1000 miles to paint a house

[pdedse]

A friend of mine who rides bikes lives in Eureka-CA, 400-500 miles from me in OR depending on the route, paints houses there every summer and I had a week off, so...a road trip to help paint!

We talked on the phone last Monday afternoon and he said "you have a week off work? You should come down to help me" to which I replied "I'm in the middle of a bathroom remodel project and my tile saw won't cooperate and..." to which he interrupted and said "that's why you should come, you need a break from that project to help me with mine"...hard to argue with sound logic.

By Monday evening, I had the CB1100 packed and Tuesday was on the road by 8am. Took boring but fast I-5 south out of the Portand, OR area and by noon was in Grants Pass heading towards the coast on fun hiway 199:



Lots of river stop possibilities along the way:



Lots of Redwood parks in northern CA, and the first I road through was Jebediah Smith, a few miles before Crescent City:



As my friend was in the middle of painting that day, no need to get there too early so I spent some time mucking around Crescent City. Views from Battery Point lighthouse:







After Crescent City, you run into Elk country, and true to "Elk Meadow Cabins" name,
...

...this guy and a few friends were grazing a stone's throw away:


The coastline is beautiful, only interrupted by about 10 construction areas where there were flaggers and one-lane open traffic issues...but the the views do make up for that unpleasantness:




My friend was finishing up the his painting for the day around 6pm so I timed my arrival for a bit after that and it was a great day of riding...because Wednesday was to be all day paint day.

[Nachodaddy]

Beautiful ride. Thanks for sharing.

[pdedse]

First half of Wednesday was spent helping my buddy spray the exterior of the house. He has all the right tools and it was fun watching him work efficiently and quickly, no non-sense type of guy when working. Has several of his family members working with him and they all seem to know what to do...lots of crazy energy, do-this-don't-do-that, get out of the way, help me now...all spiced up with lots of jokes and stories. I'd never spent any realy time in Eureka and he filled me in with lots of details.

I've painted 5 homes before on my own and worked with a professional paint crew for two summers back in the day so I enjoy the work--such a nice break from the day job. And I like learning techniques from others, see how they do things. 8am to 7pm...paint!

Same for Thursday except we left the late afternoon for a ride that turned out to be one of the craziest, albeit relatively short rides that I've ever done. True to his nature, my friend simply said let's go for a ride and w/out a word of explanation we tood off on 101 south out of Eureka. Then we turned off at hiway 211 and headed towards Ferndale:



From Ferndales's cemetery the overlook is gorgeous with the seemingly everpresent ocean haze hanging about:




Then we headed back into Ferndale and waited for his daughter to catch up with us who was trailing us in the family paint pick-up because she wanted to come along for the ride, but dad didn't want her on the back of his GS for this trip. We chatted a moment with her then he simply says "this will be fun", flipped his visor down and took off.

He's a good, confident rider who grew up dirtbike riding and has little fear of taking corners in all sorts of road conditions...I'm not. But he knows this as we have done long trips before... and is patient. I do my best to stay close to him over likely the twistiest, uneven pavement I've ever been on. Not the best for the CB1100's suspension, but on his GS1200 he was having a blast. We both were really, but mine had a lot of "oh my" moments as he was pushing me beyond what I'm used to. It was good, though...when I felt over my head I just slowed for a moment to breathe and refocus. He'd let me catch up and ask if I was good--the late afternoon shadows in the heavily forested area was a challenge for my eyes, but we kept it up over 35 miles and eventually broke free from the trees to be greeted by the coast:



Can you spot him? Here's there somewhere along that road:


We road along the coast for about 10 miles before heading inland towards Petrolia:


He and his daughter gave me a head start and so I took off to see how long I could hold him off. I was caught off guard by some animals I spied--so we stopped for a shot of ZEBRAS!!!





Was not expectating that! He has ridden this route at least 50 times and said that the seeing zebras was a first for him, too.

I think we were in Humboldt county or in the area--I learned it's the region famous for cannibus farms...and the smell was obvious as we made our way through the never-ending curves up and down the many farms. At Humboldt Redwoods park we switched bikes as he was curous about the CB1100.









We made our way back to 101 and he said his initial impression of the CB was that it was extremely smooth and had more power than expected. We got on 101 as it was getting cool and I was fully clothed but he had on sweat pants so on the CB he began to feel the temps as we as riding a naked bike vs his well protected GS. We had a blast at 75-100mph heading north back to Eureka, hardly any cars about. I was in 6th on his GS and it went from 70 to 105mph in a few blinks of an eye. Quite fun. But I'm tall and as is always the case, the fairing on his GS shoved the wind right smack into my forehead. Still, great bike, spectacular riding.

[GoldOxide_imp]

That is sound, and beautiful pdedse.

Glad you were able to escape from playing house.

[pdedse]

Friday June 24 was spent painting all day again and we finished the exterior and nearly all interior details, but that's as far as my days would allow me to help out, as I needed to get back home on Saturday.

Got underway at 6:53am and nearly had 101 to myself for long stretches north to Crescent City and to the OR border. I had never been extreme coastal southern OR despite living in OR for over 22 years, so while towns such as Brookings, Gold Beach, Port Orford were familiar to me, they were in name only.

I would still be on the road if I stopped to take photos at all the sites along 101 in southern OR. It was nice and cool in the morning and zero traffic to deal with for the first few hours. Arch Rock picnic area is a good example of the many lookouts:









By noon I was in Coos Bay and it was starting to get warm and the 101 traffic was beginning to slow things down. I knew the day was supposed to reach mid 90s and so I wanted to ride the coast as long as possible.





Continued with the car-train north till Waldport where I headed to dreaded I-5, but hiway 34 connecting the coast and Corvalis was a dream ride of easy, swooping curves and very little traffic. The heat was getting too much so it was time to peel off the last of my warm weather undergarments at a water hole:



On I-5, full-face winds were gusty up to 25mph, and the temps above 95. But at Salem I veared off towards Silverton and so only had to deal with I-5 for 30 miles of the 500 that I rode for the day. Had to douse the cabeza with water a few times and moisten the t-shirt on the way back as the heat was affecting my noggin' but pulled into the garage at 6:53pm, 12 hours later to the minute.

The Eureka-Ferndale-Mattole Road-return to Eureka was a 130 mile loop used nearly everybit of the 4 gallon tank, the fuel indicator said 9 miles to empty as we got back, a 32mpg average for the trip. That's the worst I've every gotten on the CB, but maybe an indication of the up/down nature of the ride. 1050 miles total to paint a house...and very worth it.

[GoldOxide_imp]

I can almost see the human steam emanating from those boots pdedse.

[Cormanus]

Great tale, pdedse. Thanks.

[peterbaron]

Nice pics

[SportsterDoc]

Enjoyed the pics.
Great memories of seeing otters swim in the river through Jedediah Smith campground, east of Crescent City...some 37 years ago!

[tommymck_imp]

Cool! Makes me miss Oregon and Northern CA. We all need to take opportunities like these when they present themselves. It's real easy to just put it off...