Astoria, Oregon

Saturday, April 13, 2002

This morning's weather forecast called for rain -- 90% chance of rain, to be exact. And my destination was the Oregon coast where rain is as common a phenomenon as is sunshine in southern California. But I'm not one to let a little rain (even the predicted 1/4 of an inch) deter me from enjoying some saddle time.

...and what a saddle it was. By complete coincidence, I just happened to have purchased a new ride just a few days ago. STraddlecaSTer, my new Honda ST 1100, would be sharing this excursion with me.

We (STraddle and I) began our day along Cornelius Pass Road over the Portland West Hills. Clouds hung heavy in the sky but there was very little in the way of actual water falling from them. So far so good.

I headed north and then west along Hwy 30 which more or less follows the contours of Oregon's Columbia River bank. I saw few cars and even fewer motorcycles this morning as this today's weather report seems to have scared off recreational travellers.

I took notice of the lower speed limits posted in Scappoose and St. Helens. I also

took notice of the state police who were busy taking notice of selected drivers' "velocity performance." I was behaving myself.

While the scenery was quite breathtaking (excepting for the grey skies, I guess) the most striking "feature" of this route is the cooling tower at the Trojan nuclear power plant. Trojan has been inactive for a number of years but its spent fuel rods still rest somewhere deep inside the reactor building. They will be with us for a very long time.

In an attempt at public relations and to show just how "safe" nuclear power can be, Portland General Electric built a large park around the plant. As far as anyone knows, no one has come away from their picnic lunch with anything but a healthy glow. The local flora and fauna includes ducks, rabbits and the occasional carnivorous five-leaf clover.

As I approached Astoria, I could see the flood plains of the Columbia to my right. Winding my way into town I saw the speed limit go from 55 to 45 to 30 to 25! Fortunately the Columbia River Maritime Museum (the first Grand Tour rally stop) came into view before I had to slow so much that I fell over. The parking lot was about half full but there were no other motorcycles to be seen.

I collected my rally stamp at the front desk and decided to take a look inside the museum (business was completed, so why not enjoy the exhibit?). Inside I found hundreds artifacts, models, and displays about all things nautical.

One very interesting tidbit (to me, anyway) was the way that Cannon Beach got its name. Sometime before I was born -- 1846 to be exact -- a Navy schooner called Shark broke apart at the mouth of the Columbia River. Debris from the wreck floated down the Oregon coast; one of the bits landed at Cannon Beach. If you guessed that a cannon landed there then you can congratulate yourself on having excellent powers of deduction. Previously I had thought it was named after everybody's favorite seventies crime-fighting TV detective.

Not wanting to return home the same way I came, I elected to follow Hwy 101 to the south and then to join up with Hwy 26 (the Sunset Highway) eastward. As I left Astoria I discovered that our weather forecasters had been half right; the 15 MPH wind gusts were present to knock me around a bit.

On the Sunset I saw some real, honest to goodness rain for the first time today. I'm happy to announce that my Aerostitch suit kept all of the water off of my body and that the motorcycle's windscreen kept the front of my suit dry.

We Oregonians can be happy about the rain. It keeps our land green with growing things. Oregonian motorcyclists can be thankful that our bikes are washed clean of the dead bugs each time the skies break forth with moisture.

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