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I'm starting a new trip to the NorthWest on Sunday the 17th of August. My bike is already to go and so am I..........almost. This is going to be my first blog entry from my new MacBook Air laptop. I think it is going to work out pretty well.

I was expecting a long and very hot day, but while it was sort of long, It was a good day. I left in the dark at 4:29 this morning and as soon as I turned north on Old El Mirage Rd, I saw a shooting star right in front of me. It was already warm then so I was only wearing a t-shirt and that is all I needed all the way to my destination of Buellton, CA. Although I have ridden Hwy 154 east of Santa Barbara many times, it is always fun, and I like to check the status of Lake Cachuma. I'm not sure why that actually matters......hmmmm?

As you can see, it is doing very well for August, still almost full.

The coast range of southern California is beautiful

You have to look really hard to see the two guys fishing in the boat. I took a close up of them but it got out of order and is a few pictures farther down.

I was suppose to kill four hours until my room would be ready so I started by having my lunch here.

Cute restaurant

And the food was very good.

These are the guys fishing that you were trying to find in the earlier picture. I took this with a 25x telephoto lens.

Lakes are beautiful, even when they are man made.

I rode over to Solvang to continue killing some time, but that place has become busier than Disneyland, so I just continued down one of the side roads I had turned onto. It was and absolutely beautiful road. Full of curves, cliffs, even a full tree canopy along most of it. Oh yeah, fresh pavement besides.

The waitress at the Mexican Restaurant was telling me about these falls but said I would have to take Hwy 101 ten miles south of town to get to them. I liked my way better. :) :) I was about to begin the 1 mile walk to the falls when a lady and her two daughters were just getting back. I asked them how it was and the lady said that for her personally it wasn't worth the walk. I said thanks very much, and I agree with you so I didn't make the trek. She said it was almost dried up.

Regardless of the falls, the park is very nice and it was a beautiful day.

I always though these things just had on main trunk, but this one has three or four.

My motel for the evening. I miss the restaurant. They have a sign that says it is temporarily closed for remodeling. What I saw doesn't appear to have any work being done, I suspect that covid took it out!

There is a road off of CA-1 called Nacimiento Road. The Pasnit riding club always had high remarks concerning it. I've thought about it many times but never got around to it. My buddy Rocky was telling me that another friend of his wanted him to come up and ride it too. Well, today was my day and when I got to the road, this sign was just across CA-1. I looked, but couldn't find a single otter.

This should be the last picture from today's blog. Sort of anti climatic in that you now already know that I indeed did make it to my planned destination for the day. Kind of a dump, but adequate.

This was my lunch at the end of the Nacimiento ride, also out of order.

I thought I was on a no toll route, but after it was too late I'll be getting a bill in the mail.

This passenger ferry was moving along at a fast clip, probably about 30 knots or so. On the other side of the bridge is San Quenton Prison. It was safe for me to get a picture of it.

Just south of Garberville, and north of Leggit there is a pretty good size grove of Redwoods

I guess they should be properly addressed as Giant Redwoods

I wanted to visit this mission, but it was on Fort Hunter property and they wouldn't let me in. Maybe they would have if I would have asked.

No sense of humor

I have no idea what this is other than some kind of surveillance system

One thing that Nacimiento road had a lot of was Deer!

It didn't lack in great views either. There are some Giant Redwoods on the left side of this draw and a bunch of dried grasses on the right side. This iis just south of Big Sur where the road gave way a couple of years ago and won't be repaired until 2026

When the land decide to break loose, there isn't much of a beach for it to land on.

Rock cliffs and a forest canopy, I like these enchanted rides.

It's about 45 miles across this pass to the 101 freeway and the landscape is change continuously the entire way.

You've been warned!

I sure like these grasses. They are beautiful. LOL, probably poisonous.

I liked this stuff too, whatever it is.

This guy has ridden with me most of my life but today he was showing off more than usual.

Trees of Mystery is always a fun stop just to say hello to Paul and Babe.

This mama and babies were kind enough to pose for pictures this morning.

Seventy years ago, my father was the pastor of this church. Actually he built a new on while he was there, and that has since been replaced by this one.

It also serves as the local food bank.

I enjoyed stepping inside even though it was Tuesday and not Sunday

The Noti Pub was there when I was two years old. I've never been inside.

Cool old Chevy truck was parked outside.

Looks stock to me.

I would have attended this school had we remained in Noti for one more year. I think both of my older sisters did. It is no longer being used, but still looks in pretty good condition on the outside.

The reason that I took this trip was to take care of a little rat problem at my stepdaughter's place. After repairing their damage, I decided I would block the entire area that they were accessing through with this expanded wire hardware cloth.

Looking out the front window of my son's house is my motorcycle

Eldo and I are being greeted by Smokey the Bear at the Tillamook Forestry Center

Out back of the center is this bridge over the Wilson River

Meanwhile back in Wood Village I have finished forming the rat blocking cover.

And poof, just like that I'm back in Oceanside at my son and his wife's beautiful new home and yard.

Just checking on some of the nearly three hundred plants they have procured for their landscaping project.

Here on my tippy toes I'm about the same height as my son. 6'

We visited Margaritas Mexican Restaurant and they had these beautiful flowers adorning the entire grounds

My son adorned the entrance.

My chili relleno, and taco rice and beans

Kristi's chicken burrito

Eldo had the Mexican Creation consisting of a chili relleno, a pork burrito and a cheese enchilada.

I think they left this surfboard stuck in the sand too long gauging from the amount of barnacles forming on it.

They have quite a whale collection. Personally I don't think the ship stands a chance.

Are those French or Hawaiian kitties?

I think this is Leah

Pretty sure this is Luke, he likes to open doors

I like to play with everything I'm not supposed to.

I've heard of whale blubber, but this is the first whale butter I've seen.

The entrance to the Tillamook City Museum

A pleasant lady to take your money and answer all of your questions.

Attempting a landing on an aircraft carrier???

One of the blimps that was hangerd at the Tillamook air museum.

Seems like there were slackers bact then too!

I tried to close it, I must be getting weak.

This King Salmon was 68# when he was caught.

For lunch today we ate at the Pacific Restaurant

I had a BLTA (bacon lettuce tomato avacado) Delicious!

An avocado toast with egg appetizer

Eldo's Reuben

Kristi's Cobb Salad

Our final stop for the day at the Tillamook Forestry Center

You are welcome to climb the observation tower but none of us volunteered

We did get a nice welcome from Smokey

This little foot bridge is over the Wilson River. Not a lot of water flowing this late in the summer.

As I was getting ready to leave my son's home I noticed this moth on the outside of my bedroom window. I took his picture and was surprised how well it turned out.

I stopped at McDonalds in Biggs Junction so I could take some food with my aspirin. When I came out I spotted this ratty Sportster and my first thought was that I would have loved to have this back when I was sixteen!

I stopped by Macro Plastics which was a factory that I over saw the construction of and then ran the manufacturing for it's first five years. This office is no longer being used as all of their operations are being done in home offices for the local sales and in world wide corporate offices for the company that purchased Macro Plastics.

The blue building is the manufacturing plant and the product they make are large agriculture bins.

It's always fun to ride by my old house and see the changes.

The new owners have replace the white picket fences with rod iron sections.

It's become a tradition to take my granddaughter and her family out to dinner and a visit.

In Yakima, El Mirador has great food, good ambiance, and can handle large families

This is Patience's father Ken's brother Kyle. Trying to hide in the background is Patience husband Ben

Patience, Ken, Shannon, Wanda, Lanny (aka Me) and Kyle

Time to add Lillymae and Jayce

I know this is a travel blog of sorts, but I'm keeping these next few pictures for me and many of them won't be captioned. I just want to be able to look back on them.

This is Wanda, Ken and Kyle's Mom

Master of the cup

Shannon is about to take her first long motorcycle ride.

She wanted to go feel the water

But first thought it would be good to climb all of the rocks on the way down and back.

She finally made it to the water, but she never did report back to me whether it was warm or cold.

There is only one point of interest in Ellensburg Washington for a six year old and through extensive computer work, I found it.

I LVOE how she signed us in to the guest book!

She couldn't quite reach.......

...........but her built in step stool worked perfectly

She found a new set of highway pegs

Hello Tucker!

I'm now in Ephrata, WA with my grandson and his family. These pictures are from multiple sources so they will be out of order but I will just caption each of them as to what they are. This is one of the Lenore Caves above Lenore lake. That's my great grandson Logan standing in front of one of the caves.

I'm not sure Logan is too proud of the pink helmet but I didn't have room for a full helmet on this trip.

Here he is enduring a grandpa fishing lesson.

Lenore Lake view from one of the caves

Steffen took a picture with his phone of me using his car to stabilize my camera from at least one mile away. That was amazing to see that with a phone camera.

Today, we threw back everything we caught.

Steffen's wife Melissa has a rare ailment called SPS

Every few weeks she has to have a plasma exchange. It's nice that they can do it in the comfort of her home. It leaves her drained for the rest of the day.