West by Northwest Day 6

Woke up to a moist morning.  Got the bike ready and packed for the day's trip.  We can't go any farther west, and have no desire to go farther north (we already started heading south), so east it is.  But, that doesn't mean we are heading home as the adventure continues.

It was cool and very humid as we left Seaside.  It was amazing how the craziness of a tourist town calms to absolutely nothing in the morning.  It probably would have been nice to walk down to the beach.

We headed east, with the plan to mostly stay on US26 all day.  As we started to gain elevation, it got even colder and started to mist, then rain.  We unwisely decided not to stop and put on rain suits since radar before we left indicated little to no rain.  We suffered no ill effects from this poor decision as the rain did quickly stop.  We continued to gain elevation and it continued to get colder.  The humidity persisted.
We entered Portland at the tail end of rush hour.  Getting through it was not very much fun.  The layout of the city is not very difficult, but the signs were very poor at best.  I don't understand the signage in Oregon.  As we made our way across the state, every mountain, hill or knoll had a sign marking it as "pass" along with the elevation, but signs marking non-obvious road transitions are not where they would be helpful.
Once through portland, the temperature went up and down with the elevation until we descended from the Cascades.  Once out of the mountains, the sky cleared.  Temperature still varied but the rest of the day was very nice.

I don't know what I expected for the middle of Oregon terrain, but what I saw wasn't what I expected.  I really didn't know that much about Oregon but I expected harsh coastline, not the beach at Seaside.  I also expected more agriculture in Oregon, but what we drove through until the last hour or so was mountains and open range land.  It was much more arid than I would have thought.

The mountains were nice to go through.  It didn't compare to Lolo Pass, but it was similar in condition, with good roads and plenty of opportunities to pass to avoid frustration.

The terrain did vary a lot including canyons, mountains and the whole area we rode through was much higher in elevation than US12 in Washington.  The area more resembles the neighboring Idaho than Washington.

We at lunch in the town of John Day at The Outpost.  It was excellent.  I kept seeing things called John Day and was wondering who he was as we rode along.  The menu at the Outpost told the story.  He was an adventurer who went with a westward expedition as a hunter.  He got sick along the way and was left.  After regaining health, he continued on and was attacked by Indians who stole his belongings.  Apparently, he may never have set foot near the town of John Day, but was left for dead somewhere along the river that now bears his name and may have gone insane due to hardships.  I may have got the story wrong, and/or a menu may not be the right place to get historical facts.  I'll have to see if there is a book about this man at some later date.

We continued on; at times it felt like we weren't getting anywhere.  There was evidence of recent wild fires on a few occasion.  Smoke could be seen on covering the horizon a few times and we did see one wildfire not too far in the distance.

Much of the day was through the Oregon edition of the Big Empty.  I still like the open, hot hilly terrain, and Oregon breaks this up with many passes, even if some of them are more like hills.

As we neared Idaho, there was more agriculture including huge fields of onions that could be seen and smelled.  Really.  We also passed a huge field packed with goats.  Wonder what they do with all those goats and onions?

Eventually we made it to Ontario, Oregon.  This was not a strenuous day, but at times it felt like we weren't getting anywhere.  Dinner that night was at Mackey's and it was very tasty.  On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a convenience store and bought...Oreo Cakesters (chocolate, not blonde).
The WiFi in this hotel is stupendous, even though the room is not as nice and one third the price of Seaside.  I love it.

Mileage today was 497.1.