Travelogue -- Dr Bob's US Northwest Motorcycle Ride
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23 June 2013, 11:59 PM PT, North Bend, WA

A dreary day. Here's how it started.

It wasn't really raining, it was sort of misting. The air was full of water and anything the air touched got wet. In the picture above, my bike was under a roof overnight, so it stayed dry. You can see the water line on the pavement. Those two things lying by the bike are my gaitors, rain jackets for my boots. You can see my rain jacket lying on the bike. I wore it all day. I wore the gaitors most of the day. It was a wet day. I stayed dry, because I have good protection.

In spite of the rain, I put in 466 miles today. That's a lot, but I wanted to get out of this weather. I am almost out tonight, but not quite. Had my chocolate shake also. That's how I keep track of days, by counting shakes.

Here's my first Capitol of the day, this is the Oregon State Capitol in Salem.

Here's a close up of the statue. The Oregon Pioneer.

The rain did not keep me from exploring the Columbia River Gorge. I did do less exploring than I had planned, not going as far up river. These are the Multnomah Falls, the tallest in North America after Yosemite Falls. It is a 620 foot waterfall.

A shot along Old US30.

This is Horsetail Falls, a 176 foot waterfall.

Another view in the Gorge.

This is the Bridge of the Gods. This was as far up river as I got.

Looking across the river.

I heard this train before it reached this spot, then waited to get the picture. This is zoomed in at the center of the picture above.

I am almost back to Portland now. I saw this "vista" on my way to the Gorge, but it is only for the other direction of travel. So, I am looking back into the Gorge. You can see just how dreary a day it was.

Then I was off to Olympia for the Washington State Capitol.

Even though it was late in the afternoon, perhaps time to call it a day, I kept on riding. This final shot was taken on a shortcut connecting I-5 to I-90. It is the diagonal road at the top left of my map. Pretty much the halfway point of my journey. At the time I thought the rainbow was the sign that I was out of the rain. Not so, I had more rain after taking this picture. A few minutes later the rainbow was a full arch, but I couldn't stop to take another picture. That was the only sun I saw all day.

I have had a slight problem with the bike the past two days, the throttle sticks sometimes. It is an electronic throttle, not a mechanical throttle, but the sticking is mechanical. When I roll the throttle control on the end of the handlebars, it can stick and not return when I take my hand off. That made it fun when I was shifting thousands of times yesterday. It may be temperature related, it is only happening when I am in colder air. I hope to have it checked at a Harley dealer in Spokane tomorrow.