It was time to take my new motorcycle on its maiden voyage. With all the customizations installed, and a few days of vacation time scheduled, I decided to make a five-day motorcycle trip to a few places along the Oregon Coast. I manufactured a reason to go, deciding I needed some photographs of the lighthouses. I got my friend Marv to join me and we left on Friday morning.

We left Marv’s house and rode on the freeway for a few hours to get well south of the Puget Sound congestion. We finally got off the freeway in Castle Rock after about three hours on I-5, and then took a back route into Longview where we crossed the Columbia River into Oregon.

We navigated south through the hills well to the west of the Portland region, and made it to our first night’s stop in Dallas, OR.

Saturday we rode a very nice set of backroads to end up in Bandon.

Sunday was a layover day. We stayed in Bandon for two consecutive nights because  I wanted to visit the Cape Blanco lighthouse on the coast south of Bandon near Port Orford. We made it a short day of sight-seeing.

 

Monday morning we left Bandon, bound for Manzanita, a small town far north on the coast. We made some stops at points-of-interest along the way.

On Tuesday, we headed north and took back roads on the Olympic Peninsula. Marv crossed the Puget Sound on the ferry from Kingston to Edmonds, arriving home in Kirkland about 5 pm. I continued north, took the ferry from Port Townsend to Keystone on Whidbey Island, and then rode home, arriving about 5:45 pm.

The first trip on the FJR had been a success.

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