July 17, 2005
The Dalles, OR - Cascade Locks, OR: Historic Columbia River Highway
I was regretful at leaving my opulent motel room so early in the morning. Only fear of the wind rousted me out of my clean sheeted bed. I have to mention that it had two full size pillows! There's nothing like three weeks of camping to make you appreciate the ordinary.
I had been lukewarm about the camping part of the trip. We used to camp a lot when we were younger and poorer. We hadn't done much camping in recent years. I liked the idea of being self sufficient and having the flexibility of camping. I was surprised at how much I did enjoy camping on this trip. I had been planning on getting a motel room every rest day and in the end this was my first room for the trip. I really did like having all of my belongings right there with me at my fingertips. But, oh, the luxury of that ordinary motel room was beyond compare.
Today we would ride on the Historic Columbia River Highway. It was built way back in the early auto days as a location for a scenic day trip for people from Portland. The first section of the highway was also open to car traffic. It was narrow and winding, edged by a nice white fence. There was very little traffic. Only other tourists. Everyone with a destination to get to in a hurry was down on the interstate. A couple of sections had been turned into non-vehicle use as they were too narrow for modern cars. These areas were wonderful. They were wide enough for bicyclists to pass easily. It seems that many bike paths are far too narrow. We saw walkers, joggers, cyclists, roller bladers. This was a very popular trail.
I rode with Carlton most of the day. We talked about the riding in his home area, The Blue Ridge Parkway. Carlton assured me that the Parkway was no more difficult to ride than what we were doing at the moment. Carlton had a flat and we stopped to fix it. Ryan happened along and stopped with us.
The climbing was granny gear and the views were stupendous. I stopped for many 'photo opportunities' to catch my breath. At least hugging the side of the mountains like this the wind didn't seem to be an issue.
Ryan had tried mightily to juggle our overnights so we could stay in Hood River. He said it was an interesting town, but couldn't verbalize what was so interesting. When we pulled into town we saw plenty of young, hip people in the streets. There seemed to be a windsurfing shop on every corner. Carlton and I stopped for a bagel sandwich. We chose to sit outside. The music inside was way too loud for me. Plus it was very dark. Just as Carlton and I were leaving, Recumbent John pulled up.
We were back on the highway after Hood River. We were in somewhat of a hurry as we had an opportunity for a tour on an old fashioned steam river boat. The highway was reasonably flat and fast going to Cascade Locks. Our KOA campground was a few miles outside of town. It was nice with large shade trees and a swimming pool. Unfortunately for me the showers closed just as I wanted to clean up. The man cleaning, after seeing me sitting in the grass waiting, directed me to the handicapped showers. That was kind of him. It was a little house with two showers. After my shower, I felt quite lazy about riding on into town for the tour, but did. We were eating dinner out also. Two nights in a row. Now was the time to spend all of that pad in the budget.
Our riverboat tour was paid for by ACA. Each person had $25. of 'mad money' to be spent on something fun during the trip. Ryan had scouted out this river boat trip for us. It was fun and informative, telling us the history of the river and the native people of the area. Lewis and Clark were mentioned also.
After dinner we had a fair amount of confusion finding a place to eat. We were hoping for something nice and ended up settling for something open. I ordered fried shrimp. Not a great choice. I was thinking seafood, but these were the little shrimp out of a box. Ah,well. Several people had ice cream after dinner. I headed on back to the campground.
I bought a book, a quart of milk, and a bag of ice at the campground store. My milk came at a price, but by golly, I had some for the morning.
Our day had been quite busy. I was tired. I spoke with Jacinto on the phone for an extended amount of time trying to walk him through filling out the sales taxes forms. I suspect I wasn't as nice as I could have been. I had left him examples of the simple forms and for some reason expected him to remember perfectly how to do them. I felt guilty after hanging up. For not being patient and for being on this fun trip while he was home doing all of his work and mine also. Tomorrow we would be riding into Portland. Our trip was almost over. I didn't want the riding to end, but I did want to see my family. I even missed Kissy, the cat, who sat on my lap at night while I read.
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Today's ride: 50 miles (80 km)
Total: 997 miles (1,605 km)
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