The scene outside the window of my cozy little retreat early this morning was frightening. Rain was bouncing 4 inches off the ground and the wind bent the trees in half.
But I saddled up anyway.
I learned something important from a waiter in Prince Rupert one rainy afternoon. She said “There is no such thing as bad weather, only wrong clothing”.
I thought that was brilliant. It even has great metaphoric value, but the Zen stuff will have to come later.
So I stopped in Tillamook and bought some warm and waterproof gloves. Otherwise I think I am adequately prepared to handle a good rain. And I know that will be tested on me soon.
I even have heated handgrips. Well--I have one heated handgrip. The left one gave up on me recently. I do need to fix that.
The rain settled down by noon and the sun even made brief appearances. But I wasn’t prepared for the wind! Wow! It gusted up to 90 km/h on occasion and that made for a tough ride. The Bruiser gets skittish in the wind and we had a good wrestle much of the way, especially on exposed roads and bridges when I really struggled to keep from wobbling off course. With all my gear and big windscreen there is a considerable sail area, and at low speeds and when I was stopped it was a challenge just to stay upright!
That said, there can be no finer place to see the effect of a good storm than the Oregon Coast! Wild wind stirred the sea into froth, like a blender set at “frappe”. The endless series of huge and most majestic, curling waves stampeded on shore like herds of white stallions, their manes whipped as the wind tore off their crests. It probably made an impressive sound too, but with biker earplugs stuffed in my head I could only imagine it. I stopped often to gawk, but it is such an ordeal getting on and off and dressing and undressing for the weather that I took fewer pictures than I would have wished. Once I was driven away by high velocity sand grains drilled into my face by the ridiculous wind.
If you have ever seen this coast you will recognize the cypress trees, swept up like a 50's hair style by the relentless onshore blow.
I found a great website for weather forecasting at www.weather.com (the Weather Network) that now has interactive weather maps. But no matter how I looked at it, the news is bad for the next couple of days. More wind and heavy rain with 1-2 inch accumulations. I’m stuck! It gets marginally better in California, but at latitudes over a day’s ride from here. If I hunkered down in a motel to wait it out I would be here for several days.
By 6:00 I was spent. I had intended to cross out of Oregon today, but at Gold Beach I found a decent little fleabag hotel than gave me a senior’s rate (I’m still not sure how I feel about that) just as the sun started to roll up the carpet for the day and rain started up again. Picked up some haute cuisine-in-a-can at the grocery store across the street, cooked it up on my little propane burner, and enjoyed a bottle of beer with the blues streaming away on my complimentary Wi-Fi
And the wind is howling.
And the wind is howling.
