Lincoln City To Portland and Troutdale, Oregon
For the past few days we have reconsidered our itinerary for this trip on Taz. Originally, the plan was to motor up through Washington and into Vancouver, British Columbia, before turning back through Seattle and heading east through Idaho and Wyoming. But, we decided that we'd been out long enough, and we'd just go to Portland and head home through Idaho, Colorado, and New Mexico before returning to Texas. We'll save Washington and the upper tier of western states for another time.
Our route today was to Portland, Oregon, but the only way there was to ride up over another mountain range. The temperature was in the upper 50's when we prepared to leave Lincoln City and would be just as cold for a few hours, so our heavy riding gear was in order.
We haven't documented our morning routine since beginning the trip and thought that this would be a good time to take care of that little bit of business.
The first order of each day of riding is to check the air pressure in all of the tires. Motorcycles have a tendency to have greater fluctuations of pressure than automobile tires, making the morning check very important for safety reasons. There are no spare tires for cycles, and no one wants to spend riding time on the side of the road waiting for Good Sam to make good on their emergency road service.
Barbara took pictures while I loaded the trailer and checked the tires to be sure they were ready for the ride.
When I got my part of the work done, I took the camera and shot photos of Barbara standing in front of some flowers at the hotel, For good measure, I also shot the fountain in front of Taz, and then Barbara in the various stages of putting on her cold weather gear.
And then we were off, up Highway 101 through the Lincoln City complex of communities and onto Oregon 18 across the mountains. Can you say redwoods...TALL redwoods!!!
Once we were over the mountains and through the big forests, we got into some beautiful farm and open range country between Sheridan and McMinnville.
We had a beautiful blue sky above us. Barbara even got this shot of a "sunbow" overhead.
There was a lot of open country between Sheridan and McMinnville, a very welcome sight after the many miles of mountains, forests, and coastlines that we've been through during the last week or so.
McMinnville has a great air museum with a large number of static plane displays. We didn't have time to visit the museum today, but Barbara did get this shot of the building and some of the many aircraft.
A few miles northeast of McMinnville, we got the first of many views of Mt. Hood, many, many miles away.
There was more beautiful open country between McMinnville and Newberg, where we stopped at a Burgerville restaurant and enjoyed their signature Tillamook Cheeseburger Basket with Rosemary Shoestring Potatoes...what a great lunch break on a beautiful day. And, as has been the case with so many of our stops, we spent additional time visiting with some local folks who were very interested in Taz.
After lunch, we turned up Oregon 99W to Tigard, enjoying the roadside scenery.
We moved onto I-5 at Tigard and quickly relearned that the interstate pace of traffic is far different than that of 101 through California and up the Oregon coast. There were a couple of "interesting" moments, but we hung on and tolerated the ride through the few "big city" miles along I-5 and I-84 East.
We didn't have a motorcycle police escort, but we did have a motorcycle officer who rode up beside us on I-84 and who gave us a big grin and a thumbs up before continuing on his way down the road.
We rode to Exit 16 and turned off in Troutdale toward McMenamin's Hotel to settle in for the night.
Our purpose for coming to Troutdale was to visit with Shane Gay, a former student of Barbara's that she taught 38 years ago in Lubbock when Shane was only 10 years old. When Shane heard that we were coming through the area, he suggested McMenamin's, describing it as a kind of funky place. Well, "funky" was putting it very mildly.
The hotel has its own vineyard out front and we later learned that in addition to all the usual amenities of a resort hotel, it also has its own brewery and distillery on property. We think we saw the brew house in a building behind the hotel, but the vineyard out front was impossible to miss.
This particular piece of property, part of the McMenamin's chain, was built in 1911 as the Multnomah County Poor Farm. Many years later it became the Edgemere Nursing Home, and in 1982 was restored (using that term lightly) as a hotel. It has many of the characteristics of the old (like well over a hundred years old) hotels, including communal bathrooms and showers at the end of the halls on each floor.
The outside grounds are well-tended, offering everything from a world-class golf course to hiking trails, to family-friendly picnic and gathering areas.
We did enjoy the stay at the hotel, but decided that we have become way too dependent on creature comforts, especially bathrooms that are just a few feet away from beds. Several times during the night Barbara and I met each other going down the hall to either conduct business or return to the room from conducting business. Certain aspects of the hotel brought back memories of the movie, "The Shining," and on the late night walks down the hall, I half expected to meet Jack Nicholson coming at me.
While we were waiting for Shane, Beth, and Mack (same age as Shane was when Barbara taught him), we wandered around the place to enjoy a coke at the patio dining area and some sittin' and rockin' time on the front veranda.
The first order of business when Shane and his family arrived (after introductions, of course) was to show off Taz and give Mack a chance to sit at the controls.
After taking a bunch of pictures around Taz, we retired to the restaurant to enjoy an hour or so of fine dining and conversation. Mack had a lot of questions about his dad as a student, and Barbara was more than willing to share her stories about him.
A grand time was had by all, but when it got dark, we decided it had been a long enough day for all of us. We had a long ride ahead tomorrow, Shane and Beth had work, and Mack had school; so, we went to the parking lot, said our goodbyes, and went our separate ways. What a joy it is when we catch up with our long-lost students and get to see who and what they have become!
"A teacher affects eternity; he (she) can never see where his (her) influence stops." - Henry Brooks Adams, American historian and member of the Adams political family
From McMenamin's Hotel Edgemere in Troutdale, Oregon,
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams/Gramsy
