Goonies, Birthdays, and Mustang Ranch!

   

     Plucked, tired, and tone deaf, at 9:45pm and 404 miles later,  I pulled into Portland one happy camper.    There I was back at the Ranch where my precious Garrett, Holly Jo, and Riley live.  Garrett had a table full of burrito and fixings prepared for me when I arrived, bless his soul, and we sat and ate (I scarfed) and then Holly Jo and Riley joined us, and we visited some more laughing and embracing our reunion on into the later hours of the evening.

Day 2 in Portland:
     The first order of the first day in Portland town, I picked up my guitar and played.  I played till my heart was content, and I'd run through every style of music I could muster up creatively on that 6 string.  Right about that point where my fingers tips are about to fall off, it was afternoon, and that's happy hour time in Portland.  So, the second most important order of the day, I made sure to go get some cheap beers at a nearby watering hole that also has pretty good happy hour food deals.  I sat there and called some friends to come join me while I sipped from a tall cold can, and ordered up a basket of deep fried goodness (the only real kind of goodness I know).  Well, it's always refreshing to see people you haven't seen in years, and know that you can always reconnect on a dime.  It was like that for the next few days, visiting with old friends and new ones.

It was about day whatever in Portland and lo and behold it was already the 4th of July.  So I spent the 4th of July like any one would, BBQ hopping around town.  Pool parties, live performances in the park, eating a few plates of free food, and lazing in the sun drinking lots of free beer.  After all that I rode across town to another evening BBQ with the Mager family, hometown folks from Sonora, and that's when the fireworks came out and that's when the colorful explosions happened overhead, and that's when we had Roman Candle battles, and oh what a hair raising good time that is.  The party wound down around midnight and I shot back home to the Ranch, for a sweet slumber.   The next morning I had nothing to do, nothing planned, a free day to do whatever.  The night before I'd been talking with someone about the Goonies, so I decided to go find this amazing filming location.  I knew one was Cannon beach (the last scenes of the movie) and that the house they filmed it in was up in Astoria, OR.  I busted out the map and made my routes.  I took the Oregon 26 west from Portland to the 101 south to Cannon Beach.  It was beautiful as all hell.  It's a huge beach, and that day it was fitting lots of people, the sun was out, and people were doing their best to play in the cold Oregon waves.  But it was super cool seeing the familiar land markers from the movie.  I snapped some photos with my other camera (which I haven't uploaded yet, but will) and headed back up the 101 to Astoria, OR.  I rode around some neighborhoods and had a fun time seeing the ports and old river/sea going vessels.  After a little side tourism, I finally found the Goonies house "Goondocks." The owner of the house was doing some maintenance on the house and chatted with some fans from the porch.  My time with the Goonies had come to an end cause I had to get back to Portland for a dinner.  I headed back along the East Columbia River Highway 30, a two lane country road that follows the Columbia river divide between Washington and Oregon.  Time was getting too close to dinner, so I had to jump on a bridge into Washington that was going to take me immediately to the Hwy 5, and be a much faster trip back to Portland, than the slower going 30 would.  That little dip into Washington made it 4 states on my trip.

At the "Goondocks"

what a nice sign.

      I refused to leave Portland until I got some good river time in, and it wasn't until my last 2 days there that I did.  I even extended my stay in town an extra day or two, because for some reason that was when everyone was able to get on some river time.  One day I went with complete strangers, cause one girl at the house said her friends were going to the river, and I told her to have them pick me up.  And pick me up they did.  :)
     So Portland was a blast as it always is, and it's why I always look forward to returning.  River sitting, park laying, song writing, firework firing, bonfire moonlighting strumming, and sunset watching on bluffs overlooking the river.

     It was time to head on from Portland, my next destination was south to Coquille, OR.  It is a 4 hour ride from Portland to Coquille, located south west close to Coos Bay.  I usually take the same route in and out, but this time I wanted to explore the alternative route which also looked like a more direct route than the one my google map was recommending.  And since I had time to kill, I did.  So what I did was, I filled my tank up in Eugene until it couldn't hold any more.  Then I headed an hour south to Roseburg.  I had to find the roads through town that would lead me to a small town called Lookingglass.  I shot down and out between cows and the open acres of no-mans-country bumpkin land and it was sooo beautiful.  I was two miles from the stop sign at the center of Lookingglass, and my fuel light went on.  I had gone 110 miles at that point.  I just looked at that low gas light and kept going, climbing the windy switchback single-lane road out of the flat grassy country basin, and into the tall trees.  I thought, "hey, if I run out of gas on this hill, I might as well get some good photos."  So, I pulled off onto some hunters lookout, among old campfire remains, overlooking the tip-tops of Oregon's finest ranges, and spent 22 shells, I took some picturesque scenic beauties.

the lookout

Pretty sure that's where I picked up the fleas.  And I would later find out that the area I was in is having a bad flea season, and the bite marks I was having weren't Mosquitos.  Hell, I don't blame em, after all I was wearing the same outfit for almost a month at that point.  Bon-appetite, fleas!  A day or two after the flea discovery, I shook em off and baked my clothes in a dryer for an hour to kill any larvae that might have been festering.

I spent a couple days in Coquille, and took a small day trip out to Coos Bay, for some burgers, free slurpees, a birthday present to myself (it's a surprise), some whiskey and plum wine, and I was back on the road to Arcata, CA, after I changed my front breaks.

My self-addressed birthday present.

      So here I was back in Arcata, CA, my home away from home.  What can I say, it's hard to leave, and impossible to stay away.  I went to a bike rally on Saturday and won a trophy for being the only other sportster in that judging class.  Some buddies and I camped out at Patrick's Point at the beginning of the week.  Exploring trails, playing catch, agate and moonstone hunting, and lazing on the beach is what we did best. 

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Photo of Patrick's Point, from Big Lagoon.

My little bear den.

It was soon July 19, another year was gone, and another year had dawn, it was my birthday! I had decided a few days earlier to play an open mic night at a local coffee shop the night of my birthday.

I told a few friends in the area, and we all had a lovely time enjoying the performances and the company we kept. Particularly my pitcher of apricot beer.  I stayed at the historic Arcata Hotel that night with my parents, in the two room suite overlooking the town plaza. That is one beautiful old hotel. A real sweet piece of the old northwest. I highly recommend it.

Arcata plaza: the view from 306.

completely exhausted

The next morning I saddled up and rode out east across the northern California landscape, from the redwoods coast to the tip of the Great Basin in Nevada.  It was new territory for me, as I'd never ridden the northeastern parts of California.  But I loved the terrain, and was sad it had been the first time I'd been out there, and it would be a while till I would make it back.
     The evening of my arrival in Reno, my friend took me to the infamous Mustang Ranch and Wild Horse brothels.  Sparkling red lights lit up the darkness.  It was spectacular.  Once inside the security checkpoint and cell phones put away, I had been given the divine opportunity and pleasure of selecting the lady of my choice to give us a personal tour of the establishments.  It was neat hearing about the history, and how they operate.  It was very eye-opening and impressive.  After the tour we sat at the bar and had drinks.  I of course chose a delicious dollar PBR.  I would go back any day just for drinks.  The conversation wasn't half bad either. ;)  Day 2 in Reno, we went into the hills for wild horses and some Virginia City.  I love that town.  I feel like I'm back in the wild west.  I bought a toy gun, some spurs, and a sheriffs badge.  I put em all on, and went to the bar.  What'd you expect?

like I said.

ridin dirty.

     Day 33 on the road and pointed home, only 177 miles to go before I rolled back into Sonora, CA.  I chose to ride the 395 down to the 108, becasue there is no other more beautiful way to go home than that drive.  The eastern Sierra has to be the most beautiful territory, hands down.  I made a pit stop at my friends parents house in Carson City, there was some birthday happenings, and I was on the road again.  Slow traffic had me passing over double yellows, and passing in the pullout lanes.  If you are slow as hell, pull the hell over!!!  Nothing makes me rage more than inconsiderate motorists.  So if you think I'm riding like a jackass, it's cause you're driving like an ass jack.  And I had a welcome home party to get drinking to.  It was evening, and humid, and before we knew it we were on the wooden porch under lightening and thunder, with torrential rains that had me running to pull the gear off my moto.  I wasn't going to have another brain bucket full of water like I'd dealt with up in Trinidad.

It was a great trip, with 45,030 overall bike/butt miles together over the years, and a trip total of 2,628 miles.  I'm now making another custom pair of jeans for a friend, and packing the necessities for a year and a half, when I'll be living in Phoenix, AZ, attending MMI, getting Harley Certified.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this trip amazing.

See you on the road!

(it was me)