day 17

i didn't want to leave today. it is not that i didn't want to continue on my journey, it is that i didn't want to leave alex. it was almost as hard to leave her today as it was two weeks ago.

a special thanks to mike and sue for enabling alex to meet me like this. i cannot thank you enough.

once i was able to get going, i was on my way to astoria, or in the northwest corner of the state. for the first time on the trip, i did not do some of the miles on the motorcycle. not that i really could, as i took the edmonds-kingston ferry in order to get to the olympic peninsula.

it was a pretty quick ride, but once back on the bike, the first fifty miles or so were hampered by traffic. dozens of semis and rvs ("thats recreational vehicle, clark") on single lane roads with lots of hills and stop lights through small towns. once the traffic thinned out, the road started going up and down from the coast line to the mountains. there was probably a twenty degree change in temperature between the two. along the coast, the fog was already pretty thick. at times i could see it flowing overhead as i rode through the tunnel of trees.

the one thing which i saw more than anything were the affects of logging. there were many areas that were essentially barren, bordered by thick stands of trees. almost all of these areas had signs listing different dates, such as when the area was first logged, when new trees were planted, and when they would again be available for logging.

i also learned that there is no self-serve gas in oregon (if you call being yelled at by a gas station attendant for trying to pump my own gas "learning"). i guess it isn't so bad when regular is under $3.00 per gallon!