with a 3 day tour of the Sierra Nevada Mountains put on by Pashnit Tours. Starting from the southern part of the range at Yosemite National Park, we rode into the valley with the granite mountains surrounding us on all sides, El Capitan, and Half Dome greeting us with such incredible beauty I just wanted to stop and drool... It's no wonder that people come away from this valley so inspired, it really is just awesome. We had lunch at the Awanhee Hotel which was built in the valley sometime in the 1920's I believe and it has been in operation ever since.

We got back on the road with our group of 11 riders, mostly on one sort of sport bike or another from Suzuki, Honda and even a Ducati. My wife and I were on the only Harleys on the trip this time. The mountain highways and passes we eventually would ride during this trip were:

Hwy 120 - Tioga Pass
Hwy 108 - Sonora Pass
Hwy 4 - Ebbetts Pass
Hwy 89 - Monitor Pass
Hwy 88 - Carson Pass

We would visit Mono Lake and also an old ghost town in the middle of Mono County called Bodie. It's now a National Park but it was once a thriving gold mining town of about 10,000 people at its peak in the 1800's.

Heres a few pics to start with:

Half Dome from Tioga Pass

Harleys in Black and White

Lined up on Monitor Pass

Hotel on Mono Lake

Sunrise at Mono

Kirkwood Lookout; Carson Pass

Chopper vs. Chopper

Icehouse Road Forest Lookout

2007 Oregon Trip

Awesome Awesome Ride!!!!! almost 2000 miles in 8 days roundtrip from Sac up to Portland, Oregon and then back again down the central valley. We saw everything along the coast from Jenner, CA up to Astoria, OR and then we went inland to Portland, then Mt. Hood and headed south down the central valley of Oregon's High Desert country into California's Siskiyou, Modoc, Lassen and Tahoe National Forests and then back into the Sierra's and then home again.

Crater Lake!!!!! What an incredible site to see on a perfect day.

John and Vicki's new 2007 Victory Kingpin Tour!!!!....

Day 1 / So the trip up into Portland took us about 3 1/2 days and we stayed in Fort Bragg on first night out of Sacramento. The trip out to the coast that morning was up through Napa Valley via Hwy 128 from Davis, around Lake Berryessa and Lake Hennesey. From there we went into Calistoga and found Porter Creek Rd which would take us over the western mountains to Forestville and then to Hwy 116. This was a pretty nice route that I had never been on before, some traffic but not too bad for a Saturday. Hwy 116 would take us through Guerneville, Monte Rio and Duncan Mills which are all along the Russian River waterway. We stopped in at the Christian Brothers retreat (yes the ones that make the brandy) just for a look-see. We spoke with Brother Gus there and had a great view of the river where it comes down from the mountains into basically their backyard. From there we headed out to the seaside town of Jenner for lunch, then we had to put on the leathers cause the fog and overcast skies were setting in upon us.

View of the Russian River from the Christian Brothers retreat

After lunch, we set out on the famous Shoreline Hwy #1 headed north towards the town of Little River. With many places to see along the way and roads that twist and wind through the sculpted ravines of the norcal coastline it was actually a very pleasurable ride... for me anyway. I'm kinda like a 'cat in a bowl of cream' when it comes right down to two wheels and a twisty road, I love it!!! My wife is very trusting of my riding abilites (with good reason) and she enjoys it for the most part but I can sometimes feel her tension when she wraps her legs tightly around me going into a turn really hard. John and Vickie were mostly right behind us, but I know he was having problems with his bike handling abnormaly in turns. Even though it was a 1500cc he said it was still underpowered with two-up and weighted down with luggage. Not a good condition when you're trying to run through turns leaning on your pegs and being smooth at speed. He did just fine.

View of the California Coast near Mendocino

We made it into town and sat down at the Little River Inn bar to get a front row seat to watch the sun go down. We all had coffe drinks because we were all pretty cold at that point. It turned out that the sun was still pretty far up in the sky and we had alot more time to kill doing something more productive then sitting around a bar so we decided go on out and do some more riding. Fort Bragg was still another 20 miles away so we headed for our final destination of the day.

Norcal coast near Fort Bragg, CA

Day 2 / We ventured up Hwy 1 now north of Mendocino and the road heads inland to the Hwy 101 Interchange. This is a really extremely twisty section of road that lasts for probably about 30-40 miles and it was just incredible! We also finally caught the sunshine again after having alot of overcast skies since coming out on the coast in Jenner the day before. We rode into the "Avenue of the Giants" to get a glimpse of the most enourmous trees ever seen by man (or woman). Absolutely incredible is all I can say...

Avenue of the Giants

After wandering through the redwoods, taking lots more pics and video and then running into thousands of people at a Reggae Festival going on in Paradise (what better place to have it?) we headed back out onto Hwy 101 and went north to Ferndale which would be our stopping point for lunch. My sister and her family live there just outside of town so we met up with them to take in some sites and grab a bite at Curleys Grill at the Victorian Inn on Main St. It was real good, service was great and the sites were great too! Lots of old Victorian buildings and construction type stuff if you're into that and all the history behind it. (I am) After saying our goodbyes and stuff we headed off again down the road to find our way towards Eureka, McKinleyville and Crescent City and then cross the border into Oregon country...

Downtown Ferndale; all buildings are Victorian era

We made a quick pass across the border, I grabbed the camera out of my pocket a clicked a shot just as we passed the border sign, and then John and Vicki stopped to take some more 'professional' shots themselves with a little extra thrown in...

Underway again we passed into Brookings and then along some more coastal towns and came to the Thomas Creek Bridge which is the highest bridge in all of Oregon.

The View From the Bridge to the Pacific Ocean

We had originally set our sites on Port Orford for our stopping point for day 2 but it was getting dark and we were just coming into Gold Beach ready for some more fuel and ready to eat again. So we all decided to stop short and bed down for the night right there in Gold Beach which ended being only about 15-20 miles South of Port Orford and a great choice for places to stay and eat. We found a place called Jot's right on the Rogue River and our rooms looked out right over the river next to the city bridge. We had dinner that night at the Hotel Restaurant and it was perfection!, I had a Rib-eye steak and Alaskan King Crab legs....mmmm good! I dont remember what anyone else had I was so inthralled with my own food.

Day 3 / Bandon for breakfast anyone?... thats where we ended up...

Downtown Bandon

Bandon is a pretty cool little port side town that reminds me of Santa Cruz, CA a bit. Lots of little shops and touristy stuff, a few restaurants and a wharf with a bunch of boats all ready for their turn at sea.

We had breakfast here at local favorite obviously by the crowds there, we got in quickly though. Behind the bar there was a coffee cup rack with all the locals own private coffee cups hanging for whenever they came in to use them. Pretty cool idea. We ate and got onto the road again; saw a couple of nice lookin’Victory bikes there too.

From there on North it was Coos Bay, Reedsport, Dunes City, Florence and nothing but overcast skies for us all the way up the coast. We were hoping for some blue sky and sun to break through at some point along the way but we mostly just got clouds and drizzle here and there. I always remember the coast being hit or miss this time of year and we just missed it.

We ended up stopping finally in Waldport for lunch, but not before having another funny moment. We were just cruising along at a pretty good clip along the two lane and came into a small town, it may have been Yachats and I was pondering my own thoughts (as I mostly do while riding), my wife on the back and our friends on their bike behind us. Out of the corner of my eye I see this guy on a little scooter, maybe a Vespa or something along those lines coming from the other direction. I really wasn’t paying much attention to him or anything on that side of the street and all of a sudden he is waving one arm full swing over his head and jumping up and down on the floorboards of the scoot. I glanced over and kinda caught a glimpse of this and just kept on riding without a response… My wife says “did you see that guy?” I replied… “Yup! I think I believe what I saw” We giggled a bit and went on. Anyway we get into Waldport and go into a Burger King for a quick hamburger and we sit down. My buddy’s wife asks us “did you see that guy on the scooter” and we all start busting up laughing because it was like the first thing that came to mind. I said “yea, ya think he was trying to get our attention or something?” and the wives simply thought he was trying to get a couple of ‘bikers’ to wave back at him on his scooter… We just laughed because it was really funny that he was making so much effort to be seen and neither of us figured out that all he wanted was a wave possibly… It really didn’t occur to me at the time, because I was focused on the road ahead of me. Quite funny though.

Downed a Whopper and some O-Rings and then hit the road again!.. We went through Newport, Depoe Bay, Lincoln City and then into the Tillamook Cheese Factory just for a look and an R/R stop. Next stop would be Cannon Beach.

In Cannon Beach we shopped a little bit, I found a wine store and bought a couple bottles for the road ahead. We hoped to find a nice place to eat and a place to stay also. We did find a great place to eat, but didn’t, the staff there tried and tried to find us a of couple rooms in the local area while feeding us lots of appetisers and some good drinks, but everything was full so we had to go on into Astoria as that was the only place that had some rooms available and it was getting late. We stayed basically under the Astoria Bridge at the Holiday Inn Suites. Got a 2 bedroom suite for a ridiculous price! We found another nice local bar right there in front of the hotel and had dinner too… finally! Actually we met a generous gentleman that was having a big party there, he offerred to buy us a drink and sat down with us to hear our travel stories. He was so enamoured by our journey and adventures he offerred to buy our dinner too. We told him no and that he was welcome to our stories anytime without cost! He introduced all of us to his party going group of people and we had our dinner and then headed back to The Bridge Hotel...

Day 4 /Portland here we come

Oregon Trip Plan

August 4th, 2007 - this time riding the Pacific Coast on Hwy 1 and 101 from California's northern areas and then heading leisurely northward into Oregon. Our travels take us through the California towns of Jenner, Little River, Mendocino, Fort Bragg and Ferndale before heading into the Pacific Northwest.

We travel through all of Oregon's Coastal towns with stops in Gold Beach, Bandon, Newport, Cannon Beach and Astoria. Then we will follow the Columbia River along Hwy 30 to where it meets up with Portland and spend some time with old friends that live locally.

Our travels begin again southward towards home via the high plains desert and mountain regions of Oregon's central valley to see Mt. Hood, the Three Sisters, Mt. Bachelor and another loop around Crater Lake before heading into the California central valleys. We pass to the east of Mt. Shasta, Mt. Lassen and the Lava Beds National Park areas, then down along Eagle Lake and Lake Almanor into the gold country towns of Quincy and Sierra City along Hwy 89. We tried to take in all the twisty roads we could find within the forested areas of the Sierra Nevada foothills further east of the area. Ultimately coming into Hwy 49 and 50 and heading back home after 8 days on the road and almost 2000 miles.

Here was our planned route, we made some minor deviations along the way;

Oregon Side

California Side