jzzmusician
Official Hoon
The Walla Walla gang, (most of them) headed out Saturday morning for a leisurely trip to Timothy Lake and the Dalles dams. The plan was to ride from Walla Walla to McMinnville, pick up Timothy Lake on the way and hit the Dalles on Sunday.
It took us just about 400 miles to get to McMinnville. If you rode the super slab it would be much less, but not nearly as much fun.
Here is a picture of our route:
Our first stop was Heppner for breakfast. Miss Garmin directed us to several places that were closed and a local directed us to the Willow Creek Diner and Bakery. A bit on the slow side, but excellent food and homemade bread that was exceptional.
A gas stop in Condon brought the delightful smell of dead animals slow cooking on the barbecue. The smell was to strong I couldn't smell the gas as I leaned over the tank to fuel up. We asked the attendant what was going on and he said it was a funeral. We thought about asking if we could attend but nobody knew the guy, so we just rode on.
It was about 150 miles into the ride that I realized I had remembered to bring my camera. Here's a picture of Dwight just outside of Condon.
The ride from Condon to Antelope was wonderful. Lots of twisties, beautiful scenery, and no cars.
Here's Mike just ahead of me outside of Antelope:
And another of Dwight at speed:
By now I was in the picture taking mode but it was not to be. Straight roads were not the norm on this ride. Timothy Lake was in sight, hard parts of the bike were grinding away, it was 97 degrees and the mountains promised to cool us off some.
We took a break in Shaniko on the porch of a hotel and bar that was no longer in business.
After lots of miles of nothing but twisty roads we made it to our next stop.
It was at Timothy Lake that I realized I forgot to take my Damn Tour Laminated Membership Card with me.
We improvised.
Miss Garmin was having a problem giving us directions on how to get out of there. We didn't really want to retrace out steps, but we didn't want to end up making a U-turn either. We met a park official who said if we wanted to stay on the pavement we needed to ride about 10 miles or so back the way we came, take a turn and that would hook us up to the road that would take us to Estacada.
Then he looked at the several pounds of dead bugs on our windscreens, helmets and clothing, the dirt on our bikes and our generally unkept appearance and said, "if you want to take the quick way, that road over there goes right to it. Save you 'bout 20 miles. Only thing is, there's about 8 miles of gravel. And it's dusty."
We took the shortcut. It was slippery in places and seriously dusty. Especially when the guy driving a truck and towing a boat came the other way. Didn't slow down either. Lots of dust. I would have taken a picture, but my hands were full.
On the way to Estacada:
More gas and some ice cream in Estacada. Did I say it was hot?
A few miles outside of McMinnville we took the ferry across the Willamette river. It took about 3 minutes to cross. Unfortunately they didn't have a snack bar.
A brief while later we found the Best Western and settled in for cool refreshing beverages and tasty food.
We arose the next morning way too early and headed off to the Evergreen Aviation Museum down the road. Evergreen International Aviation, Inc. is one of those semi creepy companies that does things quietly for those that don't want to know exactly what it is they do.
They built a nifty museum that has a lot of airplanes, including the Spruce Goose. You can read about them a bit here: https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title...Aviation%2C_Inc.
Arriving at the museum you are greeting with a 747 on top of one of the buildings:
The Spruce Goose is seriously large:
No, those are not tiny model helicopters hanging from the ceiling. They are the real deal.
I know that jet looks fast, but we're faster:
We went next door to the Aerospace Museum. They had a lot of machines that went into space. You know, missiles, rockets and stuff.
Dwight knew a guy that would take us on a personal tour of the Pittock Mansion in Portland. This house was completed around 1914 by the owner of the Portland Oregonian newspaper. It had a lot of rooms.
Seriously, it was pretty cool, but I would rather have been riding.
You can read all about it and see lots of cool pictures here: https://pittockmansion.org/
We finally left Portland around 2 in the afternoon. It was getting seriously hot.
The plan was to take the super slab back to Walla Walla, but after hitting the Dalles Dam we took the Washington side back. Not a great road, but nowhere near as boring as the freeway.
Mike at the Dalles:
I should probably post our individual pictures of the Dalles here but you've probably seen enough already.
One final picture of Dwight somewhere between the Dalles and Umatilla on the Washington side of the river.
All in all it was a good ride.
It took us just about 400 miles to get to McMinnville. If you rode the super slab it would be much less, but not nearly as much fun.
Here is a picture of our route:
Our first stop was Heppner for breakfast. Miss Garmin directed us to several places that were closed and a local directed us to the Willow Creek Diner and Bakery. A bit on the slow side, but excellent food and homemade bread that was exceptional.
A gas stop in Condon brought the delightful smell of dead animals slow cooking on the barbecue. The smell was to strong I couldn't smell the gas as I leaned over the tank to fuel up. We asked the attendant what was going on and he said it was a funeral. We thought about asking if we could attend but nobody knew the guy, so we just rode on.
It was about 150 miles into the ride that I realized I had remembered to bring my camera. Here's a picture of Dwight just outside of Condon.
The ride from Condon to Antelope was wonderful. Lots of twisties, beautiful scenery, and no cars.
Here's Mike just ahead of me outside of Antelope:
And another of Dwight at speed:
By now I was in the picture taking mode but it was not to be. Straight roads were not the norm on this ride. Timothy Lake was in sight, hard parts of the bike were grinding away, it was 97 degrees and the mountains promised to cool us off some.
We took a break in Shaniko on the porch of a hotel and bar that was no longer in business.
After lots of miles of nothing but twisty roads we made it to our next stop.
It was at Timothy Lake that I realized I forgot to take my Damn Tour Laminated Membership Card with me.
We improvised.
Miss Garmin was having a problem giving us directions on how to get out of there. We didn't really want to retrace out steps, but we didn't want to end up making a U-turn either. We met a park official who said if we wanted to stay on the pavement we needed to ride about 10 miles or so back the way we came, take a turn and that would hook us up to the road that would take us to Estacada.
Then he looked at the several pounds of dead bugs on our windscreens, helmets and clothing, the dirt on our bikes and our generally unkept appearance and said, "if you want to take the quick way, that road over there goes right to it. Save you 'bout 20 miles. Only thing is, there's about 8 miles of gravel. And it's dusty."
We took the shortcut. It was slippery in places and seriously dusty. Especially when the guy driving a truck and towing a boat came the other way. Didn't slow down either. Lots of dust. I would have taken a picture, but my hands were full.
On the way to Estacada:
More gas and some ice cream in Estacada. Did I say it was hot?
A few miles outside of McMinnville we took the ferry across the Willamette river. It took about 3 minutes to cross. Unfortunately they didn't have a snack bar.
A brief while later we found the Best Western and settled in for cool refreshing beverages and tasty food.
We arose the next morning way too early and headed off to the Evergreen Aviation Museum down the road. Evergreen International Aviation, Inc. is one of those semi creepy companies that does things quietly for those that don't want to know exactly what it is they do.
They built a nifty museum that has a lot of airplanes, including the Spruce Goose. You can read about them a bit here: https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title...Aviation%2C_Inc.
Arriving at the museum you are greeting with a 747 on top of one of the buildings:
The Spruce Goose is seriously large:
No, those are not tiny model helicopters hanging from the ceiling. They are the real deal.
I know that jet looks fast, but we're faster:
We went next door to the Aerospace Museum. They had a lot of machines that went into space. You know, missiles, rockets and stuff.
Dwight knew a guy that would take us on a personal tour of the Pittock Mansion in Portland. This house was completed around 1914 by the owner of the Portland Oregonian newspaper. It had a lot of rooms.
Seriously, it was pretty cool, but I would rather have been riding.
You can read all about it and see lots of cool pictures here: https://pittockmansion.org/
We finally left Portland around 2 in the afternoon. It was getting seriously hot.
The plan was to take the super slab back to Walla Walla, but after hitting the Dalles Dam we took the Washington side back. Not a great road, but nowhere near as boring as the freeway.
Mike at the Dalles:
I should probably post our individual pictures of the Dalles here but you've probably seen enough already.
One final picture of Dwight somewhere between the Dalles and Umatilla on the Washington side of the river.
All in all it was a good ride.
