Day 4 2021 – Good food, Good weather, Good sights

One of the things I’ve learned during this trip is that if you are close to the ocean when it is cool outside it will be foggy. When we got out from our hotel this morning along the coast there were clouds of fog hovering over the ocean. We had to ride uphill back to the highway as we started our trip. The route and stats are here.

I recognized some of the small towns that I passed through from my last trip down this path. I saw the same coffee house where I had my second breakfast last year in Nehalem. This time I settled for a cinnamon roll in Wheeler. It was also excellent. Ron stuck with a coffee. The views along the Nehalem River were gorgeous and we could see people in boats fishing. I was jealous of their activities, but I was also enjoying the ride.

We followed railroad tracks along the Nehalem Bay and in Brighton we saw an old time train in action. The road that followed the railroad tracks was pretty flat and we were able to make fast time down to Rockaway Beach and Bayview. In Garibaldi we saw the train again. This time it was going backwards. We’re not sure if it had picked up new passengers or if it was at the end of the line. I tried to get a video of its whistle blowing, but it came to a stop when I was finally able to get a good look for a video capture.

Keeping with our food theme, we passed by the original Pronto Pup Corn dog – at least that’s what it said on the sign.

Our warm shower hosts, Marnie and John from Cosmopolis had told us about the world’s best crab melts that were sold across the street from the Creamery in Tillamook. Both Ron and I took advantage of the tailwinds and favorable terrain that led us into Tillamook. We made great time and were able to find both the world’s greatest crab melt and some incredible ice cream and milkshakes.

Even though we were feeling kind of heavy, the tailwinds helped push us down the coast. As we came around the recreation area near Sand Lake, we came to stalled traffic. Police and emergency crews were taking an injured person out on a stretcher via helicopter and they had blocked both directions of traffic. Ron and I worked our way to the front of the line. I took the same attitude as Rocky Balboa “are you closed to everyone or just the general public?” and I waved at one of the officers. He gave me the thumbs up and we were able to continue down the road. Until they let the rest of the cars go by, we had our direction of the road all to ourselves for the next few miles. Later the traffic caught up with us. We went a little farther and took a rest at a beach.

From there we had to climb our way to Tierra del Mar. It was only another 5 miles or so to get the Pacific City. We flew down hill into town only to stop at a speed bump that led us to another Pelican Brewery. We were thirsty, they had beer, enough said.

We still hadn’t had dinner. We found a great place along the river, Riverhouse Nestuca. We performed a magic trick by making 2 beers, Crab Mac n Cheese, chowder, and paella disappear between the two of us.The sun was starting to set, the air was cool as we followed the river to the hotel. Irma greeted us as we came up her driveway. We secured our bikes and settled in to the best accommodations of the trip so far.

The Not So Lone Rider