The Forks Fandango for Four

So, mid-week we have a meeting that pretty much ruled Nelson out. The weather was to be beyond perfect on the coast and all seemed to have had enough of the Nelson, BC area so we all agreed that the coast was to be the destination for whomever came.

We met at the Olds Station Shell (Kevin, John, Terry, Fred and I) where Fred (Deal) graciously escorted us to the top of Stevens Pass to send us off on our adventure. We packed for camping the 2-3 days, and adventure was the word of the day.  Coming into Sultan we stopped at a bakery that served breakfast and decided on substantial nourishment to send us off right.  The others ordered pancake platters while I decided on a breakfast sandwich that seemed light enough but gee... when the plates came I snickered until I saw what I had to deal with.  While others suffered I thought twice and put part of my sandwich into my fritter bag for lunch and maybe dinner later!  I've never seen so much food and the other three ate until "mercy" was called !  :D

Totally stuffed, Terry takes us on the "Old River Road".  What was that smell Terry? Schmoly-oly!! (It was) Bad enough to be stuffed to the gills, but the smells of who-knows-what came across like nobody's business!  Terry will have to write that one off on the next trip (I think he was having one of those Mukilteo flashbacks)!  His route was true to aim though, and he landed us onto the ferry dock in time to board and lift anchor before the bikes were idle for more than 30 seconds.

Hopping across to Whidbey Island was nice as we toured some areas before hopping to the main thoroughfare and waiting at the ferry to take us to Port Townsend where I met another BMW Purist... a retired teacher that rode a 1975 R90 with 77,000 miles that stretched from Guatemala to Seattle. Lots of good stories and had me longing for retirement. Once off the docks, Port Townsend to Sequim was to be less than 25 miles, which John and I agreed was cool as we hit reserve in Pt. Townsend and on the way following Terry we end up with a  shortcut that we had to back out of, and a Worldmark Tour with both the GPS economizer and the low fuel lights flashing in sync!! We were thankfully led to fuel with Terry's nose for cheap gas and slots at a casino gas station before heading heading off to the cutoff to Neah Bay and the Makah Nation.

Crescent Lake was a dream to plunk a boot into, (my only regret not doffing the textiles and dunking in) and having dinner in Sekiu refreshed us as we headed out, while John and I entertained a county mountie for a few miles (John's confidence has him taking corners to earn my AND the local establishment's attention!) and then on to Forks.

Forks... what a happening Friday night.  Drag races at the airstrip, Bella's birthday (who is Bella?), HS football, meeting the locals, what a kick. We pulled into town to see Terry and two local law enforcement chatting...seems Terry is trying to score us some digs to place the tents and doing a fine job of it! We found out that the transit center (I had to make sure Terry heard "transit" and not "transient" before I'd offload a tent) and behind the bus terminal there was a field where we could set up. While we were setting up, we could hear engines dragging down a strip so we went to see what was up to find a comp strip set up on the airfield!  After watching several runs though the paces we went off to get some ice cream and check out the local pigskin preview going on. We also saw "Twilight" parties flowing out onto the street and simply enjoyed the best weather I have ever had on the coast.

Waking up very damp the next morning and John letting Terry and I know we each have our own talents for snoring had us off and down to Kalaloch for breakfast and then zig-zagging the Moclips Hwy and down the 109 to Copalis Beach where he made every effort to find Don, who was with his wife and their motorhome.  Kevin said we could find Don easily by all yelling "Hey Don" and listening for the motorhome that started it's engine!

We worked our way down the beach and ended up actually on the beach where I realized that the LT bears no capability to a GS as hard as one tries. We paraded on the hardpan and then Kevin heads off to the surf.  Heck, if a Honda ST1300 can do it, so can I! Since the LT has the turning radius of the Nimitz, I made a wide maneuver around him and stopped.  Realizing that I could touch flat-footed easier than normal I quickly powered forward (you don't pull forward while plowing sand) and moved on out to firmer ground. Kevin let me know I was sinking rather quickly with all 1100lbs of bike, gear, and rider bearing all weight down into a rather small per square inch tire area. Leaving the beach, we wound down and around the 109 to the 105 (I never did get my clams) to the 101 and on into Long Beach where all heck was breaking loose. Push, pull, drag, or tag, the place was hopping with the most layered versions of street rods with anything and everything in between. The weather was kicking and so were the people and rods! Terry wanted to get a coffee at the Worldmark there (Terry, I worry about you at times, my friend ;)  while we looked around. The place was packed!

We decided on heading south to Astoria, so wound our way through Ilwaco and Chinook, where as I was accelerating to catch up when I impacted a fair sized bird that failed to remove itself in the force of impact as I found by the rapidly increasing temperature on my gauge and the lack of bird behind me (what is it with birds and their desire to try to outmanuever me?). Pulling off into the Chinook Park just short of the Cape Disappointment, State Park,  I found my little friend spread across my right radiator. There was a camper cleaning it's daily catch so I borrowed a bucket after pulling out the unfortunate hitchhiker and washed the blood from the radiator area and moved on to fight the Astoria traffic moving east on the 30 and then North on the 433 and catch up with the group at a Starbucks just over the bridge in Longview.

Kevin and John were calling "Uncle" (Kevin, you have to ask Mrs. Claus for a new seat), but Terry showed them they had more in them (and Kevin with my AirHawk) as we ate dinner and then decided to blast up the I-5 at at 80mph long enough to hit the Toledo-Ethel cutoff and shoot into Morton for gas and deciding to stay the night there.  Terry, Kevin, and John went to crash a wedding for dessert and I grabbed a shower and we met up for chatter where I realized Starbucks at 5:00 PM was a bad idea. I tossed and turned all night and just started to get into a decent sleep when the wake up calls came. If I thought my tent couldn't be any wetter by morning I was wrong and the dew saturated it. Packing up and knowing that dry awaited us (it was dry after 20 minutes spread out in my driveway in Wenatchee), we headed off to Packwood for breakfast, a shot on over White Pass to be passed by some curve cowboys that irritated Kevin something fierce, a shortcut from Nachez to Selah, through the Yakima Canyon, Ellensberg, over Blewett and home.

A great ride with great guys whom I enjoy time, humor, and stories with... who could ask for more!