Day 21 New tire day

Day 21
Total mileage for the trip 5095
Today is tire day. We arranged with a Harley dealer in Medford OR to change my rear tire at noon. My tire wore super fast. Just like it had 12000 miles. Except it only had 5000 miles, and in all actuality, the center of the tire, the part that wore, probably had less than 3000 miles. With the roads Jim's been taking us on I should have at least 2000 miles on the sidewalls! We left Sisters/Bend Oregon this morning and rode to Medford to get my tire changed. Had breakfast at Debbies Diner....Not bad at all. D&S Harley of Medford OR took good care of my bike, and we were on our way by 1:30.
While we were at the Harley dealer Jim had his coat fixed. Jim had been given a nice leather "Chevy" jacket. We all know Jim.....Jim bought a a good sized Harley patch to make the coat his. He had it sewn on immediately. There's now an orange and black "Harley" jacket running around the west.

There's not many photos today because of the smoke. Not much to see.

There's a mountain in this picture. It's just above and to the left of the brown road sign. Very hard to see because of the smoke.

We rode through this much of the way this morning.
Not a good thing.
Another burned out area of forest.
The day was somewhat short today because of the tire, but we still did 214 miles.Doug on the road
When we were approaching our home for the night we stopped to fill the tanks. At the gas station there was an interesting motorcycle rider. She got lots of attention.
I know I should make some comment here....I'm just not sure what!
After fueling up we moved on to the next camp site..Shingletown CA.
Pam entering the pop up Hilton. Note the hat.
The straw is equal to a good pillow top mattress.....so they tell me.
Tomorrow it's on to Lassen Volcanic National Park, then on to Reno.
Until tomorrow...

Day 20....problems

Day 20
Here it is, day 20. We spent a pleasant night at the KOA in somewhere Oregon. Breaking camp once again.

Up to this point things have gone very smoothly. Last night we were checking the bikes as we do every night, and as we had previously noted, my back tire was wearing fast! This was a new tire only 3 weeks ago. Actually, I removed a tire that had more tread than this one does now. That tire had more than 10k miles on it. This one is nearly dead after just 4500 miles. Oh well. Nothing to do but get a tire. We stopped at the Harley dealer in Bend OR. this morning to buy some small parts and see if they had the time to put a tire on for me. They couldn't do it soon enough so I called around until I found another dealer that could do it tomorrow. SOooooo....we shifted plans a little, we rode to Crater Lake this afternoon to see this awesome sight.......
This is Crater Lake....Impressed? We sure were. The gray part is the lake....I think. It's not every day you get to not see the deepest lake in America....At least not when you're looking right at it.
There were a couple of "controlled burn" forest fires going on. The smoke was tremendous. It covered everything. From the turn outs around the lake you could not see the lake at all.
The smoke covered everything for miles and miles!Smoke out the wazoo. It was actually difficult to breathe at times.
This was one of them.....smoke so thick ......
This is what most of the ride today was like. Not blinding, just a thick haze.
Here's Pam...notice the helmet?.....viewing the lake....or,more exactly, the bowl of smoke.
Here's what the lake should look like. In one of the previous photos the "this is Crater Lake" photo..... this is what you should see..but.... Oh well.
Here's a picture of Doug, Jim and Pam,(notice the hat?) overlooking the lake....sort of.

You know...in the last few years I've seen several serious forest fires up close and personal, and ALL of them set by Govt. employees as prescribed burns, that got out of hand. Maybe we shouldn't set "prescribed" burns on the DRIEST DAYS OF THE YEAR, HUH! What are you thinking? I'm just going to set a little fire here in the MIDDLE OF A TINDER DRY FOREST ON THE DRIEST DAYS OF THE YEAR. I'm sure it will help......Wooosh.....What were you thinkin' Skippy?
Wandering again....couldn't help it, don't you think SOME things should be obvious?
I think I'll open a beer while the cops writin' me a ticket.....Obvious right?
I think I'll light this cigar and wait for the gas company to come fix this leak...Obvious right?
Is it just me?.......Still wandering.....For some reason the Darwin awards keep coming to mind.

Back to the normal stuff.
Local wildlife at the lake overlook
After "viewing" the lake for a while we decided to go to the park village and get some lunch. It was surprising how many people were in the park when nothing could be seen. We were there....
Anyway, lunch was good, pricey but good. Plastic wrapped sandwiches soft drinks and cookies. Not bad at all.
From there we checked the maps and decided it would be best to find a campground for the night. Doug called a few and found us a KOA and we were set. He and Jim also called to arrange a room for Jim and Pam for Saturday night near the airport in Reno. Pams flight leaves around 8AM. Doug and I will get a campground somewhere east of Reno.
This in the meantime, is home for the night.

Day 19
Total mileage for today 240
After a cold nights sleep, we got up, made tea and coffee, then got on the road.
Our first goal was the Columbia River Gorge. The trip from the campground to the apx. start of the gorge was around 80 miles.
In the distanse you can see the Vista House, Crown Point.
Here's Pam in her helmet, she really likes it. She wears it all the time.
See?
From here you can see much of the Gorge
After Vist House we drove on via highway 30. Along 30 we found three waterfalls.
Here we hiked back to the base of the falls.Here we climbed to the bridge to see the falls close up
Here's our one
Here's our other
Jim and Pam at the pool of Wahkeena Falls
From the falls we traveled to the Bonneville Dam. The Dam has a fish ladder built around it.
This one got tired and decided to take a nap
Believe it or not.....
There's a guy here that counts the fish....by variety.... by pushing a button as they swim by his window. A fish greeter so to speak. Jim wants to know where he can apply for this important job. It may be a bit complicated for Jim....after all there's 8 varieties and 16 buttons. One button for each variety each way. There he goes...push....oops there he goes back...push....Do they run three shifts? What kind of degree do you need for this job?.....Are there bathroom breaks?.....Do they count the napping fish?.....Doug wanted this in here, I know it's not a fish
Jim didn't want this in here,
Hey, what can I say, it's Dougs picture
From here it was on to the state of Washington.

Across a grated bridge deck. Tough on a motorcycle.
Isn't it nice to be welcomed?
We drove in Washington for apx. 20 miles. Then...back to Oregon.
We headed south on route 35 around mt. Hood.
Mount Hood....Cool!...in more ways than one.

This is as close as we got.
On to the campground.....
Somewhere north of Redmond and south of Madras.....somewhere in Oregon.

Day 18

Day 18
Total mileage so far this trip, 4372 miles
Met Kevin and Helga, from Wisconsin, last night and enjoyed an interesting conversation about different rides and bikes. Both are enthusiastic riders with a lot of experience. This morning Kevin showed me a vidio camera he had mounted on his race bike, I'm jealous! That could prove awesome on some of the roads we've been on. 120 to Yosemite comes to mind. As does route 4 through the Sierras. So Kevin and Helga, good ridin' and I hope to see some of your video. Sounds great!
This morning we took our time packing up for the days ride. Jim and Pam did some laundry, and Doug and I packed our tents and got ready for the day.
Today we leave the pacific coast and head inland. Our first stop is the Tillamook Air Museum.
This is one of the largest wooden structures still in existence. Originally built as a blimp hanger for WWII pacific patrol.I know, this isn't an aircraft, but hey, it's Jim's picture.
After Tillamook it was on to McMinnville to see the Evergreen Air and Space Museum.
On the road again.....
I can't wait to get on the road again.........
Finally! The home of the Spruce Goose!
Did you know, the Spruce Goose is actually made mostly of Birch? Yep, See, I learned something new today.
The Spruce Goose, this bugger is BIG!
View of the tail of the Goose.
There's a lot of other interesting things in this museum. For instance, out the door to the right is Phantom F4-C Whoa! wait a minute, I used to work on those. Now they're in museums.....Oh well, I went to the Dayton Wright Pat Air Museum last year....one of everything I used to work on was in there.....If it wasn't so neat it would be depressing. I still love planes of all sorts.
Enough of this chatter. After the Museums, it was......
On the road again.....
On the road to Salem Oregon and our campsite for the night.
I was impressed, Jim got us here without a wrong turn thru some tricky traffic. .......'course we then took 4 wrong turns trying to find Applebees for dinner. Such is life on the road, full of hazards.
It is now 1230AM. I must cease and desist.
Later