- WELCOME!
- new!!! A HAPPY CAMPER
- A CHRISTMAS STORY (sort of)
- TOY RUN!
- FALL HAS ARRIVED...
- THE LAST WARM SUNNY DAY
- A LAZY SUMMER AFTERNOON
- PHOTO GALLERY
- PHOTO GALLERY 2
- BY THE NUMBERS
- STRANGE DAYS
- TALES FROM THE ROAD...
- JUST MY OPINION...
- PICS PICS PICS
- POLITICALLY INCORRECT, BUT I DON'T CARE
- ON THE ROAD AGAIN
- IMPORTANT NEWS!!! (well, to me anyway...)
- SUNDAY DRIVE
- TIME FOR LUNCH!
- THUNDER ROAD
- TWO MOUNTAINS, ONE WEEKEND
- TWO STATES, TWO COUNTRIES
- STURGIS (2006)
- HOW ABOUT A PARTY?
- HAPPY NEW YEAR
- NEITHER SNOW OR WIND NOR HAIL...YEAH, RIGHT!
- I'M GONNA BITCH
- A RUN UP THE PASS
- WHEREVER I MAY ROAM
- YOU WENT HOW FAR FOR A HOT DOG???
- THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT
- CANADA EH
- CANADA PART 2 EH
- RAMBLIN' ON MY MIND
- I HAVE AN IRON BUTT
- VICTORIA B.C.
- LOOKING FOR THE SUN
- FOG CITY
- LUNCH RIDE
- DAY TRIPPIN'
- TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME
A little traveling music please.
Ah, there we go. It’s 5 am, about 45 degrees and mostly clear, and I’m headed up the Hood Canal of Washington toward Port Angeles. The Coho ferry runs from Port Angeles across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria, BC. An early morning run like this often will find me plugging in my MP3 player to get some “road music” in my brain. It’s still dark out, but sunrise is coming in about a half hour and the sounds of Metallica’s “Wherever I May Roam” flow from my ear phones.
I head down I-5 to Highway 101, through Shelton and the numerous little towns that dot the west side of the Hood Canal. Most of the time I am virtually the only one on the road, and my Road King handles the twists and turns with no effort at all. As I roll through Hoodsport and up toward Brinnon, the sun breaks over the top of the mountains and instantly lights the sky and I can feel the temperature rising slightly. This is a sight everyone should get to see at least once in their lifetime—it is breath-taking!
Further north, as I pass through the town of Quilcene, the fog starts settling in…wispy and patchy at first, but the closer I get to Discovery Bay and Sequim, the thicker the fog becomes. At times, it is so thick I can barely see the road in front of my wheel. In addition, what was a mild morning turned cold and damp very fast, and I was glad I wore my leather coat and not just my insulated denim one. The fog stayed with me all the way to Port Angeles, where it eased up as I entered town, but was just as thick over the bay and Port Angeles Harbor.
I had made good time, rolling up to the ferry terminal a few minutes past seven. I checked in, put my bike in line and walked a block up the street to the Cornerhouse Café for some breakfast. The Cornerhouse is an old coffee shop style restaurant that has been around forever, with excellent food and very reasonable prices--try the biscuits and gravy!.
The trip across the Strait was foggy, a bit choppy, and uneventful. Reaching Victoria, the temperature had warmed and the fog had cleared, it was about 65 degrees out. I went through customs and rode through town for a bit, before heading to my brother’s house for a couple of days. Victoria is a definite tourist destination, and one of my favorite places to visit. But, ride out of the city on Highway 17 (the Patricia Bay Highway) and you can visit Sidney, Swartz Bay, even a side trip to Butchart Gardens. Highway 1 (the Trans-Canada Highway) will take you out of Victoria on the other side of the Strait of Georgia, through the Cowichan Valley and up to Nanaimo. For the very adventurous, Highway 19 from Nanaimo will take you up to Port Hardy at the northern end of Vancouver Island (about 310 miles from Victoria). And Highway 14 will take you up the west side of Vancouver Island along the Pacific Ocean to Port Renfrew.
On Monday, I wanted to catch the 10:30am ferry back to Port Angeles, so I rolled up to the ferry terminal in downtown Victoria about 9:15—and almost didn’t make the ferry! On the Canadian side, the Coho loads motorcycles first, but there were 17 bikes waiting to be loaded, and I made it on as one of the last bikes they would take. The crossing back was beautiful—clear skies, little wind, and temperature in the low 70s. Arriving in Port Angeles, I again made it thru customs and headed out of town, south on Highway 101. My route had to be changed some, and the Hood Canal Bridge that links Highway 101 and Highway (via Highway 104) was out of commission due to construction. Normally, the route would take me down 101 through Olympia and back north on I-5. I stopped at the Geoduck Tavern in Brinnon for lunch, and headed back out on the raod. I had no desire to ride the Interstate, so I had mapped out an alternate: 101 through Hoodsport to the junction with Highway 106, then up through Union and along the edge of the canal on State Route 302 across the Key Peninsula, ending up on Highway 16 and riding into Tacoma. By the time I got back to Bonney Lake, I had run 375 miles since leaving on Saturday morning.
Ah, there we go. It’s 5 am, about 45 degrees and mostly clear, and I’m headed up the Hood Canal of Washington toward Port Angeles. The Coho ferry runs from Port Angeles across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria, BC. An early morning run like this often will find me plugging in my MP3 player to get some “road music” in my brain. It’s still dark out, but sunrise is coming in about a half hour and the sounds of Metallica’s “Wherever I May Roam” flow from my ear phones.
I head down I-5 to Highway 101, through Shelton and the numerous little towns that dot the west side of the Hood Canal. Most of the time I am virtually the only one on the road, and my Road King handles the twists and turns with no effort at all. As I roll through Hoodsport and up toward Brinnon, the sun breaks over the top of the mountains and instantly lights the sky and I can feel the temperature rising slightly. This is a sight everyone should get to see at least once in their lifetime—it is breath-taking!
Further north, as I pass through the town of Quilcene, the fog starts settling in…wispy and patchy at first, but the closer I get to Discovery Bay and Sequim, the thicker the fog becomes. At times, it is so thick I can barely see the road in front of my wheel. In addition, what was a mild morning turned cold and damp very fast, and I was glad I wore my leather coat and not just my insulated denim one. The fog stayed with me all the way to Port Angeles, where it eased up as I entered town, but was just as thick over the bay and Port Angeles Harbor.
I had made good time, rolling up to the ferry terminal a few minutes past seven. I checked in, put my bike in line and walked a block up the street to the Cornerhouse Café for some breakfast. The Cornerhouse is an old coffee shop style restaurant that has been around forever, with excellent food and very reasonable prices--try the biscuits and gravy!.
The trip across the Strait was foggy, a bit choppy, and uneventful. Reaching Victoria, the temperature had warmed and the fog had cleared, it was about 65 degrees out. I went through customs and rode through town for a bit, before heading to my brother’s house for a couple of days. Victoria is a definite tourist destination, and one of my favorite places to visit. But, ride out of the city on Highway 17 (the Patricia Bay Highway) and you can visit Sidney, Swartz Bay, even a side trip to Butchart Gardens. Highway 1 (the Trans-Canada Highway) will take you out of Victoria on the other side of the Strait of Georgia, through the Cowichan Valley and up to Nanaimo. For the very adventurous, Highway 19 from Nanaimo will take you up to Port Hardy at the northern end of Vancouver Island (about 310 miles from Victoria). And Highway 14 will take you up the west side of Vancouver Island along the Pacific Ocean to Port Renfrew.
On Monday, I wanted to catch the 10:30am ferry back to Port Angeles, so I rolled up to the ferry terminal in downtown Victoria about 9:15—and almost didn’t make the ferry! On the Canadian side, the Coho loads motorcycles first, but there were 17 bikes waiting to be loaded, and I made it on as one of the last bikes they would take. The crossing back was beautiful—clear skies, little wind, and temperature in the low 70s. Arriving in Port Angeles, I again made it thru customs and headed out of town, south on Highway 101. My route had to be changed some, and the Hood Canal Bridge that links Highway 101 and Highway (via Highway 104) was out of commission due to construction. Normally, the route would take me down 101 through Olympia and back north on I-5. I stopped at the Geoduck Tavern in Brinnon for lunch, and headed back out on the raod. I had no desire to ride the Interstate, so I had mapped out an alternate: 101 through Hoodsport to the junction with Highway 106, then up through Union and along the edge of the canal on State Route 302 across the Key Peninsula, ending up on Highway 16 and riding into Tacoma. By the time I got back to Bonney Lake, I had run 375 miles since leaving on Saturday morning.