I followed Pat and Sherm to the local airport, where my daughter Laura was to catch a flight home. I also had a small box of things to ship home. Before I could proceed on my way, I decided I needed to get out my heated jacket liner. Unpack again, get it out, pack up, etc. After directions from Sherm on how to get back to Hwy 101, I was on my way at about 11 am.
I was really tired, had been running on adrenalin since I left home a week earlier. I wasn't sure how far I would get before stopping for the night. North on 101, I saw some elk in a meadow, one ran across the road some distance ahead of me. I turned east at Reedsport headed for Eugene. At that point I unplugged my jacket liner.
Turned north onto I-5 at Eugene. Just south of Albany, I stopped for gas at a truck stop that also had a small convenience store. It occurred to me that I had one of Jen's pastries and a cup of tea for breakfast, for dinner the night before I had wedding cake and rum. So a regular meal was in order. There was a Blimpie's sandwich counter inside the store. A sandwich and a diet Pepsi sounded good.
After lunch I felt a little tired and hot. Remember that red fleece blanket that was on the registration table? It had been stuck into my gear at the last minute. I put that down on the pavement in the shade next to the store, used one of my duffle bags for a pillow, and slept for an hour (with the sound of semi trucks pulling past me) When I woke up I felt great. Had a bottle of water, changed my leather jacket for my textile one, and was on my way.
After that I just kept going north. The farther north I got the more I felt like I was just going to go home for the night. The traffic was pretty heavy after I got north of Vancouver. South of Chehalis it was stop and go for quite some time. The sun was going down and I thought at the time that maybe people were slowing down because of sun in their eyes, but I don't know if that's what it was.
I pulled off at another rest stop, traded my tinted visor for my clear one since the sun was going down fast, and changed back to my leather jacket. All this unpacking and repacking uses up some time along the road, but I am not going to get saddlebags, so this is the way it is.
North of Olympia, traffic thinned out. I don't like to ride in the dark so I slowed down.
Last push for home. I turned off at my exit, and was headed up the hill for my house.
At that point, the only exciting thing happened on the whole trip home. There is a right turn just before my house which is a steep uphill blind corner which immediately turns into a downhill. I hate that corner. Even in my car I always slow way down there because I have seen people park their cars around that corner, and you can't see them until you get around the corner.
As I came up to the corner I saw flashing police lights around the corner. Of course I slowed way down, and then stopped because I couldn't see what was going on. It was dark, I was tired, I was stopped on a hill, and couldn't see what was happening where I needed to go. I sort of crawled the bike around the corner. There was a police car sitting where no car should ever stop, and he even had his door open! Had someone pulled over. So one more block to go and I was pulling into my driveway. No pictures of this part. It was too dark and I was ready to put Max in the garage, pull my stuff off the back and see my cats. It was a great rally, but its always good to be home.