Blizzard Run

[avonfloater]

Looks like an unbeatable forecast for a blizzard run this weekend - any takers?

Denny

[sanjaun2]

I am interested, Details my man, Details....

[Eric_R]

Don't think I can make it :(
We hit the DQ in Goldendale last Sunday. So, I'm good for another couple of weeks. ;)

[AlaskaFish]

Don't think I can make it :(
We hit the DQ in Goldendale last Sunday. So, I'm good for another couple of weeks. ;)
SLACKER!!! He--, some of us could do a couple of Blizzards on the same day!

And Denny, you knew I would respond to this subject buddy. No fair!
As far as the ride goes, Marilyn and I are thinking of trying a short trial ride for her knee (post surgery) on Sunday, but she is working Saturday darnit!

But, hey, that means I could hop on the Tiger and go find a DQ somewhere! Did anyone want to see the CG Cutter Eagle? I hear she will be in port this weekend at Astoria and has an Open House scheduled.

Scroll down a little on the Web Site here to see the Eagle schedule:
http://nwlimited.wordpress.com/tag/maritime-history/

It appears that the ship will be open for visitors from about 2:00 to 7:30 Saturday afternoon.

Anyone willing to do an Astoria DQ?
http://www.dairyqueen.com/us-en/store-locator/

I'm ready to ride!

John

[Eric_R]

SLACKER!!! He--, some of us could do a couple of Blizzards on the same day!
John
Hey now!
I had to finish off the wife's wafflecone sunday too! :rolleyes:

[AlaskaFish]

Hey now!
I had to finish off the wife's wafflecone sunday too! :rolleyes:
OK Eric, I guess that deserves a reprieve. Perhaps some of us are just a leeetle more addicted to the Blizzard than others?

John

[avonfloater]

I saw the news piece on the Cutter Eagle last night and would be interested in seeing it. What day did you have in mind? Brian - interested in that option? Dan? Ernie? Jeff? Art?

Denny

[AlaskaFish]

It would have to be Saturday Denny, since we have plans for Sunday. And the ship is only open for tours in the afternoon, not morning. I believe it said from about 2:30 to 7:30 in the afternoon, or something close to that.

John
I saw the news piece on the Cutter Eagle last night and would be interested in seeing it. What day did you have in mind? Brian - interested in that option? Dan? Ernie? Jeff? Art?

Denny

[AlaskaFish]

So how about lunch Saturday at the Beach Bite Restaurant at 176 S. Hwy 101 in Rockaway Beach and then we cruise up the Coast to Astoria for a tour of the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle? Plenty of great roads we can hit getting over to Garibaldi (Miami River Rd) and hook back up to Rockaway Beach. Then cruise 101, or look for those side roads to kill some time if need be.

Link to Google maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wl

If Rockaway by lunch (11:30) is too far for some of the more Northern folks, we could hook up in Astoria and head out from there later in the day. Probably close to 2:00 PM to hit Astoria, depending on the traffic on 101.

Link to CGC Eagle info:
http://nwlimited.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/us-coast-guard-cutter-eagle-to-visit-astoria/

PS:
Rockaway Beach is where one of the GT Checkpoints is by the way, just in case you didn't know the significance.

John

[avonfloater]

lAccording to teh web site Saturday tours are 10 aM unti 7:30 PM - does that sound right, John?

Denny

[AlaskaFish]

That's correct Denny! I let my military background get in the way when I first looked at the site and thought I was seeing "14:10" which would have been 2;10 PM for normal folk! But I was moving the date (14) into the time (10) so my bad. So this means that we could have visited the Eagle first then cruised down to Rockaway, but that might be pushing the Northern folks a bit.

Still up for discussion gang. What say ye? stick to the Rockaway lunch, and Eagle afternoon? Or try to hit the Eagle first, and then head South for a later meal?

Personally the original plan gives some of us "Southern" Nor Wetters a little more sack time before we hit the road!

John

[avonfloater]

I'm in for the original plan and it gives Brian some sack time on his end as well. See you at Rockaway Beach.

Denny

[AlaskaFish]

It's a deal then Denny! The Beach Bite Restaurant at 176 S. Hwy 101 in Rockaway Beach at 11:30.

Anyone else out there feeling up for a ride? Please meet us there tomorrow if so!

John

[ErnieA]

I saw the news piece on the Cutter Eagle last night and would be interested in seeing it. What day did you have in mind? Brian - interested in that option? Dan? Ernie? Jeff? Art?

Denny

Thanks Denny and John for the invite, but I'm still being chief cook and bottle washer here at the casa. Pauline over did-it today with an outing to my dads place for lunch and having the family clan over for an early Father's day celebration for me and my Dad this evening. I "pushed" a couple Oxycodin on her to get the pain level manageable and put her down for the evening (sounds like taking care of a baby, well I'm jus' sayin'... ;) ). I better stick close to home for another week before I chance a kitchen pass. I know she'd say yes, but it would really mean NO! if I'd ask. She is having LT withdrawl in the worse way! Poor girl.

Have fun my friends and take pictures for those of us stuck at home. :)

[avonfloater]

We'll miss you both, Ernie and Pauline. First things first for you guys. See you both on the road soon.

Denny

[Steve_R]

Sorry John, I just didn't plan well. I'd be way late leaving the house to make it time. :) Tell Marilyn that Connie and I hope she gets well soon. It is less than 75 days before we get together again.

[nootka]

Found this thread on my friend's blog (linked from the stats page)
The Eagle is really a great destination, though there is another tall ship, the Lynx, across the river at Ilwaco, WA, also visiting. :)
There's lots to do here in Astoria, and if you're here on Sunday, come by the Sunday Market and say hello!
(we're the booth across from the Elliot Hotel)
Glad the blog could be of some help in deciding what to do, where to go and what to see!
I will be posting some photos that I took of the Eagle on Thursday in a bit.

L.

[AlaskaFish]

Sorry John, I just didn't plan well. I'd be way late leaving the house to make it time. :) Tell Marilyn that Connie and I hope she gets well soon. It is less than 75 days before we get together again.
Steve, we kept wondering why you were a no show for a Blizzard buddy! Tell Connie Hi back for Marilyn who is doing nicely so far. In fact we are planning a short trial ride tomorrow to see how her knee takes being on the Bike.

As far as the ride today, it was just a little cool, but great otherwise! In fact we up here prefer the cool to that sweltering heat you folks are going through back east. And Art's wife Marcia was piloting her own new set of wheels on this ride: A Vulcan 900cc machine! She seems to really like it based on how well she handled the curves on the ride today! Way to go Marcia!

We found a surprise visitor at the Checkpoint in Rockaway Beach along with Denny when we arrived this morning. Ken Meese decided to join the group for lunch!

After a great meal we headed up 101 to Astoria to check out the CGC Eagle. Ken had to get back to Hillsboro for something related to work I believe, so he was not able to join us on the northern part of our Coastal ride. See ya soon Ken!

The Eagle really is an impressive ship, especially when you consider her age: Commisioned in 1936 as a training vessel for the German Navy. 72 years and still sailing! Brian was waiting for us in the parking lot of the Maritime Museum with our specially reserved parking spots for the Bikes. What a guy!

We finally found the DQ in Astoria for our Blizzard fixes and then proceeded to head back via Hwy 202 through Jewell & Vernonia before finding our way home. Denny and Brian peeled off toward Ranier for the Longview bridge in order to avoid the Portland mess in getting back to their home turf.

On the ride home the clouds we had along the Coast just disappeared, and we were riding in and out of the shade and the bright sunshine for the bulk of the trip!

All in all a really great way to kill a Saturday! Tks everyone for helping to make it so!

John

[AlaskaFish]

I almost forgot the most important picture of them all: The Reward! Plus one of Art's seat with a reward delivered from above while we were touring the Eagle. And one of our Special Parking Tks to our Valet, Brian! We caught him during what appeared to be a contemplative moment aboard the Eagle in one of the shots.

Now to get ready for tomorrow's ride!

John

[avonfloater]

Great photos, John. A point of clarification on the "proof" we actually did a blizzard run - the two large blizzards are both John's!!!!

Brian and I did a 350 miler today and picked up the GTs at Moro and Welches - nice breakfast at the Moro Cafe. The waiter told us a couple from Wasco hit the guard rail last night coming up the hill from Biggs and neither apparently made it through. Brian headed north at Carson to track the back side of Mt. St. Helens and home - at the rate he rides his GT I think he was cleared to land at either Cape Kennedy or Edwards Air Force Base! Brian - sorry I didn't realize you had a wide spot in mind at the Carson turnoff and I was past by the time it clicked in my mind. I hope the horn sufficed. Great ride! Thanks for picking up my toll at the bridge.

Denny

[sanjaun2]

I am putting on the biggest happy face I can muster right now. I left Denny at the Carson cutoff down on the Columbia. It all started off so nice, Good weather and light traffic. I headed up hwy 25 on the back side of Mt Saint Helens. There are a lot of tiight twisties back there and I had them to myself. About 50 miles later I found out why there was no traffic. A big stinking yellow sign... ROAD BLOCKED AHEAD FROM SNOW! A month ago I was riding at 11,500 feet in Colorado and they could not clear this stinking road that is probably only 3k high. So I backed tracked to another road. But that means 100 miles of I-5 slabbing. I am absolutely hating the idea. If only I knew what lay ahead on the slab. It was the normal truck infested, Idiot in the fast lane type ride. Thats when it was a ride. It then became a parking lot. It was backed up for twenty miles. we are talking first gear, Clutch in and out, feet on the ground type here. I should have rerouted south of Chehalis but didnt, The accident was just north of Fort Lewis. Now here is the real kicker. It was on the off ramp on the other side of the freeway. Twenty plus miles of back up because these losers had to looky loo. So, My hour and a half slab ride turned into three and a half. Anyway, I had a great time/ride with you all this weekend. Thanks for that and thanks to Denny for putting me up last night and for the fine company. Just don't ask me to ride the slab anytime soon. Its for morons in cars! I'll post some pics when I get caught up.

[avonfloater]

Bummer, Brian. You should have spent another night at the Huffman motel. Glad you made it home safe. No slab!

Denny

[AlaskaFish]

*1 on the Bummer note Brian! I'll bet your mileage was pretty good for those 3 hours though, huh?

We'll be watching for the pics. And DO NOT believe Denny's claim that both large Blizzards were mine! Not that I couldn't have handled two of them!

John

[meese]

ROAD BLOCKED AHEAD FROM SNOW!Yeah, I've seen that same sign on that same stretch of road, and had to do the same slab detour. And now you know why we lane split in CA. :D

Sorry I missed you this time, Brian. Catch you on the next ride.

[sanjaun2]

Yeah, I've seen that same sign on that same stretch of road, and had to do the same slab detour. And now you know why we lane split in CA. :D

Sorry I missed you this time, Brian. Catch you on the next ride.
Ken,
I am sorry I missed you as well.I was actually thinking of you while stopped in traffic. I envisioned you lane splitting in Ca. I was very tempted. They had perfectly good shoulders on both sides of the road that nobody was using.

John,
Mileage is not very good when the clutch is in. Believe it or not I had to stop for gas. I pulled into a Chevron and guess what. Card would not work. So, I used my atm card as it usually works. This time no go. I closed my gas cap, gave a nasty look towards the attendant in the window and went down the road to find a shell station. I was getting really hot sitting in traffic so while I got off for gas I saw a DQ. I was really ready for another Blizzard. But the DQ was closed and abandoned. Now you are getting an idea just how bad my ride home turned out.

[avonfloater]

Hey Brian -

I think you should pursue counseling! What a ride home.

Denny