Putting In A Few Miles

 I decided to go enjoy the weather on our side of the mountains and head south into northwest Oregon to collect a few stops for some rallies I am (kind of) participating in this year. I have a new bike now - a 2023 Triumph Tiger 1200 GT Pro - and am working to get used to the different riding style. So far I like the feeling of being more connected to the road on this bike, but a new seat is needed as this ride stretched the limits of my tolerance!

564 miles on a mostly sunny day with OK traffic on a Saturday - perfect! I enjoyed some "alone time" near Mt St Helens. The Johnston Ridge Visitor's Center is still closed because of a huge landslide a few years ago, thus traffic is pretty minimal all the way up and back. Just some people headed back and forth to campsites. The mountain was out but hazy conditions persisted, likely caused by nearby fire smoke.

After Mt St Helens and a brief stop for lunch, I was off to explore WA-4 west of Longview. This is a fun section of road that doesn't see too much traffic because US-30 is on the other side of the river in Oregon and is more used. I wanted to enjoy the little ferry that crosses the Columbia River from Cathlamet, WA as I headed south into Oregon. It is a cash-only, small car ferry with hourly service. The crossing takes roughly 15 minutes. I am not sure it saved me any time, but it was fun to get off the bike and enjoy the scenery.

My first obstacle of the day - the shortcut I wanted to use was closed through Timber, Oregon and I had to backtrack a bit to get down to OR-6 for my final stop of the day. The trip down through Vernon, Oregon was just as entertaining as I remembered and it gave me a good chance to feel the new bike in some tighter corners. For those who haven't enjoyed OR-47 from US-30 down through Vernon to US-26, give it a try!

A good day! Bike behaved well, weather was good and I stopped several times to enjoy the day :)

Mt St Helens was out - as seen from the Castle Lake Viewpoint.

My new bike!

One of my PNWGT checkpoints - a covered bridge near the Columbia River.

The little Cathlamet car ferry :)

My last PNWGT checkpoint along OR-6 in northwest Oregon.

Puget Sound Loop

I decided to get out for a ride to do some scouting for future rallies as well as visiting a few stops for this year's events. There was rain in the forecast but it seemed to be staying south. I made my way down through Tacoma pretty early in the morning and then made my way up to the Fort Lawton Cemetery in west Seattle. Saturdays can be hit or miss for traffic around Seattle, but my ride was pretty uneventful without any meaningful slowdowns and I was out of Seattle and on my way to my next stop pretty quickly.

Fort Lawton Cemetery - a TOH stop.

I have never explored the Mountain Loop Highway and wanted to head out for a stop at one of the locations for my PNWGT rally. The road is paved from Granite Falls to the Ice Caves trailhead but turns to dirt shortly after that. I didn't plan to ride beyond the Ice Caves and just doubled back after making my stop. It was very scenic and I enjoyed the road but it was crowded with cars (both driving and parked).

One of many campgrounds along the Mountain Loop Highway.

My PNWGT stop at the Ice Caves trailhead.

Just a quick trip over to Whidbey Island for a stop at my final TOH memorial for the state.

TOH stop on Whidbey Island.

After my TOH stop I made my way down to the Coupeville ferry terminal for the ride over to Port Townsend. Being on a motorcycle makes the trip super easy as you do not have to get a reservation ahead of time. The rain clouds were visible off in the distance but I didn't really see much in the way of precipitation all day. Warm and muggy though.

The boat launch across from the terminal - you can sometimes see some entertaining
activity during launch and recovery as the ramp is pretty steep.

Looking at Port Townsend and layers of the Olympic Mountains in the background.

 

IBR Next Steps - Aux Fuel Tank Setup

 I’ll be honest, I have waffled back and forth on whether to equip my Goldwing with an aux fuel tank. I had convinced myself that I could manage stops without the extended range, but a couple of early season rides changed my mind. I don’t really think it is about staying in the seat for longer stretches. It is more about adding flexibility to my planning and eliminating one more variable that can be different than planned due to elements outside of your control (like riding into a stiff headwind, for example).

I have a friend over in Auburn who is building a setup for himself and he offered to help me out. Our first attempt was admittedly basic and pretty rough. It would have been effective, but I would have lost some things on my bike that I enjoy. We fit it up but I elected to not use it.

Without a tank. The Pelican case locks onto a plate and can be removed to take it into the hotel at night.

The first attempt. It was a little too much for me, and I lost the rear seat for storage. You can see the Pelican case mounted behind the tank.

Then he started welding up a tank for his Wing and offered to do one for me. I thought about it and decided to come up with my “perfect” solution. It had to be low profile, match the bike’s styling to the extent possible and allow mounting my Pelican case on top. He threw in a few more options that I hadn’t thought about, most impressive was the adjustable mounting that allows me to position the tank front to back to meet my exact needs. It turned out awesome!

Here’s the second attempt mounted for fit check.

Here’s the finished and powder coated tank. The plate on top is what accepts the Pelican Case hardware.

Now that a tank is designed, on to the terrifying prospect of drilling a hole in my expensive touring bike’s gas tank to accept the fuel line. Basic premise – the aux tank sits higher than the main tank. A shutoff valve controls the flow of gas from aux to main. When the main tank is low (nearly empty), the valve can be opened and fuel transfers form the aux to the main using gravity. The aux tank holds roughly 4.5 gallons for a total capacity of 10 gallons.

Running a test line to see how to configure it to minimize any sharp radius turns.

Disconnect power, fuel line and remove locking ring to access the inside of the tank.

Drilled and bulkhead connector installed. Wrong washers, but it will do until Amazon delivers the correct washers.

Now that the “hard” part is done, I put it back together and finish running the line to the quick disconnect. The next steps involve installing the newly finished hardware and tank and running the fuel line to the tank.

Here’s the OEM stamped steel plate. It just isn’t designed for the weight of an aux fuel tank and Pelican case. Off it comes!

Here’s the replacement plate installed. This sits under the bike’s plastic. Much beefier!

And now with the bike’s plastic installed and the tank mounting plate bolted in. Ready for the tank!

The process to remove the old and install the new parts took about 2 hours. It would likely take less time for someone more proficient with the plastic bits and pieces, and maybe if fewer nuts and washers had been dropped into the bodywork…

The tank is mounted, the Pelican case is attached. Just need to run the vent line and check for leaks!

And the vent line is run.

After playing around with the Pelican case mounting hardware, I decided to remove it and just hard mount the case to the plate. I actually like it better this way. Also, in the picture above you can see the fuel shutoff valve. It is positioned so that I can reach back and operate it without having to reach very far. The main tank reaches reserve and I open the valve to allow fuel to flow out of the aux tank. Much testing will be required to get the hang of when to open the valve and for how long.

One final touch to remind me of my priorities 🙂

I hope to get out and ride with the tank the first weekend in April. I am sure I will have more to add then.

Just under 3 months until the start of the Iron Butt Rally!

Grand Junction, CO

Home to Grand Junction, CO

Well, made it to Grand Junction, CO. I believe I found the absolute most boring way to get here, but time was important on the way out. I will take a more scenic route on the way back home. Total miles was 1164 over 2 days.

Friend Bill and I saw good weather all the way out here - perhaps a bit warm at times, maybe even hot once in a while. Mostly around low 90s with occasional trips north of 100. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to stay reasonably comfortable even when really hot. I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time at 100, but it didn't drain me, either. Stay hydrated - even more important when speed limits are 80mph! I have a Camelbak bladder that I put in a little cooler with a couple blocks of blue ice - it kept the water cool all day, at least until I had exhausted my 3 liter supply!

I had a couple route ideas in my head, and one of them was to the south where I would expect it to be hotter. It is the route I would rather ride, and my experience with the heat over the last few days convinced me it was the way to go. I may regret it Sunday, but that's the plan.

The trip wasn't all boring - the section from Provo, UT to interstate 70 on US-6 through Price, UT was very nice. I would ride that again.

Today's agenda is pretty limited. We have a rally tech inspection for our bikes this morning, a short ride to verify odometer readings and then a dinner and rider meeting this evening. The rally starts at 6am Saturday morning - follow along if you want to see the craziness!

A few have asked about the odometer check and why we do it. This rally has both a minimum number of miles required for finisher status (1150) and a tie-breaker based on miles ridden, and motorcycle odometers are historically inaccurate (in the generous direction), so the rally master has elected to compute the error and apply a correction factor to each rider's final odometer reading.

Sunset in Twin Falls, ID Tuesday evening. Smoke or dust? Not sure.

You have to be prepared for road construction when you travel during the summer. It wasn't too bad.

Road construction does remove our air conditioning, though :(

My first time riding in Colorado! Had to stop.

Our scenery for the last couple of hours of the ride. We rode between rain showers all afternoon without seeing a single drop fall on us :)

Same state line, selfie time.

Next Adventure - How The West Was Won

Headed out on my next riding adventure this week for the How the West Was Won rally out of Grand Junction, CO. This rally is a bit different than my normal riding for the Big Money Rally. It is a fixed time - only 32 hours start to finish - as opposed to the BMR's January 1 - Memorial Day window. So instead of picking my riding windows with consideration of day of the week, this rally will be completed, rain or shine, over 32 hours from Saturday morning at 6am to Sunday afternoon at 2pm.

Read more about the HW3 rally here.

Start and stop location is Grand Junction, CO. We received our rally packs with all bonus locations a week and advance and can have all ride planning done before ever showing up at the hotel.

I am leaving for Grand Junction on Wednesday morning and taking 2 days to get there. Friday is a down day with bike tech inspections and an odometer check followed by a banquet and rider's meeting.

I can't publish any information about the rally package - my route planning is pretty much done and will include roads in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. I am pretty excited about the area we will be riding - many of the areas are new to me.

I have created a page where you can follow my progress if you desire. It updates every 5-10 minutes. I also created a separate page for the period of the rally. Both pages will track my progress during the rally, but the rally page excludes all the boring riding to get there and get home. Links below, but they are to active until the ride starts.

Here is the link to my Spotwalla page for the entire period.

Here is the link to my Spotwalla page for just the rally (Sat at 6am to Sun at 2pm).

I will also try to post some pictures along the way. Probably not too much real time during the rally - my initial leg ride plan is tedious and I will not want to waste a lot of time.

New Bike Update

The most common comment I have heard since moving to the Wing is "You don't look old enough to ride that bike." WTH? I know the bike has a reputation as a car on wheels, but seriously, it is a lot of fun to ride, too. I have been out several times now and put about 1,300 miles on the odometer including a bit of riding in hot weather. So far, so good. The challenge remains handling the weight at low speeds, but practice has made me more comfortable.

My next biggest concern so far has been how it would feel to ride in hot weather. The Wing has a massive fairing that effectively blocks a lot of wind flow. I used to bake pretty good on the FJR at anything above about 95F, and a lot of that heat was thrown off the motor. The Wing seems to manage the heat pretty well. I rode through eastern Washington last week with temps hovering around 100F without issue (at least until I stopped!). The single biggest improvement over the FJR is that the Wing cooling fans push air forward out the front of the bike and away from the rider. Pure genius!

Here's some pictures of recent rides. I have a couple of rallies coming up in August and September, work permitting. August will find me out in Grand Junction, CO for the How the West Was Won (HW3) rally, and September finds me in the PNW for the second edition of BMRx. If you ride and want to have some fun in September, take a look at BMRx (link below). I did it last year and it was a blast!

Here's a link to the BMRx rally website.

I will post more as my rallies get closer.

A visit to Bumping Lake Dam with my alien buddy. He might have to leave in November :(

Sometimes you come around a corner and have to stop.

My favorite of the day. Looking over Tipsoo Lake to Mt Rainier in Mt Rainier National Park.

My ride.

Obligatory Wilson picture :)

Rafting trip over the holiday weekend.

I even got to try my hand as guide. We didn't die.

Holiday weekend camping trip.

Why Would Anyone Buy One of These Things?

My New Ride :)

I ride quite a bit, and have always enjoyed my experience on a sport-touring bike (Kawasaki Concours, Honda ST1300, BMW R1200RT and most recently, Yamaha FJR1300). My most recent bike treated me well, never stranded me and provided over 40,000 miles of entertainment. Many parts of my body have been complaining about the riding position, and my many attempts to correct the issues have finally pushed me towards a more relaxed riding position.

I will admit I have pined for a Goldwing for quite some time now. I always thought that was where I was headed, but also thought it was still a ways down the road. My recent road trip proved to be the tipping point. So now I begin the next chapter of my riding on a Goldwing.

Too early to give any meaningful impressions. Slow speed maneuvers will take some time to get used to. It was barely noticeable at highway speeds, though. The bike feels very nimble for something this big. As I learn the quirks and mannerisms of my new bike I will post some of what I learn. Until then, I will unapologetically enjoy my plush new bike :)

A Vegas Ride Recap

My week long ride to Vegas was a great time. All told, including my return trip home, I managed to ride about 4650 miles in 7 days of riding. 1173 of those miles were in one day on my return trip home (my second IBA SaddleSore ride). I rode through rain, wind and plenty of sunshine, and made my way through 7 different states, 1 of which was a new riding experience for me. My ride went from about 75 feet below sea level in southern California to well over 7000 feet in Arizona. Absolutely crazy to think about all the extremes I enjoyed.

Highlights and lowlights? Definitely a couple that will stick for a while.

- Lowlight was riding through the Sacramento area at dusk and into the evening. Think rainstorm with small bugs near rice paddies and you have it about right. First time I have needed to stop during a ride to clean my visor and headlights!
- Riding towards Lake Havasu City was awesome. Some great scenery, great roads and lots of sunshine with pleasant temps made it great. Riding near Lake Havasu at sunset (after having been frustrated by my lack of efficiency all day) really helped reset my ride, too.
- Monument Valley, Horseshoe Bend and Valley of Fire State Park in one day riding to Vegas was almost awesome overload! I really need to spend more time in that area and explore more of the bounty of awesomeness.

I made it home after a never-ending ride on Memorial Day. Jeannette and I spent the weekend in Vegas doing some sight-seeing and attending my motorcycle rally banquet. I think it was good for her to see that there are plenty of other people out there just as crazy as I am! We had a chance to sit with other couples and talk about their experiences - very nice.

I had a decision to make. I could split the ride home up into 2 manageable days and get home sometime Tuesday afternoon, and probably avoid most of the holiday traffic, or I could grind it out and ride all the way. The shortest route from Vegas to home actually goes through eastern Nevada, part of Idaho and northeast Oregon before hitting Washington. It is not intuitive when looking at a map, but the lack of roads present few options. The actual shortest route would have saved me about 50 miles but went through the heart of Oregon, including Bend, and in to Portland and Vancouver. Traffic would have sucked. As I looked over the route I began to think that it was a much better route traffic-wise, and I might be able to make pretty good time with favorable speed limits and light traffic in the middle of nowhere. For those of you who don't get out much, speed limits on 2 lane state highways in Nevada are usually 70mph, and interstate limits in Nevada and Idaho are 75-80 mph.

Here's my route as I rode it. I left preparing to go all the way if possible and accomplish an IBA sanctioned ride  more than 1000 miles in less than 24 hours) and started keeping track of my mileage and gas receipts. The first part of my ride was the same no matter which option I chose, so I decided to play it by ear and see how traffic treated me. Turns out I didn't see more than 10 cars for over 200 miles and was making great time. In fact, I continued to make great time all the way to Ellensburg and was on track to be home at a reasonable hour until I hit traffic over Snoqualmie Pass.

Proviso lessons learned riding in Nevada prompted me to stop more often than normal for gas. Kind of like bathrooms - see one, use one - when riding out there. Traffic picked up a bit but still moved along at the limit when I reached the interstate in Idaho and on in to Oregon. Oregon has recently raised interstate limits to 70 mph (welcome to the 21st century), so that helped also. Many long-distance riders will avoid riding in Oregon because of lower than normal speed limits.

Having reached 1,000 miles I decided to stop in Ellensburg (central WA) for a longer stop for dinner and to stretch out a bit. Ellensburg is about 2 hours form home normally, but traffic was really heavy going over the pass on a holiday weekend and I was sitting through stop-and-go traffic for about an hour before it loosened up a bit. Even with that delay I managed to make it home before 10pm.

More pictures can be found in my Flickr album linked here.

My ride from my Spot tracker.

Final ride stats.

Not much going on in the way of riding for the next couple months. I have a rally planned in August near Grand Junction, Colorado, and a few more dams to visit this summer. I'll post more when I get something to write about!

Las Vegas - My Ride So Far

After updating on the first day I gave up trying to think of something witty while pretty well exhausted from full days of riding. Posted a few pictures on Facebook I had taken along the way. Jeannette joined me in Vegas for the weekend so I finally have  little time to update my ride.

Big picture, I rode my planned route with few exceptions. I left Washington last Sunday, made my south with stops in Medford, OR, Woodland, CA and Barstow, CA before turning more east. The last two days of riding were spectacular in Arizona, Utah and Nevada. I made it to Nevada on Friday late afternoon in the heat of the day. Here's the ride mileage so far:

Day 1: 650 miles - Home to Medford, OR with a lot of back and forth across the interstate for bonus stops. Can't really say there was a highlight this day - I have ridden these roads several times before.

Day 2: 537 miles (1187 miles total) - Medford to Woodland, CA with side trips to see a few dams in southwest Oregon and northwest California. Highlights included Trinity Dam and Shasta Dam stops. Lowlight included riding through central California rice paddies at sunset. The bugs were like rain. And they are still on my bike :(

Day 3: 564 miles (1753 miles total) - Woodland to Barstow, CA with a lot of riding along the Sacramento River, a trip out to the middle of nowhere, CA for a bonus and dinner at In N Out. The side trip was exciting because it was 25 miles of open range cows (and their associated droppings on the road). Once I arrived and snapped my picture I quickly realized the road led to nowhere and had to backtrack through the cows and poop. Needless to say, it was slow going. Turns out that cows have the same horrible survival instincts as deer and will run directly in to you path when spooked.

Day 4: 576 miles (2330 miles total) - Barstow to Lake Havasu City, AZ by way of Yuma. Finally the trip gets more interesting. I have ridden the area around the Salton Sea before so was ready to just get it out of the way. Knowing I had a long day ahead of me I was eager to get an efficient start but struggled to get any momentum. Seemed like every stop lasted twice as long as it should have and I got a bit discouraged. There is always a plan, however, and the early morning snafus resulted in my arrival at Lake Havasu at sunset for some spectacular sights! Always keep the faith.

Day 5: 482 miles (2812 miles total) - Lake Havasu City to Flagstaff, AZ. My shortest planned day had me start near sea level in Lake Havasu City and make my way to over 7,000 feet in Flagstaff for the night. Crazy, especially when you consider there was never really anything I would consider a "mountain pass" to make the elevation gain. Just a long steady climb up and up and up. The scenery was fantastic and I enjoyed the entire ride. Only one small mishap while I was putting on my rain pants and almost got robbed, but a State Trooper showed up at the right time. Story will be shared over a beer upon request.

Day 6: 662 miles (3473 miles total) - Flagstaff to Vegas. Highlight segment of the trip with planned stops in Monument Valley, Horseshoe Bend and along the outskirts of Zion and several other state and national parks. Unbelievable! Knowing i wanted to get to Vegas before dinner to meet up with Jeannette, and that this was my longest planned day, I left my hotel at 3:30am and headed north for Monument Valley. No traffic and i got the just after sunrise. The stop at Horseshoe Bend is a must-see if you are in the area. Relatively simple hike out and back, and a few people to contend with, but the vistas are so worth it. I made it before Jeannette, too :)

I'll write more about our Vegas adventure (it's not done, yet) when I get home. I have panned my return trip to make the shortest mileage, which has me going north through Nevada into Idaho and then west through Oregon back to Washington. I have a plan to complete my second IBA sanctioned endurance ride, but also have scoped out hotels along the way incase traffic or my aging body disagree. I'll still have the same Spotwalla page if you care to follow along. My plan is for a 4am start, but we'll see how I feel after our trip out to Zion today.

Instead of putting more copies of the same pictures in this blog entry, here's the link to the Flickr album I have been updating.

Tim's Big Ride Adventure!

That's it for now I think. More to come after I get home.

Almost Ready!

I leave on my ten-day motorcycle trip this Saturday. I think I have taken care of all the things that are going to trip me up - I have my passport and a Canada insurance card. I am really looking forward to this trip and hope to update this blog each day with highlights from the day's riding. The motorcycle gods are not being totally nice to me in terms of weather, but it should be OK. It has been sunny and warm here all week, but the weather changes to typical spring-time Pacific Northwest weather on, you guessed it, Saturday! As long as it isn't snowing I am going.

I have set up a trip on Spotwalla. For those of you not familiar with this free service, it captures GPS data from your compatible device (a Spot device in this case) and keeps a map up to date with your current location. I normally use the device to make sure Jeannette knows I am OK, but thought it might be interesting to be able to see where my trip takes me. The link below will take you to a real-time map of my location (transmitted every ten minutes). Save the link or click it each time - shouldn't matter. It won't start populating my map until my trip begins Saturday morning, though.

Link to my Spotwalla page.


I was really hoping my trip would be mostly like this...

But I will be pretty happy if I don't spend too much time waiting like this...

Planning A Long Motorcycle Trip

What to pack, where to go, how long to ride each day? All questions faced when planning an extended ride like the one I have planned in May. Part whimsy, part retirement present to myself - this trip will cover about 3,500 miles over 10 days with stops in southeast Idaho to visit longtime friends and Reno for a banquet for one of the rallies I am completing this year.

When I decided to go on this ride I knew it would be a challenge to narrow down where I wanted to go. I have ridden all over Washington and Oregon in search of dams, airports and random checkpoints for my rally adventures. I would say there is little of those two states I haven't seen, in fact. Surrounding states are more of a motorcycle mystery to me. I have ridden briefly in Idaho, Montana, Northern California (note the capitalization like it is an independent state), and a snippet of British Columbia. I wanted two things out of this ride - to visit friends in southeast Idaho and to ride through southern Canada. Those constraints pretty much dictated the rest of my ride plan. I am very excited!

I am a planner. I am the guy who knows how far he will drive and where he will stop every night. I have taken the less planned route and tried the camping routine before. I enjoyed it but was riding with friends on that trip. Not sure the camping part would be as much fun without the friends. The trick for me is to limit the planned distance each day to allow for frequent stops for hydration, snacking and random photo stops. While I have found that I can ride over 750 miles in a single day, about 400 miles a day is a much better long ride strategy for me.

I used Booking.com to set up my hotel stays. I decided to try to stay in smaller mom-and-pop style places where possible. Yelp has also been a good resource to look at the possibilities. Since I am new to Booking.com, I have tried it out a few times on some shorter over night trips with good success. Some of my friends mentioned nightmare scenarios with this website, but I haven't had any problems so far. I have one more overnight ride planned in April and will test the site one more time. Fingers crossed, especially in Canada!

Here's a screenshot of a loosely planned route I have mapped out. Each letter represents my planned stop for the night. I am especially excited about two days spent in southern Canada. That section of road is supposed to be some of the most beautiful riding. I am also very excited about another trip through Glacier National Park. A full day in Idaho will be spent catching up with long-time friends, Eric and Jodi. Minden, NV is the location of the banquet I am attending. The trip across Nevada will be on America's loneliest highway - US-50. The last two days will be spent returning home in the interior of California, Oregon and Washington.

I tried to minimize time spent on interstates as much as possible.

My planned route during the week leading up to Memorial Day weekend.

I suppose my biggest concern is weather. I know that snow can fall along most of my route anytime into early June - in fact, I have personally seen snow on July 4th in Idaho Falls. I will be watching the weather very carefully as my trip approaches. Rain is OK - snow and ice are not.

I have included some pictures of rides and stuff I have done so far this year. I bought a new bike (a '14 Yamaha FJR 1300) last November and have been riding the heck out of it! I have signed up for three rally events so far this year.

• Big Money Rally: a points based rally where you ride to a location described in a handout and take a picture of your bike with a placard at that location. Nationwide event that runs from January 1st to Memorial Day weekend. This is the banquet I am attending.
• Oregon Airport Tour: picture event where you ride to any of 10 small airports described in a handout and take pictures of your bike at the airport.
• Wing Washington: picture based event where you ride to locations described in a handout and take pictures of your bike at that location.

Although my personal favorite (Dam Tour) was discontinued a few years ago, there are a few die-hard Dam Tour riders who continue the tradition by picking some dams and riding out to them. I participate as much as I can.

I will post updates as my trip approaches, and will try to update while on the road, too.

This isn't motorcycle related - just an obligatory picture of the area behind my house.

Stopped for a picture on a beautiful day along Oregon's coast.

Pine Hollow dam in northern Oregon.

This is one of the airports I am planning to visit - Hood River, OR. The goal is to get out and ride!

Example of one of the Big Money Rally bonus locations. This theme was library. Had to have the bike, the placard and the library signage in the shot.

Another of my airport trips - Florence, OR.

One of my stops for a stretch and picture taking. This is looking down on the US-97 bridge over the Columbia River.

Another example of a Big Money Rally bonus location. This one was described as a "Castle House" and the picture had to be taken from the correct perspective, too.