Tuesday 20 May 2014

Highway 101 - It will never be the same again!

I have spent almost all of my career working for Silicon Valley high-tech companies. Until this adventure my knowledge of HWY 101 was the journey south in my hire car from San Francisco International Airport to Palo Alto or Santa Clara.

Today we rode almost the last stretch of Highway 101 up to Forks in Washington State.  What a stunning beautiful road that has been as well maintained as the forests that spread either side of it.  We were very lucky with the weather when leaving Astoria in Oregon.  The clouds soon burnt off and the sun came out and the waterproofs and thermals came off very soon too.



This is a typical little coffee house come shack found in the small towns as you travel the 101 in North Washington.  Given we were not far from Seattle we thought there would be a 'Starbucks' on every street corner - but no, there is top quality coffee to be had from these privately owned coffee shops 




The one thing that has been a constant battle for us has been dealing with all the traffic..!! But  we did enjoy the 'company' of a logger truck driver today on our intercom CB radio's thanking us for letting him overtake us.


Nobody for miles….thankfully the bikes have been so reliable.


Another coffee stop, another divine vista.


The Hogs like the view too.



At last we arrived in Forks.  Famous I'm sure for many things - probably lumber looking out the window of my motel as I type this.   But where we come from we know it for the Twilight films. Yes we know it was actually filmed in Oregon and down the coast in Washington and I think the later films were shot in Canada.  Something to do with movie taxes and the cost of running movie sets in truly remote locations.  Anyhow you certainly understand where Stephanie Meyer's inspiration came from here in Forks.

They even have a beer named after the leading female character in the films!


After too many of these you end up with eyes like "Bella Swan!"




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