The travels of the Rambling Roses: Astoria, Oregon to Barview Oregon (Barview Jetty County Campground) October 1

62.78 in 5:55.....October 1....Wow! It's October. We really wanted to get to Yosemite National Park sometime in October, before snow fell there and closes roads, but we are behind schedule, and now the government has shut down, and the parks along with it. So we probably shouldn't worry about making Yosemite so much now. I've always said that Yosemite was my favorite place on earth, and I wanted to see if that feeling held up, after seeing so many more places on this trip. I guess we'll see how that goes, but today went really well! I slept in until 9:30 because every time I woke up, I heard rain on the roof of the motor home....along with the barking of sea lions. Blue sky finally broke, and the temps went above 50, at about 11AM.

Fishing boats at the dock by our campground in Astoria

Love the sea lions!

This morning there were 3 cargo ships riding at anchor.

Not sure what kind of ship this is, but it was traveling up the Columbia River as we were breaking camp.

This bridge takes you from Astoria to Washington. We did not have to travel over this bridge!

Cormorant drying his wings after swimming under water.

Cruise ship in the Port of Astoria

The sun stayed out almost all day, blocked only by white clouds and the mountains and tall trees, not rain. A few sprinkles did get me once, but a dry day was a treat, even if it never got out if the 50's ( it felt warm every once in a while in the sun!), and the 10-15 mph headwind kept my sweat chilled on the downhills.

I picked up US101 in Astoria, and took the alternate route around town, to miss a pretty long bridge. I got to check out the town that way, but I added five miles onto the trip, and it turns out that the bridge I missed had a nice shoulder and the wind wasn't that bad. 101 had touristy beach towns about every twenty miles, and I played around a little today by cruising through the beach towns of Seaside and Cannon Beach, which were both busy with tourists, despite the fact it's October and the weather has been crappy. When I wasn't checking out the Pacific Ocean in a beach town, US101 was very hilly, and sections were just like the rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula. Instead of a national park, however, the forested areas were interspersed with beautiful homes with a view of the Pacific. I'm still trying to wrap my head around riding through mountainous, heavily forested areas, while sometimes hearing the waves of the Pacific crashing on the beach, or up against rocks or sea stacks (which are big rocks, or hills out in the surf). I've always loved the mountains and the beach, but I've always had to choose one or the other; now I have both at once. One place, where I took a ton of pictures, was after climbing a hill up to 600 above sea level, and at an overview point, looked out over the ocean for miles, and was a sheer cliff from where I was, down to the water. Absolutely beautiful. I hope the pictures can convey the beauty of even some of the scenery. I ascended and descended between 2700-2800 ft over the course of my ride today, as well as yesterday. I think the coast will continue to roll like this all the way through Oregon and Northern California to San Francisco. I found Pam at a nice county campground in Barview, and we walked about a half mile over to the ocean to witness Pam's first ever Pacific sunset. It wasn't that great, because it was too cloudy, but we hope to see something that rivals our Outer Banks sunsets before long.

A sign of the times....

Could see the sign, but couldn't visit the park!

Bike visits with Lewis and Clark at.....

the end of the trail! This is where they reached the Pacific

Mike is following Hwy 101 which is also the Oregon Coast Bike Route, most of the time. I am seeing a ton of bikers on the road - Mike, not so much.

Water fall coming down the hillside

Looking out over the shoreline

Brown pelicans and seagulls

If you can't tell how high up Mike was when he took this picture, look at the people in front of the big rock!

This big sign above the tunnel is a bike warning. Mike hits a button before he enters the tunnel and the sign lights up to warn drivers that there is a bike in the tunnel.