I went out on a test drive of my freshly-changed oil, and with a tank full of Seafoam, along the Kings Valley Highway. Being late in the day and desiring to get a move on, I didn’t bother calling up anyone else to see if they wanted to ride with me. Hopping on my bike, I took off from Samantha’s house out along Western Boulevard to Highway 20/34 through Philomath. Past Philomath, I took the Highway 233 Kings Valley turn. On an earlier ride with Jaime, we had encountered a very long stretch of road construction. This time, the road was smooth but somewhat slick from the freshly laid down oil and tar. I don’t plan to try that portion of the route again until after a few good rain storms clean things up.
Just before Dallas, I went past a road for Falls City. Looking down the road, it looked well paved and banked but I didn’t turn down it. Maybe next time I’m out that way, I’ll go and visit Falls City.
Going through Dallas, I went straight as I was heading out of town toward 99W where I should have gone left. I ended up crossing the railroad tracks and heading up a hill. All looked fine as it was paved. I thought that perhaps I had stumbled upon a nice little back road to Monmouth. This was the case. However, at the top of the hill, the road turned to gravel. Rather than turn around I kept on going with the hope that the gravel would soon run out. Luck was not with me. After a long and nerve-wracking parade at 25 mph, I ended up on a paved road that dropped down into Monmouth and right onto the northwest edge of the Western Oregon University (WOU) campus.
This was my first time in Monmouth and my first visit to WOU. The campus itself is rather small by comparison to Oregon State University. However, it is very cute and extremely lush. Everywhere everthing was green. It reminded me a lot of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachussetts. I toured around campus on my bike before I headed back out to 99W. The ride back to Corvallis was largely uneventful.
My bike performed like a champ. I didn’t notice much in the way of oil burning this time, either. Perhaps that problem is solved.
My odometer recorded about 73 miles.