I left the crummy Econolodge rather early. The weather was cloudy, overcast and looked
as though it could rain at any time. I
did a quick look at the Econolodge’s “Continental
Breakfast” and opted to just have coffee.
Nothing looked good and I questioned how fresh everything was. I drove along the Columbia River on Hwy 4, a
pretty drive. I tasted the coffee after
a while and OMG; can you say bad coffee?
The person who made it must not have been a coffee drinker at all. It was that bad!
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| Photo- The drive along the Columbia River on Hwy 4. |
I ended up stopping at a General Store in the hamlet of
Skamokawa (please don’t ask me to pronounce this name!) It was right next to a
little two room post office. I thought
while I was getting a coffee I would mail a couple of postcards too. I tried the post office and it was
locked. So I went to the General Store
and talked with the clerk as I got a cup of good coffee. I guess that the postmistress had left out on
her run and would be back later in the afternoon. I guess I’d wait on the postcards.
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| Photo- The General Store where I got some good coffee and directions! |
I continued to talk with the clerk and discovered a cover
bridge near Hwy 4 that I was on. She
gave me directions to the turn off and said that it then again looped back into
Hwy 4. It sounded great to me. She also told me of a couple other places to
check out too while in Longbeach and later in Astoria all that were on my
planned route of the day.
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| Photo- The covered bridge. |
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| Photo- Signage for the Covered Bridge. |
I found the turn off for the covered bridge and drove 2
miles to it on a winding country two lane highway. It was fun driving across the covered bridge. It was dark and had a distinct nose as you
drive the car over the wood planking of the bridge. It was one of another first for me; the first
time I had driven a car over a covered wooden bridge.
It was as I was trying to get back to Hwy 4 that I ended up
getting a bit lost or so it seemed. I
ended up asking a farmer that was out by the road with his pit bull mixed dog
named Spud. I thought the farmer had
said Bud, when I asked the dog’s name as I went to pet it. The farmer corrected me twice and said that
his name was Spud. The farmer had a bit
of a lisp. “Oh,” I said, “like the
potato!” The farmer just looked at me
like I had two heads. I thanked him and
continued on following his directions. I
ended up back on Hwy 4.
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| Photos- Art along the Art Interpretive Trail at Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. |
Next I stopped off at the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge
just off of Hwy 4.It is tooted as being one of the most pristine estuaries in
the U.S. and has over 260 square miles of water surface within its
boundaries. It has several bird and fish
species; as well as Roosevelt elk, deer, river otters, bobcats, porcupines,
raccoons, and black bear. I took the two hikes they have at the Headquarters:
the Art Interpretive; a ¼ mile boardwalk with art displays, and the Cut Throat
Climb; 2/3 mile that climbs up and down in a valley area next to a ridge. It was a wonderful hike and just amazing that
it was such a short distance from the road but you felt like it was miles.
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| Photo- The Cut Throat Climb Trail at Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. |
Then, I got out to the stretch of land that had Longbeach on
it and just wandered around. I happened to
stumble into the middle of the 29th Annual Rod Run to the End of the
End of the World. I drove by the
fairgrounds area and there was a sea of fancy cars parked out on display. There were tons of people and the road was
backed up in both directions.
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| Photo- Backed up traffic and classic cars. |
As I’m driving along, cars of all shapes and sizes are
coming up in the other direction. There
were classic cars, old cars, Model T varieties, sports cars, and muscle cars;
just anything you could imagine was there.
It was pretty amazing but what I thought was even more fun was watching
the people on the side of the roads.
They were in chairs; whole families with their dog and kids in tow
camped out with coolers and snacks. The
whole atmosphere was like the circus had come to town. There was also a large abundance of misc. cars
in all kinds of conditions that were parked along the road with for sale signs
on them.
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| Photos- Car, car, and more cars! |
I parked on a side street a couple of blocks over and I
grabbed lunch; a bowl of delicious crab chowder at Captain Bob’s. I sat down outside on a bench while I ate and
also people watched. It was all so
fascinating.
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| Photo- Cape Disappointment. |
Then, I swung by the beach for a bit. After all, it's the longest beach being Longbeach. Then, I moved onto Cape Disappointment about 4 miles from Longbeach. It’s the lighthouse that served the area
where the Columbia River goes into the Ocean a very treacherous area of water
to navigate. It was a short hike of ¾ mile
out to the lighthouse. I took a few
pictures but now was getting to a point where I had enough sightseeing for the
day.
It was time to head on. Off to Hwy 401, to the 5 mile bridge that
crosses the Columbia River and also serves as a go between the state of
Washington and Oregon. About 2 miles out
of the Washington side is when you are actually crossing into Oregon. They have a sign above as you go through on
the bridge. Goodbye Washington and Hello
Oregon! And thus, I’ve finished one
state of the lower 48. I might need to
pick up my pace a little bit now; but we’ll see.
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| Photo- Hello Oregon! |
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