Rocco's Travels: Portland and beyond

Hello and welcome to day 3 of the road trip. The day started off with a quick but intense workout followed by a nice hardy breakfast. Cole and I then drove to the nearest transit center and took the light rail into downtown Portland. We wandered around for a little while but there wasn't much to really see other than shopping. We ended up down by the river and walked up and down the river. This was quite nice. We ended up near Old Town where there was a downtown market thing going on with live music, lots of food, jewelery, crafts, and art of all types. This was quite interesting. We then grabbed a quick lunch and took the light rail back to the car.

If you are ever in Portland and want to get to the coast from there, and want to get there fairly quickly, do not take 95W south. I swear, all it is, is town after town and stop light after stop light. I don't think we ever reach a speed faster than 45. I know that this trip is supposed to be all about taking our time and not being rushed but this road really tested my patience. I eventually got off this road and onto highway 18 which finally got us away from all the stop lights.

Has anyone every noticed that when you are on a small two lane road, going through the mountains, that normal time and distance rules don't apply? I swear that as we were driving along, the highway sign said 25 miles to Lincoln City After driving and driving and thinking, we have to be almost there, the next sign says Lincoln City 14 miles. I am like, WHAT! how can that be. We have been driving like 2 hours already, how can we have only gone 11 miles in 2 hours?. Another example is when I saw a sign say Otter Bay 6 miles. 5 minutes later, the next sign says Otter Bay, 5 miles. How the hell is this possible when I have been driving 55 miles an hour? Its just one of many bizarre mysteries in life that have me baffled.

We finally did reach the coast. By this time it was getting dark, and it was cloudy and misty, and the ocean was all dark and stormy looking. There is something about the ocean along the northern coasts of the US, both Atlantic and Pacific, that is awe inspiring and also a little scary. It just seems so much more wild and powerful than the southern coasts. Just looking out at it makes me feel very insignificant.