Coastal Oregon 101

The Oregon Coast. What a ride. Lovely curvy roads, long distance views and lovely warm sunny days. What more could you want. Some quiet back-country roads through the forests just added to the joy of being in a great part of this state. Many of the bays and estuaries were home to some lovely quaint towns and fishing ports. Some we stopped at to talk to the fishermen to find out if fishing in the US is any different than home, and its not. They live by quota as well. Not only on the type of fish, but in the case of the crab boats, by the number of pots they can use. The bigger the boat the more pots they are allowed.

So, what do you have to do when you are in this part of the world? Why, you have to try some of their famous clam chowder in a bread bowl, and so we did at famous Fat Freddie’s diner in Pacific City. It passed the test and is now a firm favourite, so Fat Freddie’s sticker has earned a place plastered on the right side bike pannier.

Tillamook was home to the navy air base, dating from the Second World War. It was where they housed and maintained many blimps, so you can imagine the size of the hanger that was needed. This was a real man’s shed. In fact it is the world’s largest wooden structure, and it is large, real large. Today it is an aviation museum with quite a few old WW2 war birds on display.

If we thought the old hanger at Tillamook was big we were in for a shock when we set eyes on the bridge going across the Colombia River from Oregon to Washington. The longest we have seen so far. You could just make out the end of it in the distance on the Washington side, it is 6.5 km long and is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America. Thanks, Wikipedia. It was here on the Washington side that we saw our first Bald Eagle, very impressive. Hopefully it wont be our last.