4th July 2016 - Astoria OR - Kms to date 2336

Kms today 695

The 4th of July parade was not scheduled until 11am in Ashland so we decided to hit the road as we had to do 625kms to get to Astoria OR. We took the I-5 freeway north to the outskirts of Portland and then headed to coast for more interesting riding and scenery. The road down the mountain was beautiful and smooth with big sweeping bends. The scenery was typical pine forests and flowing rivers. We hit the coast at Tillamook and headed north on Hwy 101. The traffic was slow to start with as the 4th July crowds were heading home.

The rugged coastline north from Tillamook.

In the end we made good time to Astoria arriving around 3.30pm. We headed to town to have a look around and get a bite to eat. A lot of restaurants were closed but we managed to find a little Italian place. The waitress initially told us they were full but after seeing that we were a couple of good looking blokes decided that she had a table after all!!! After dinner we had a look around the water front, not overly attractive.

Sunset over the bridge that goes to Washington state.

Astoria is at the mouth of the mighty Columbia river and is the headquarters of the pilots that take shipping over a rather dangerous bar to/from the Pacific ocean. The 4th July fireworks were due to start at either 8.30pm or 10pm depending on which local you listened to. The 10pm one was right. We climbed a viewing tower just across the road from our hotel and waited, in a rather cool breeze, for the fireworks to begin. They were launched from a barge in the middle of the harbour.

A sample of the fireworks.

They were pretty good but of course not a patch on the New Years Eve fireworks in Sydney. Colin organised for a new tyre to be fitted by a local bike shop in the morning so we will be going there first thing.

Alan after he found out he had clobbered all the photos in Colin's camera.