June 28 - Thursday - Portland OR to Pendleton OR - 304 miles

 Thanks again to BBZZ B&B for a comfy nights rest, good discussions, a little light soldering, couple beers, and a local restaurant to boot.
Said goodbyes to B&B this morning and had a couple chores to do while the rush hour traffic peaked. Finally decide to adjust the chain. It was new 7K miles ago and it just stretched enough to warrant adjustment (1.0 to 1.4" is "in range" and it was about 1.6. Half a turn and it was back to spec. The Dupont Teflon Chain Saver works great. Never had a chain not stretch in this many miles. Now the problem is, I have a few days supply left and I have stopped at 5 or 6 places and nobody carries the stuff. I saw it everywhere back east. Sure do meet a lot of nice motorcycle shop guys searching for it.

Then I had to do the blog thing. If I do not do it, I forget where I went, who I talked to, etc, and I need this blog in the depth of winter to re-read and enjoy.
Brett's mom came by and we chatted for a long time, very enjoyable. She recently move to portland to be near the grandkids and we shared some genealogy stories.
I didn't get rolling until 9:00 or so and I simply asked the nice Google lady to get me to a town on the other side of the Columbia and it weaved me through lots of back street so i got a complete Portland sampler and ended up on the original Evergreen Highway which is a narrow two laner that is pretty bumpy with grass growing up through the cracks, right next to the current Rt14. Lots of ritzy houses right on the river. Finally, she put me back on Rt 14 which is on the Washington side of the river. There is an interstate on the Oregon side but who needs that? Temperatures were high 50's to low 80's so pretty perfect.
Light traffic over on this side and it started out kinda agricultureal but got drier as I went up the river. Lots of pulloff's for Lewis & Clark signs, too many to stop for them all. I usually use my historical marker databse site to go back and see what they were all about. Not a good enough planner to read them ahead of time..
So it was river most of the day and when I got to the driest part, the sign said "no gas for 92 miles". I had enough but decided to backtrack 5-10 miles and fill up. I sleep better and am in no rush.

It got wicked dry later in the day and I decided to try Kennewick WA since it had a few bike shops (according to the bike shop back in Camas). Alas, none was to be found, but one salesguy almost sold me a clip on cruise control.
I even tried Walmart for the chain lube since they sell it back home, but no joy.
I was origainally going to call it quits in Kennewick, but it was a beautiful afternoon so i called ahead and reserved a motel 2 hours away in Pendelton OR and then took a bunch or glorious back roads through all the wheat fields.

There is something beatiful about golden wheat fields. They go on for miles and miles. A lot of fields look like they were harrowed under with nothing growing so there must be some crop rotation thing going on, or the already harvested something or?? The checkin person didn't know so I'll have to stop next time I see someone out standing by their tractor.
Very pleasant day, bike ran perfectly, front tire cupping a bit, might need a new one in Denver.
Been about 6600 miles so far including the Maine warm up trip. Many miles to go before I sleep...


Tonight's odometer = 24853