Chick Days

I'm combining our last two days of our trip to put all the fun into one blog! Try to control the excitement and read on...

As I mentioned yesterday, when we left Coos Bay things were soaked! We had intentions to go see the shipwreck on the coast, but it was a mile hike over sand dunes to the beach and we really didn't feel like being soaked and covered in sand for the entire day. We spent some time checking out the Sand Dunes National Recreation Area and then continued our trip on down the highway. I would have taken pictures of the sand dunes, but we were experiencing a thick thick fog and it was tough to see one hundred feet down the road. That was another reason for skipping the walk to the ship, since we suspected we wouldn't see it from shore. While we were searching for a cache at the sand dunes I spotted a snail on a metal gate rail. You can see the water on the rail, and what a funny snail! The snail let me take it's picture and then it was on it's way again. Where it was going, I don't know. Why it was on top of the rail is unknown to me as well, it doesn't seem like a very good way to get anywhere, more like a detour.

We drove Highway 101 north to Lincoln City, Oregon and then we turned right and headed inland. We had been driving next to the ocean for the past 700 miles and then it was gone. Now we have driven the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco all the way around the Olympic Peninsula in Washington and basically to Seattle. However, there is an exception in Oregon, a stretch of Highway 101 that stretches from Lincoln City to Cannon Beach (about 75 miles) that was have not driven.

We drove to Salem and then jumped on Interstate 5 and went to Portland to enjoy an hour of bumper to bumper traffic jams! Hurray! We were hoping to get through Portland quickly and cross into Washington, but our hour of sitting in traffic really slowed our progress, we didn't think we would take rush hour, but apparently that's the case anytime of the day. When we did finally make it through town we found our selves on Highway 14 in Washington, snaking our way along the Columbia River. We drove the Columbia River last year on our way to Portland, but we took the interstate which is on the south side of the river in Oregon. I thought Highway 14 was better than the interstate. The speed limit was 70, the same as the interstate in Oregon, and the road was nice asphalt and there wasn't much traffic.

We spent the morning and late afternoon visiting Laura's uncle and aunt in Richland. We spent the night at their house last year on our way to the coast. Since it was the week before Easter we joined them for Chick Days at a country feed & seed store. Chick days is when all the kids come to get a chick or duckling and there are also animals at the petting zoo. Laura had a big smile on her face as she came walking over to me and said "There's a rabbit named after you!" I had to take a picture of that!

The bonus of Chick Days is the free hot dogs and pop! Free lunch is a blessing on vacation, so we took full advantage of that! I joked that we didn't know we were being taken out for lunch, but we sure appreciated it! Here's everyone gathered around for a picture. From left to right we've got: Me, Daniel (hiding behind Laura's shoulder), Laura, Tim, Kyle (friend), Hasan (Jacquelyn's husband from Kosovo), Jacquelyn, and baby Adelina in the stroller (6 weeks old). We left Richland around 2:00 p.m. and we geocached to Spokane. By the time we reached Spokane the sun was going down and we were ready to be home. Thankfully, it is less than three hours drive to Missoula and we were home around 11:00 p.m. on Saturday night.

Our eight day trip took us 3047 miles and to a bunch of new places. Now the Canubaru is in need of another oil change and it is running a little rough. I blame that on the San Francisco driving and the hills there! We have let the car sit quite a lot the past week in hopes it will get over the ailment without the need of a mechanic. We rolled the car odometer over to 200,000 miles on the trip, and the GPS odometer went well over 50,000 miles since I started using it 2.5 years ago.

Tonight it's pub quiz night and I am ready to do some thinking. Last week we scored 51 out of 80 possible, and we were doing well until the music round which was all Beatles' covers by obscure bands. Hopefully thing will be better tonight! Until again

-=Nolan=-