First Trip Post Retirement

[Fontanaman]

I retired on 8/29/2017 after working 38 years at the Boeing Company in the Seattle area. My last 25 years was in the same job and I had few complaints - I found a good gig, enjoyed the work, did a good job and was treated well until the end. The end was stressful so my wife said you retire I will continue working for a while longer, the stress is killing you and she was right. So I left with my middle finger in the air.

I enjoy travelling on the shoulder seasons but due to family commitments wasn't able to get out on the FJR until October. My destination was King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks and I wanted to camp out, loading up my Buchtec trailer with the creature comforts I enjoy.

The initial route was through Eastern Oregon but that didn't work because the weather changed to subfreezing at night so I changed my plan to go down the Oregon Coast. The route for Day One to Lookout State Park near Tillimook, Oregon. I wanted to keep the days to 300 miles or less cause I have time now to smell the roses.

Here is my FJR towing the Bushtec trailer.

This was my second time on a trip towing the trailer. The plan to roll down I-5 was perfect as it was able to get re-acquainted with the FJR towing the Bushtec. In Oregon I was on Hwy 47 a nice twisty bit and to my surprise it was recently re-paved! Most excellent indeed for my recollection of Hwy 47 was a great road with shitty pavement. This was great as I was able to get familiar with the loaded trailer on a hilly and twisty road after the freeway cruise - easing into it again was nice. The stars were aligning well.

I arrived a the Lookout State Park, found a very good campsite to accommodate my large tent and settled in for the evening. Lookout State Park is right on the beach and was a very nice place. Highly recommended.

Well it wasn't quite the end of day one. I had to set up the tent which took a while for I this was only the second time I have set up the tent since I bought it 18 months ago. Took a while.....

With the tent up dinner was 10 miles back to town where I dined at the Pelican Brew Pub on some overpriced food, but it was good and the beer wasn't bad either.

End of Day One

I spent about 11 hours in the tent that night and it was a chilly morning - this would become an annoying refrain throughout the trip. The warm, not hot, shower felt good. I had planned to be in California in three days but the happy retired people reading books a Lookout State Park changed my mind. So on Day 2 I went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory for breakfast and enjoyed the farmhouse scramble. Way too much food.

After breakfast I toured the Tillamook Air Museum where I took a bunch of photos. Admission was $8.50. Not bad. The Air Museum was a Navel Air Station in WWII where 8 blimps where hosted and is the largest clear-span wooden structure in the world

An A7 Corsair is the first airplane you see upon entering and is a post WWII fighter.

The aircraft successfully served in Operation Desert Storm!

There is a Mig-15 and Mig-17.

I found a cut away of a Allison engine.

Kinda rusty but very interesting to me because these engines, along with Roll Royce's, were used in the unlimited hydroplanes from the 1950 and 1960's when I was a young boy in Seattle. Every kid in Seattle followed the hydro races, we knew the drivers names and had our favorite boat. My was the Miss Bardalh. We fabricate a hydro from a wooden apple box and towed it behind our Stingray bicycles. Anyway seeing this engine brought back some memories.

There was a few other aircraft but it seemed the place was in decline. Very few aircraft there had anything to due with WWII and there were motor-homes in long term storage in the building. While writing this today I found this article explaining the WWII aircraft were moved to a new facility in Madras Oregon.

I spend the rest of the day walking the beach and reading a book. Nice day for sure.

There is a bird to the right of the sun.

decided to leave Tillamook on Thursday to avoid travelling on Friday or Saturday on the Oregon Coast. My route was bone simple - get on Hwy 101 and go to Harris State Park in Brooking Oregon. Brookings was the next stop for it was just under 300 miles, the perfect distance for the coast highway.
I wanted to arrive at 2:30 to have some time to find a nice spot to pitch the tent and get dinner. This meant I needed to leave around 8:00am so I was up at 6:30am taking the tent down and fixing a bit of breakfast, banana, instant Oat Meal and coffee.

Here is my day in photos.....

Lookout State Park where I stayed the night is on this strip of land.

Dig that crazy beach. Photo shot on the go.

Harris State Park was a bust. The good campsites were taken so I whipped out my phone and used the App Park Advisor to find a better place to stay. I ended up at Riverside RV park along the Chetco River where I could pitch the tent on grass, HOT showers and clean restrooms. Downtown Brookings was 1/2 mile away. It was quite nice.

End of Day 3.

 

[Fontanaman]

I arrived in Brookings Oregon on Thursday and stayed in Brookings Oregon through Saturday.

On Friday I went for a long walk on the beach. It was a breezy day and the surf was whipped up by the wind.

On Saturday I went to Arch Rock viewpoint and the beach along Pistol River.

Arch Rock

This image use the internal camera setting to create an stylized artistic image.

In between I read my book, I found some nice place to eat and watch a bit of football. I was a very relaxing weekend.

On Sunday morning was chilly as I broke down the tent and pack up. For breakfast I ate the remainder of my fruit for there is a agricultural check point going into California. No sense in chucking out good food.

I made good time and this day and was having a blast. California Hwy 101 south of Crescent City took a beating and there were plenty of construction zones with 1 lane closed. It was a windy day, even inland. I reached Legget to begin a good run down the twisty part of Hwy One. Most excellent, mostly good pavement. One idiot on a large SUV cut is turn using about 3 feet of my lane but I had enough time to dive into the right part of my lane, the SUV swerved back into most of his lane avoiding a accident. Lucky me.

The wind was even strong along the coast, really whipping up the surf and knocking limbs off trees. Riding involved dodging small sticks but I hit on and it bounced off my foot and I felt it a bit even through my sturdy riding boots. I took a few photo and Hwy One into Fort Bragg.

For dinner that night I walked up to the North Coast Brewing Company where they had a real fine IPA and good food. I watch the end of the Seattle Seahawks game and a bit of Sunday night foot ball game.

I was nice to be in a bed, except the bedding was thin, so I turned the heat up to 72 degrees and it was nice to be in a warm room. What would happen on Monday was completely unpredictable.

End of Day 6

On day 7 my route was south through the California wine country on to the Don Pedro reservoir where good camping was available.

I was all packed up and only needed to don the riding gear when I flipped the TV channel to a local news station. I was stunned. The wine country in California was burning, business and homes on fire and a hospital in Santa Rosa evacuated. I got my maps and PC to find another way south. Hwy 101 was closed near Redwood Valley preventing access to Hwy 20 the north most east west route to the central valley. This meant the only way south was on Hwy 1 into San Francisco and I had no appetite for being on the only open north south road near a fire zone.

The only way to go east was to go north back to Eureka. Hwy 36 is under construction and is mostly closed while Hwy 299 was under construction with lots of one lane construction zones. Six days in the tent at 11 hours each day was getting a bit unwelcome - the days where nice, I slept well at night but mornings where bit chilly. I prefer camping during May or June when the days are longer. Also the forecast temp for Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park was dipping into the upper 20''s at night. I wanted to stay in the parks to go hiking but wasn't willing to freeze in a tent doing it.

So I headed north deciding to cut the trip short. I was considering a route on along the Oregon Coast until I got to Eureka where I had cell service and found it would be raining in Seattle/Portland area on Tuesday. I continued north to Crescent City, took Hwy 199 and arrived in Grants Pass around 4:00pm. It was 7 hours home so I had to ride only 4 hours in the dark, but the upside was I zipped up I-5 through Portland and Tacoma at 60 mph - generally these are places where traffic is terrible. I got home at 11:00pm on Monday night.

So the trip was cut short, but had a great time along the Oregon Coast, walking along the beach, reading a book and enjoying my new found freedom. I will save the camping when the weather is a bit more seasonable.

Today am giving some thought of returning to California next week with just the FJR sans the trailer. I can be in Fresno in two days easily and on the third day be riding on some twisty roads I have always wanted to ride. There is a window good weather to get to California on Monday but there is a smoke advisory for the Fresno area and a check of the Sequoia National Park webcam reveals smokey skies. Uck.

Here is one final photo I shot while on the California coast.

 

[Niehart]

^^^ Like ^^^

 

[VMaxChuck]

Awesome report....thanks for sharing!

 

[owsley]

Nice

 

[El Toro]

Congratulations on the retirement! Looks like youre making good use of it he time. Great report!

 

[gregory]

Congrats on retiring! Great RR, been on many of those same roads. And, just a FYI, I have NEVER so much as put a foot down coming back to Kalifornia at the inspection stations. Bring on that illegal fruit!

 

[escapefjrtist]

Nice trip Jim...too bad you had to cut it short. Good ida making another run south, I understand that we can even make the LA basin in mid-November! ;-)

--G

 

[Craigar]

Awesome, Ride Report! I could smell the salty air from here. Man, you brought back memories. When all of us kids made an oval course and raced in groups with our wooden hydroplanes in tow! Most the kids, loved, Miss Budweiser. But I on the other hand was an Atlas Van lines fan. We could hear the roar of the Rolls Royce engines all the way to Woodway. Good times. Congrats, on the recent retirement.

 

[DennisJ]

Miss Tahoe for me. Watched it go down the back stretch barely touchng the tip of the prop and the sponsons. Last year I watched from the deck of a US Navy minesweeper.

 

[Mihalis fjr]

Congratulations on the retirement Fontanaman.Thanks for sharing this great ride report!

 

[Old Michael]

Well done, F-man, . . . you retired sonofabitch!

(And yeah, I CAN dig that crazy beach.)

 

[Fontanaman]

Well I have unfinished business. I am heading to California next week for a while. I have day one and two planned. After that who knows. The goal is to to ride roads not rode before our those not road frequently. This means the whole damn state is my prey!

I am going to take advantage of my youth while I still have it and go riding. I have learned all to well waiting for the perfect conditions, aka camping in May or June, or lack of smoke from fire, or road construction aka Hwy 198 is no reason to stay home to watch it rain in Seattle. Thank you Don Stanley. JSNS.

 

[rogdeb]

Beautifully done F-Man

, very enjoyable read.

Ain't it great to be retired

 

[FTL900]

This time of year is a bit cold for riding in the PNW, but it's perfect for soCal, Nevada, Arizona, and other points south. I rode to Death Valley last weekend, and I think the highest temp I saw was 82 degrees. The coldest I saw all day was 64 degrees going over a small mountain pass (Spring Mountains) just before getting back into Las Vegas.

Great ride report!! I'll be joining you in a couple of years... Like you said, while I still have my youth and can do these things.

 

[escapefjrtist]

Hoping the trip goes well Fontanaman! Stay away from the fires and floods and enjoy some nice weather.

I'll be stalking you and checking on the daily exploits!!

--G

 

[SacramentoMike]

Just DROVE the Oregon coast last week for the last leg of a nice vacation trip (I've got LOTS more experience than you do at being retired)

but there were plenty of times I wished I was on the bike instead along the way. So what route are you coming south into Cali on? We could offer some ideas, I bet.

Just checked your profile--don't wait too long after you hit that magic "62" to get yourself the National Parks Senior Pass--it's saved me a LOT over the years. And your idea of taking advantage of your youth "while you still have it?" Um, Jim, you're damn near qualified to get a National Parks Senior Pass.

 

[FTL900]

Unfortunately that National Parks Senior Pass just went up in price. I got mine in July or so and it was $10, now it's $80, same as an annual pass.

Still, it's lifetime so it's very worth it. Just don't every lose it- if you lose it, you have to buy another one.

 

[Niehart]

Hoping the trip goes well Fontanaman! Stay away from the fires and floods and enjoy some nice weather.
I'll be stalking you and checking on the daily exploits!!

--G

+1