Road Trip: Day 6

Yesterday’s traffic really bummed me out to the point that I even contemplated just driving on I-5 today. Last night I went to bed thinking I was going to be staying away from US101, but when I woke-up I decided to just go for it!

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I got out of the hotel early and put in some miles before stopping to refill the tank with some tasty 92 octane. Traffic was very light and I made good time to Corvallis where I turned-off onto Highway 34.

At this point I was very happy that I decided not to just drive on I-5 all day. Hwy 34 is the type of road that I built my G8 to drive on… lots of sweeping corners with nice elevation changes. The pavement was flawless and the corners were banked just enough to guide you through them. The scenery was also unique with several large Christmas tree farms.

Unfortunately, when I reached the coast and US101 I was slowed to a crawl by the holiday weekend travelers. Things opened-up a little between towns, but was stop-and-go at every traffic light. Thankfully I found a few places take some photos.

When I reached Tillamook I had planned on stopping to get some cheese, but the factory was swamped with tourists. Instead I stopped at the Tillamook Air Museum!

I decided to spend the night in Astoria, OR. Why Astoria? Well, I’m a child of the 80’s… duh! One of the classic movies for my generation is The Goonies, and it was filmed in Astoria! To make things even better several of the locations/props used are still around!

O.R.V… bullet holes. BULLET HOLES!! For the rest of the night I’ve been quoting various lines from the movie… the best part, I’m not the only one. When I stopped-off at the Goondocks (aka. the house) there were 4-6 other groups of people doing the same thing!

Tomorrow I’ll need to adjust my planned route a bit, since I didn’t stay in Vancouver, WA like I had originally planned. Fortunately the traffic should be lighter now that the holiday weekend is over!