Brookings Oregon and I found Spring

 Today dawned sunny and warm. I was starting slow and taking a break from pushing down the road and hitting my next mark on the map. It was nice. I rode around Brookings up the hills of town, found the schools, the cemetery the Azalea Park. Then into a funky coffee shop for lunch.
     I needed to some travel supplies so I dropped into a Walmart looking Fred Meyer store that had pretty much everything. Every where I stopped someone would come up to talk about the motorcycle, but not the plates from Colorado, pretty interesting.  I guess I am just proud I didn't trailer it out here.

When I was wandering around town I got this picture of how far along spring is here, something we don't see like this at 7,000 ft elevation at home. It was a pretty warm day at this point. I went down to the Boat Basin on the Chetco River and took this picture looking up the Chetco river. While I was there by the river a Trawler went out the channel and swung his booms out to the side to start fishing.

     A little later in the Afternoon I drove the mothership up the 101 north along the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor to a trail out into the trees. I sat on a bench in the sun at the Arch Rock. Sitting out on that point it was interesting to watch the constant restless movement of the Pacific Ocean. The foam from the waves drifting off to the north and the various types of waves hitting the rocks with the occasional boom of an especially hard hit on the rocks. At home when we sit by the river, I think about how much water has passed by headed to the Mississippi River and how the channel has been formed over centuries. But it is always one direction, down hill, and only varies in flow based on snowmelt or the errant cloudburst. Here the ocean is constantly trying to grind down these rocks or pound holes in them. The fierce winter storm doing the most work. The power of the ocean that you feel in the waves is even more impressive when you see a rock like this.
     This evening as I rode back into town I could feel the air getting chilly. Back at the Chetco River I rode up the south bank road for a while but in the curves in the trees you feel and change. When I turned to ride back down to the harbor the Fog was starting to roll in. So I paused at Fat Irish, a pub down by the harbor and had a local Porter and some fish and chips and watched the fog get thicker. Back at the Inn I have settled in for the night and  tomorrow will see if it is a ride in the fog in the morning.
      So it is off up the coast all the way to Newport Oregon, about a four hour ride without stops. I plan on spending a couple of days around there and the communities below and above Newport along Hwy 101.
Will by the Chetco River.