Astoria, OR

Sitting in our room in the B&B. Just had breakfast with a young, newly married and pregnant couple from Portland. Enjoyable conversation about life, kids and (of course) bike touring. Today is a rest day. The bike will stay in the garage while we explore Astoria.

Long cold days of riding since our last post. Our route through Washington was a blur of trees, mud flats and highways. Not many side trips or points of interests.

We did stop at a cute museum in South Bend. It had a lot of info on the local industries of fishing, oysters, logging and cranberry farming. Answered many questions and gave us a new appreciation of the area.

Two days ago we were almost to the KOA campground in Bay Center, WA. We stopped by the grocery store for dinner. There was little to choose from. After much discussion, we had smoked salmon and oysters on Keebler crackers for appetizers. I then made pasta with onion, canned peas and blue cheese "flavored" cream cheese. Pretty good considering. Doug did not know he signed up for a catered trip. We camped next to a family that was moving to So Cal in two weeks. After spending the last couple days with overcast skies, I told them anywhere in So Cal with "beach" in the name would be great. They left early to build sand castles in Long Beach, WA.

Yesterday we rode with Doug in the morning. He left us before lunch and headed toward Tillamook, OR to see his ailing mother-in-law. We will see him again in a couple of days.

After lunch in Ilwaco (oysters) we took a side trip to the Lewis and Clark museum at Cape Disappoint. While Ev and I knew about their expedition, the museum beautifully explained the journey with words, paintings and artifacts. Makes our little 900 mile "adventure" seem pretty tame. We then conquered the bridge. We read in our book about crossing the Astoria bridge over the mouth of the Columbia River. It is 4.2 miles long, no shoulder and scary. Traffic was light and Ev kept a watchful eye on upcoming RV's and trucks. The two most challenging parts were the STEEP incline on the tallest part and the STEEP, curvy descent coming into Astoria. I kept thinking the only thing between me and a real bed was that bridge so we made it unscathed.

Our B&B is lovely. We ate last night at the Columbia Cafe. Three booths and a row of counter stools, the food is prepared right in front of you. It was great. We then went to a brew pub for a pint.

Today we are going to bundle up and go to a farmers market and a maritime museum. There is another microbrewery on tap for lunch.