We were determined to cross the 4.8 mile bridge from Washington state to Astoria in Oregon, so we headed off on 401 South to connect with 101 at the bridge. The wind and rain was minimal as we crossed the bridge into Astoria, and we should have a reasonably good video of the crossing. In Astoria we stopped for coffee and a biscotti at the Rusty Cup Cafe again before returning north across the bridge. By this time the rain and blustering wind had picked up, making the crossing rather unpleasant.
Now in the state of Washington we continued up 101 to Long Beach. Our guide book has a photo of a large arch across a road proclaiming this to be the longest beach in the world. We never saw the sign, perhaps because someone pointed out to the locals that there are many MUCH longer beaches. Long Beach is perhaps 30 miles long. Ninety Mile Beach in New Zealand is, well, you have a guess how long. The Coorong in South Australia is a 145 km (90 mile) long sand spit...
We stopped briefly at the beach for a photo op, but with all the wind and rain there wasn't much to see. A lady feeding bread to the seagulls made our day. They were hovering almost stationary a few feet above our heads, riding the strong on-shore wind and waiting for a morsel of bread to be thrown into the air, most of which was consumed on the wing. It was delightful to see them so close above us, a great opportunity for photographs.
We rode north on 103 to Oysterville, but found very little there apart from a shop selling (you guessed it!!) oysters, but with no where to sit and eat them. We returned south to Ocean Park where we stopped for lunch at a very popular cafe. I had clam chowder: Wanda had oyster stew, a rich broth with a generous number of huge oysters in it. Hearty stuff indeed!
Our aim for today had been to get to Amanda Park, but with the rain pouring down and unpleasantly gusting winds buffeting us whenever the road left the shelter of the forests on both sides, we decided that we would stop in Aberdeen, about 36 miles less travel. It took forever to get there.
We found a motel at a reasonable price with huge rooms, and were out of our wet weather gear by 3:30 pm. We both had a hot shower to thaw out, before getting back into our wet weather gear again to walk 0.3 miles to a supermarket (in the rain) to buy dinner. Wanda reckons it was the worst weather we have encountered so far. Photographs were impossible in the rain.
Over the last few weeks I have come to develop what I call the Bridgland Heated Motorcycle Seat Axiom. Basically this states "If you need to use heated seats on your motorcycle, the weather is so bad you shouldn't be riding".
This is the Memorial Day long weekend in the US, which traditionally marks the beginning of summer. We are looking forward to that.
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