Highway 180 ride with Carl

Yesterday afternoon Carl and I went on a quick 66 mile ride out along Highway 180 and back.  The road wasn’t in the best shape but it was still a lot of fun.

I got gas at 113.3 miles.  2.529 gallons taken.  That gives me about 44.8 gallons per mile.  Methinks I’ve been a little lead-footed lately on the bike.

Our Route Map

Kings Valley with Carl and Emily

This afternoon once the sun came out and burned off all of the fog, Carl, Emily, and I jumped on our motorcycles and rode out through Kings Valley.  Even with the sun, it was still very cold in the shadows and shade.   This was Emily’s first time on a real motorcycle in many years.  She discovered that Carl’s passenger seat was not the most comfortable place to sit for a 75 mile ride.  Several times we stopped to give her a stretch break.

When we got back to Corvallis, my roommate’s boyfriend came out to talk motorcycles with us.  He has a highly-modded Suzuki V-Strom 650 that he takes off road into some crazy stuff.  He also happens to have a very nice 06 or 07 stock V-Strom for sale.  I’m considering buying it if I can find $4000 to spend so frivolously.  It’s about time that I upgraded to a bigger bike.

Before heading out of town we stopped for gas.  I filled up with 72.7 miles showing on the trip odometer.  The bike took 1.599 gallons for a fuel economy of 45.4 MPG.  Not bad considering I’ve idled my bike quite a bit to remind it what it feels like to run in between these infrequent winter rides.

We rode about 75 miles.

Our Route Map

Camping in a yurt in Newport

A few weekends back, Emily, myself, Carl, Bobby, and a few friends drove over to Newport to go camp in a yurt for a few days. Our original plan was for Bobby and me to go diving for some fun. In the end, we never even tried to get into the water. A very high tide coupled with monsoon rains, hail, snow, ice, 30 foot swells, breakers coming into the parking lot at the south jetty, and logs rolling everywhere in the water made us a bit nervous to get into the drink. We still had a grand time hanging out in the yurt, trying and failing to catch crabs, and walking to the beach to watch the storm.

Here are a few pictures.

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