And finally ... Portland!

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After two hours of riding north on the coast I got out of the fog and enjoyed some of the best coastal sections between Florence and Waldport. I stopped for some photos and chatted with a couple guys from SoCal, who rode to El Paso to Nelson, BC, to Vancouver and now down the Oregon coast. One guy was on a older BMW R70 (I think) the other on a new gold wing with a rear platform holding a cooler and a giant suitcase strapped to the back seat. For one guy. I wonder if he was moving? Anyway the road was nice and smooth, albight it was a cool 60F.

By 10:30 the traffic had increased significantly, and It was time to head inland on 34 to Corvallis. Unlike two years ago when Paul and I rode it and sat in construction traffic, this time, with the exception of a car and a logging truck quickly dispatched, I had the road to myself. As I went inland the temperature rose quickly.

The primary reason to take this road because it is a nice road. The secondary reason was to have lunch with Chuck. But as he is in Montana, I skipped lunch and went north to Portland, and checked into the hotel, the Embassy suites near the airport.

3600 miles in six days! Now I get 4 days off the bike, with Jennifer, until I head east on Monday. I asked the hotel about parking the bike in the back of the lot until Monday, but they suggested that I park it under the awning in front of the entrance. Bonus! Awesome customer service from these guys!

I looked the bike over and realized that two things were wrong
 
1. No laminar lip. I had removed this from the windshield and strapped it to the Motofizz  bag someplace in Nevada. Now that I think about it, I am not sure I remember seeing it since then. Bummer.

2. One of the front forks is leaking fluid, slowly. I've got a Seal-mate I will try to remove whatever is in there if it gets bad, but at this point, with 50k miles on these seals and bushings and the fjr having pretty good fork protectors, I suspect that the seal is bad rather than stuff getting into the seal. I don't want to try to fix it and make it worse... as it will get me home in the current state. My biggest fear is having a catastrophic failure and coating the brakes (and I will at least have two more discs to stop me).

Stayed tuned... more updates next week!